DAN JOLING Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Four wildlife groups are asking the Alaska Board of Game to close hunting and trapping east of Denali National Park to protect wolf packs that range outside of park boundaries.
Valerie Connor of the Alaska Center for the Environment says the Game Board two years ago eliminated what was known as the buffer zone along the park’s eastern boundary.
The groups’ petition for an emergency closure says the trapping in April of a breeding female from the Grant Creek Pack, the pack most often seen by Denali Park visitors, has had a harmful effect.
They say the pack failed to have pups this year, may have abandoned its historic den site and may have disintegrated.
Hunting and trapping east of the park is scheduled to reopen Nov. 1.