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Sitka man creates an unlikely orphanage

by Megan Baldino
Friday, July 17, 2009

SITKA, Alaska -- From the road the old concrete holding tank may not look like much, but don't tell Les Kinnear that.

The tank holds his life's dream. He had an idea and he persisted and now it's quickly becoming a popular tourist attraction for cruise visitors to Sitka.

"We started thinking about this project 20 years ago when the pulp mill closed," Kinnear said. "I used to sneak out here with a tape measure to see what sort of potential these structures had for housing brown bears."

Yes, brown bears. Kinnear's dream was to create a habitat for orphaned bears, called Fortress of the Bears.

At least that's what he wanted. The State of Alaska wasn't so sure.

"The permit involved a very long, convoluted process," Kinnear said. "It took five years to satisfy the state that we had some idea of what we intended to do."

Kinnear traveled the country studying similar places, spent a quarter-million dollars of his own money, and worked harder than he ever imagined.

"We took 300 tons of junk out of this one alone, moved 250 tons of material back in to build the habitat with," he said.

Finally in 2007 the state agreed to give Kinnear his permit -- as long as he hired a bear manager.

"They came to the zoo where I was working as the lead bear keeper, which was Wildlife Safari in Winston, Ore., and they talked to me ... and at that time I was like, this is amazing these structures are perfect for bears," Christine Fenwick, Kinnear's bear manager said.

Fenwick was in, but to house the bears there was another requirement.

"We started in August 2003 with the official permit application and raising an alternative species on sight was a major requirement," Kinnear said.

That alternative species was pigs, because they have the same nutritional needs as bears.

So, where does he get all his food?

"The markets had agreed to supply all their outdated dairy, bakery, produce, so now we are collecting 300 to 400 pounds every day of a variety of excellent quality material," Kinnear said. "We higrade the best for bears and the rest goes to feed the rest of the animals out here at the petting zoo."

That saves city, which would otherwise have to pay to barge the 60 tons of trash out of Sitka, thousands of dollars.

Not to mention saving the bears, and giving visitors an encounter they come to Alaska hoping for.

"It's much different being 20 feet away versus two miles away," said Tim Fitzgerald from Brooklyn. "It's pretty amazing."

In the last season Kinnear has finally seen a small return on his investment. But if you ask him, it's never been about the money, but the bears.

"They're much more endearing than we had ever imagined," he said.

Fortress of the Bears is a nonprofit and is working hard to raise money to expand.

Contact Megan Baldino at mbaldino@ktuu.com