Friends of Katmai Seeks Support

Katmai National Park is trying to get a Friends of Katmai citizen's group started. The park is at an exciting time in its planning efforts and is having many demands placed on it due to swelling visitation, increased commercial use and controversial development plans. Many people are voicing concerns about the increasing stresses on the Park. Katmai has the most intense bear/human interaction in the National Park System, and its issues are visible and volatile. It needs assistance to carry out a variety of projects, including the improvement and relocation of national park facilities at Brooks Camp, and this group could have a profound impact on the Park's future. Friends of Katmai hopes to boost safety awareness, improve visitor wilderness etiquette and generate political support to advance park proposals addressing these challenges.

Friends of Katmai is currently a small, but growing group, that while meeting their own objectives, will also help protect the bears that use McNeil River. Many of the bears that visit McNeil and make the area so special, also go into Katmai National Park. The Park and McNeil River Sanctuary share a boundary on the west side of the Sanctuary. Bears commonly travel between the two areas and have similar encounters with humans in the Park as they do at McNeil Falls. However, the pressures to develop Katmai may be changing that.

Friends of McNeil River have seen how Senator Ted Stevens is pushing very hard to prevent the implementation of the new Katmai National Park Development Concept plan, a plan developed with considerable public input. Friends of Katmai hopes to develop a membership that will help implement the Development Concept Plan.

We encourage our members to learn about the Friends of Katmai. We also ask our members to request that Friends of Katmai join our efforts to prevent hunting in the Douglas River corridor. (See the Douglas River links for more details.)

If you are interested in being involved and helping, or would like additional information, about Friends of Katmai, please contact:

Ms. Karen Gustin
P.O. Box 735
King Salmon, AK 99613
Or phone (907) 246-2133 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday-Friday.