The state just released a statement about the controversial wolf-killing program in the upper Tanana. The aerial gunning will be suspended. Why? Because the decade-long killing of over 1,000 wolves has had little or no effect on the Forty Mile caribou herd. It turns out that poor nutrition has been the problem all along. The caribou have basically overgrazed their region. So, for 12 long years the wolves of this region have endured the horrendous and continuous persecution of being hunted down from the air.
This Board of Game (BoG) driven program, where millions of state dollars were spent — and that included the deliberate killing of an entire pack of Yukon-Charley National Park radio-collared wolves — has been carried out for what is clearly a mistake. From the beginning, this scandalous wolf-killing program has been opposed by a number of organizations, eminent wildlife biologists and citizens. Not surprisingly, this BoG completely ignored the outcry.
This inability to listen to different points of view or to look at the science is what happens when there is zero balance on this BoG or any board. Alaska’s fish and wildlife are constitutionally mandated belonging to all its citizens. As of this letter, there’s not a single person on the board that represents the 80 percent of Alaskans who are non-consumptive users. I don’t think most Alaskans support these large wolf-killing programs. Remember, twice Alaskans voted to ban all airplane hunting. This fiasco is the poster child of why giving only one interest group a total monopoly on a decision-making board is a terrible idea. The time has come to make some big changes on our BoG.
Sean McGuire,
Fairbanks