(Crossposted in part on eenrblog.)
In 2002, during Republican Governor Frank Murkowski's term, the Alaska Board of Fish and Game ignored the will of Alaskan voters for for a second time and began an aerial assault on Alaskan wolves in order to boost moose and caribou populations in a specific district near McGrath, Alaska. (Voters overwhelmingly voted against aerial predator control in 1996 and again in 2000). Each subsequent year, the Board expanded the number of districts, and now aerial "predator control" spans almost 50,000 square miles, and has resulted in over 700 wolf kills by Alaska Fish and Game. There are an estimated 7,700-11,000 remaining in the entire state of Alaska, thus around 8-10% of the state's population of wolves have already been killed.
The goal of Republican Governor Sarah Palin and the Board is to leave wildlife biologists out of the decision-making process, and cull 80% of the wolf population in five enormous wolf-rich districts, and very recently bears have been added to the cull-schedule.
More info and action links below.
I'm a member of Defenders of Wildlife, and received information on Thursday in my inbox, detailing their efforts to stop Governor Sarah Palin's $150 "bounty" for each wolf killed in the Fish and Game's "predator control program." It is worth noting that this is the same Board of Fish and Game that voted to allow bear hunting...near a world-class bear sanctuary called McNiel Falls. There was such overwhelming public outcry that they halted that program, unenthusiastically.
A story in Thursday's Anchorage Daily News online entitled, "House Ok's Measure to Streamline Predator Control Laws" informs us that Governor Sarah Palin is heading up an effort to pass a law that will effectively declare scientific advice from state biologists unnecessary. In other words, Fish and Game will not have to adhere to long-held principles of ecology and biology, and will be able to kill wolves and bears with impunity.
Although touted as a policy to help subsistence hunters, the decision, undoubtedly, is to create a game-rich ecosystem that attracts hunters from all over the world. A few hundred guides and hunting operators would stand to make a lot of money, and would boost Sarah Palin's popularity index into the stratosphere within this small group (not to mention campaign dollars).
Given Governor Palin's and the Board's refusal to follow the will of Alaskan voters, the "Wildlife Conservation" page on the Alaska State government blog is particularly ironic:
"The Alaska Board of Game approves wildlife regulations through a public participation process. When the Board determines that people need more moose and/or caribou in a particular area, and restrictions on hunting aren't enough to allow prey populations to increase, predator control programs may be needed. Wolf hunting and trapping rarely reduces wolf numbers enough to increase prey numbers or harvests."
This is heartbreaking on so many levels, but the greed involved eclilpses the obvious: culling 80% of predators doesn't follow sound ecology, or even normal patterns of nature. Wolves and bears are keystone species that maintain ecological balance, and an 80% sudden decline even in select districts would forever alter Alaska's very fragile environment from the top down. Defenders of Wildlife has done excellent work in highlighting this issue.
Congressman George Miller (D-California, 7th District) introduced a bill in September, 2007 called the Protect America's Wildlife Act" or PAW To amend the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 to establish additional prohibitions on shooting wildlife from aircraft, and for other purposes. Here is a clip from his press release:
Legislation introduced today would protect wolves, bears, and other wildlife from the illegal and inhumane practice of airborne hunting. The new bill would close a loophole in federal law that Alaska officials have exploited to permit individual hunters to shoot and kill nearly 700 wolves from aircraft in the past four years.
"It’s time to ground Alaska’s illegal and inhumane air assault on wolves," said Congressman George Miller (D-CA), a leader in Congress on conservation and natural resource issues and author of the new bill. "The state of Alaska has been operating an airborne hunting program that not only ignores federal law but violates Alaskans’ and other Americans’ wishes. The PAW Act will help to protect our nation’s wildlife from the unethical and unfair practice of airborne hunting"...In 1996 and again in 2000, Alaskans approved two popular ballot measures that banned airborne hunting in the state, but the state legislature largely overturned each of those measures.
Hunting wildlife from an aircraft violates wildlife management principles and the hunting rules of fair chase, as does the related practice of chasing animals in an aircraft until they are exhausted and then executing them on the ground, known as ‘land and shoot.’
The bill has 122 co-sponsors, and has been referred to the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Oceans. Link.
On March 14, 2008, a federal judge upheld the program as a whole, while halting it in four districts covering 12,000 miles. There are still 48,000 miles of terrain remaining that are deemed "predator control areas", and which have some of the highest populations of wolves in the state.
If you have five minutes to spare, please write a letter to the Anchorage Daily News and voice your concerns. Write to Governor Palin, as well, and sign up to be on the petition to save wolves in the Defenders of Wildlife website. The Alaska Wildlife Alliance has also done great work with Alaska wildlife conservation. Please contact your Congress-critters to tell them this is not only cruel, but totally lacking in common and ecological sense, and that you support the Protect America's Wildlife Act (PAW). Thanks very much for your participatation:
Anchorage Daily News Letters to the Editor
Governor Sarah Palin
Defenders of Wildlife, Alaskan Wolf Action
Alaska Wildlife Alliance
Eco-Rescued! Thank you, Meteor Blades :~D And, Diary Rescued! Thank you smokeymonkey :~D