By Dan Carpenter
Channel 2 News
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Yukon-Charlie Rivers National Preserve, one of Alaska’s most remote national parks is entering spring with half the number of wolves it had last fall. The state’s predator control program is being cited as a contributing factor.
The Park Service says it isn’t unusual for wolf numbers to drop over a winter due to hunting and natural causes, but it says the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s aerial predator control program likely killed the majority of the wolves lost over the winter.
This March, they say biologists found between 28 and 39 wolves, less than half of last year’s numbers.
In November, biologists with the National Park Service counted 80 wolves in nine packs within the preserve.
Debora Cooper, the Associate Regional Director for Resources with the Park Service, says “we need to keep that balance in check, we need to make sure that we have a relatively undisturbed eco-system and that includes that predator pray balance, predator pray relationship.”
For twenty years, biologists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife have been conducting wolf counts in the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve.
According to Cooper, the wolf population can bounce back quickly and the agency isn’t concerned the wolves will disappear.
Fish and Game says the program is doing what it’s supposed to do, increase moose and caribou numbers.
Doug Vincent-Lang with Fish and Game says the predator control program does not hurt the long term survival of the wolves.
“Every year we annually check in as to where we are as to the objectives for moose and caribou and ensure that we’re not over harvesting wolves,” Vincent-Lang said.
The Board of Game will be taking up the topic of predator control in the region early next spring to decide if it should continue.
The feds say it will continue to watch wolf pup numbers closely this summer and may restrict sport harvest of wolves if needed.