and Game biologist, said, "I think they will find it extremely expensive to modify (the mill site) into anything other than a substandard holding facility." He argued that the bear sanctuary could help a small number of bears. Citing the city garbage being easily accessible to bears, he said the government should spend its resources exploring solutions that addressed human and bear conflicts. People wrote letters to the governor of Alaska opposing the project. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation conducted an analysis of the soil surrounding the waste tanks, confirming that there was a small pollution rate. Regarding the use of the tanks for housing bears, Bill Janes, an official with the government agency, said, "We do not feel any contamination in and around those clarifier tanks pose any sort of problem." Opening and operation After a few years of work, the refuge received all of the requisite city and state permits to operate the bear refuge. The Star Tribunes Beth Dooley called Fortress of the Bears "the world's first bear-cub orphanage". It is a sanctuary for rescued famished bears who have grown so accustomed to humans that they cannot be released back to the wild. Fortress of the Bear serves as a non-profit education organization that teaches people human-animal interaction. The refuge hosts demonstrations for schoolchildren in which fried chicken is planted in tents and brown bears tear up the tents to find the food. To ensure the bears do not mate in confinement, the male bears are sterilized during their youth. In 2016, the refuge was paying a monthly rent of $50 to the city. That year, the refuge had sheltered 13 bears in total. It was able to find new homes for five of those bears in zoos in Montana, New York, and Texas. Co-founder Les Kinnear said in 2016 that to build and maintain the refuge, he had spent close to $400,000 of his funds and sweat equity. At its 10th anniversary in July 2017, three black bears and five brown bears lived at the refuge. They drew 30,000 yearly visitors, making the refuge $1million in annual revenue. Although the refuge in 2017 was full so could not accommodate more long-term residents, it was allowed to briefly house more bears. That year, the Sitka Assembly authorized a modification of the lease to include part of the hill for the bears' living space. Fortress of the