Alaska state legislator chases bear away from fellow lawmaker outside state Capitol

A black bear clings to a tree trunk in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in this undated photo. (Photo provided by the National Park Service)

By James Brooks

Alaska Beacon

Rep. Garret Nelson, R-Sutton, chased a black bear away from Rep. Julie Coulombe, R-Anchorage, in front of the Alaska State Capitol during a late-night encounter this week.

“It was a real safari night,” Nelson said on social media.

According to Coulombe, she was walking toward the Assembly Building, home to apartments used by legislators, when she saw the bear approaching her on Wednesday night. 

“I am not good with bears. They freak me out,” she said by phone on Friday. 

Nelson, who had just climbed in a ride-sharing car, asked the driver to stop, got out of the car and bluff-charged the bear, holding his cellphone in front of him to film the encounter.

Nelson posted the video on social media afterward, jokingly writing, “Just attack the bear first! You can get your free life advice with me whenever you want. It might end up with a serious injury (maybe death)….yes. But as my brother Geremy says, if you come out with a good story, it’s worth it.”

His ride-sharing driver posted a separate, similar video that corroborated the event.

Asked about the incident by phone, Nelson confirmed that he isn’t encouraging people to run at bears. 

“I’m not advising people to randomly charge bears. I just weighed the risk and figured that one I outweighed that bear by probably 150 pounds, and he was already on his way out,” Nelson said. 

Bear sightings are common in downtown Juneau during the spring, summer and fall, including near the state Capitol. Earlier this month, a downtown Juneau resident shot a bear out of a tree, injuring it. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game later killed the animal. 

The department recommends that people who encounter a bear in the wild should “avoid it and give the bear every opportunity to avoid you.”

Coulombe said the bear was trotting toward her before Nelson got out of the car, started filming and chased the animal away.

“All I could think of was I was just going to run back into the Capitol because, I mean, I had really nowhere else to go,” she said.

Afterward, Coulombe said, “I was like, ‘My hero.’ He was so proud of himself. ‘You know, I saved you, Julie. I say I saved you,’ and he did.”

Nelson said that while the situation worked out for him, his tactics shouldn’t be repeated.

“Don’t charge bears. This is a do as I say, not as I do situation,” he said. 

• James Brooks Cascade is a longtime Alaska reporter who lives in Juneau. He previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.