The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is considering allowing wheeled aircraft to land at the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary, one of the world’s premier destinations for bear viewing.

Only floatplanes are now able to ferry the small number of visitors permitted each summer at the sanctuary, about 250 miles southwest of Anchorage at the base of the Alaska Peninsula.

The department is soliciting feedback on the proposal through a survey that opened earlier in December.

The sanctuary includes McNeil River Falls, where an exceptional number of brown bears congregate to gorge on spawning salmon in the summer and early fall.

“As many as 144 individual bears have been observed at McNeil River through the summer with as many as 74 bears observed at one time,” according to an overview of the area published by Fish and Game.

The state tightly controls the number of people allowed to travel into the area. Just 185 “guided viewing access permits” are issued each year. No more than 10 people are allowed in the sanctuary’s viewing areas at a time. By contrast, the bear viewing station by Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park and Preserve, which hosts Fat Bear Week, can see hundreds of visitors in a single day during the peak of the season.

The crux of Fish and Game’s survey is whether to expand the kind of planes that can bring those visitors in. Currently, the rules allow permit holders to fly only in floatplanes, which land at a lagoon near the McNeil camp. The problem is that “this method requires a high tide of at least 15 feet during daylight hours,” according the department’s public notice of the survey.

“During most years, there are multiple days with tides that are not conducive to floatplane landings, making access difficult for permit holders during some allotted time periods,” the notice states.

“There’s been access issues for people getting there,” said Adam DuBour, the Lands and Refuges manager with Fish and Game.

The alternative would allow planes with wheels to land on beaches and spits in the area, as there is no actual runway inside the refuge. Development and amenities within 200 square miles of habitat in McNeil are, by legislative statute, practically nonexistent.

“The access permit program was developed after many years of excessive and uncontrolled public use of the area that often put people and bears in danger. The goal of the access permit program is to provide the public with an opportunity to view and photograph bears while minimizing their impacts to bears and wildlife habitats,” according to the department.

In 2024, the state allowed wheeled planes to land “on a trial basis to transport visitors when tides would not allow floatplane access.” While that meant more people could make it to the site, it “sometimes disturbed and displaced bears,” according to the state’s public notice.

The department is not considering increasing the number of overall permits awarded in a season, DuBour said.

The survey is open through Jan. 23. DuBour said that depending on the result, access rules could change as soon as the 2026 season.