Game board expands wolf control
The Associated Press
ANCHORAGE–After approving a predator control plan targeting wolves and
bears around McGrath, and then proposing land-and-shoot wolf hunting in
the Nelchina Basin, the Alaska Board of Game set its sights on wolves
across Cook Inlet from Anchorage.
The board on Friday approved a wolf kill plan for unit 16B, which
extends from Skwentna to Tyonek, and said hunters there could kill
wolves by shooting them from snowmachines.
Under the rules, a hunter may pull the trigger while sitting on a
snowmachine, but the snowmachine may not be moving.
Such hunting is illegal in that area now.
To further expand the tools for killing predators, the board also asked
that the commissioner of the Department of Fish and game issue permits to
let hunters shoot wolves from helicopters or airplanes, or to practice
so-called land-and-shoot wolf hunting.
Both methods are usually illegal. But board members, acting on legal
advice from Fish and Game, said the commissioner could allow the
practice if it is done in the name of predator control.
The day before, the board had asked the commissioner to allow the same
thing in the Nelchina basin, a popular hunting unit northeast of
Anchorage.
Wolf control critics said Friday that the board is moving at a dizzying
pace to launch a statewide war on predators.
“How much more extreme can you get?” asked Paul Joslin of the Alaska
Wildlife Alliance.
But those in favor of predator control said the board is finally moving in
the right direction.
Board members and hunters have said repeatedly over the last week that
moose populations have dropped to very low levels in many parts of the
state. In unit 16B, for example, biologists estimate the moose population
has dropped from about 7,400 in 1990 to about 3,800 in 2001.
The goal is to have 6,500 to 7,000 moose in that area so people can
harvest 310 to 600 animals.
“It’s high time we do something,” said board member Ted Spraker of
Soldotna.
“Every tool will help us get this back in balance,” said Duane Goodrich of
Palmer, a member of the Matanuska Valley Fish and Game Advisory Committee.
Goodrich favors any method to cut back on predators, including using
snowmachines or hunting from the air, even though such practices are
often criticized as going against the principle of fair chase.
“I don’t believe in fair chase for vermin,” Goodrich said. “If you’re
trying to get rid of them, why worry about it?”
Whether any of these programs moves forward is still up to the governor
and the commissioner. The governor has not yet filled the commissioner
position.
Gov. Frank Murkowski’s spokesman, John Manly, said Friday that the
governor prefers permitting hunters to shoot wolves using aircraft
rather than pay Fish and Game agents to shoot wolves from helicopters or
airplanes.
“He would lean toward that, rather than having state employees do it,”
Manly said.
There may be a legal challenge, however, to allowing public hunting of
wolves from aircraft. In a 1996 statewide ballot initiative and again in a
2000 referendum, Alaska voters essentially banned land-and-shoot wolf
hunting statewide. Backers of those measures said Friday that the Board of
Game is trying to circumvent those votes.