Wolf control issues in limbo
By Associated Press
FAIRBANKS
Whether the Alaska Department of Fish and Game will kill any wolves this winter
now that Gov. Frank Murkowski is in office remains up in the air.
“We don’t know what kind of marching orders we’re going to get,” said David
James, regional supervisor for the Division of Wildlife Conservation in
Fairbanks.
“It’s pretty well known what Murkowski said during the campaign about managing
for maximum sustained yield. “We can put two and two together and say we think
this is what it means, but we’re just assuming,” he said.
During his campaign, Murkowski said he would pursue predator management as a
way to boost moose and caribou populations for hunters.
He repeated that theme earlier this month when he named six new members to the
Alaska Board of Game, all of them hunters and trappers who favor predator
management.
“We’ve been talking about it with the governor,” said Wayne Regelin, outgoing
director for the Division of Wildlife Conservation at the Alaska Department of
Fish and Game. “Nothing has been decided yet.”
But with Murkowski at the helm, it’s not really a matter of whether the state
will kill wolves, and perhaps even bears, it’s more a matter of when.
“They (the Murkowski administration) are interested in looking at some predator
management,” said Matt Robus, deputy director for the game division under
Regelin. “We’re kind of standing by.”
Former Gov. Tony Knowles called a halt to the state’s wolf-control program
shortly after he took office in 1994 and refused to authorize the killing of
any wolves during his eight years in office, though he did approve
sterilization and relocation of wolves as part of the Fortymile Caribou Herd
Management Plan.
Two predator control plans have been approved by previous game boards. One is
for an area near McGrath and the other for the Nelchina Basin. Both involve
reducing wolf and bear numbers to increase moose and caribou numbers.
Regelin said more work needs to be done in the Nelchina area before the state
can consider killing predators there, but a plan for McGrath is pretty much in
place if that’s the direction the governor chooses to go.
Biologists have been studying the McGrath situation for two years to figure out
why the moose population is so low there.
The commissioner of Fish and Game has the authority to implement either plan.
But Murkowski has yet to name a commissioner, in large part because it wasn’t
until two weeks ago that he filled the game board with six new members. He
named four new members to the fish board two weeks earlier.
Those boards play a major role in the selection of a commissioner by providing
the governor with a list of applicants.
The two boards are in the process of compiling and submitting a list, said John
Manly, a Murkowsik spokesman. The deadline for candidates to submit
applications to the two boards is Monday, and the governor should get the list
within a few days.
“I would hope it’s just a matter of a few weeks” before a permanent
commissioner is selected, Manly said.
The game board will probably examine the two predator control plans that are on
the books and make a recommendation to the new commissioner, Manly said.
But with only three months of winter left, the state will have to act fast if
it wants to kill any wolves. That most likely be done by shooting them from
planes or helicopters.
“If the governor wants to do any real intensive control work, it requires snow
on the ground,” said James, the Interior supervisor.