Alaska Game Board to again open debate on predator control.

Wolves and bears will be in the cross hairs when the Alaska Board of Game this week begins another contentious discussion of how to manage predators in the 49th state.

From villages and small communities in the Aleutian Islands east along the south side of the Alaska Range all the way to Cordova come proposals to kill wolves and bears or both to eliminate competition for the moose and caribou, or -- in some cases -- for simple public safety.

These are not views universally held by urban Alaskans, even less so by the masses of Americans who live Outside and look north longingly at the last, great American wilderness.

Earlier this month, the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife began a preemptive strike against new Alaska predator control programs. The organization attacked high-visibility Gov. Sarah Palin for supporting wolf control programs already in place. Defenders' high-profile spokeswoman, actress Ashley Judd, decried Alaska's intensive management that aims to increase moose and caribou numbers by reducing predation.



Palin dismissed the accusations as nothing but a fundraising scheme. Defenders' Alaska representative Wade Wilson on Friday called that "crap."

Wilson said his organization is trying to bring some reason to wildlife management in Alaska. He noted that a fair number of biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have criticized the intensive management program over the years.

It is simplistic, he added, to blame wolves or bears, or both, for all fluctuations in wildlife populations when a variety of factors can be at play. Weather, food availability, hunting and poaching all affect moose, caribou and Dall sheep numbers in Alaska, but, Wilson said, "everyone just wants to blame the boogeyman, the wolf."

Twice in the past Alaskans have voted against using planes to shoot and kill wolves and bears, and twice the people have been overridden by the state and their vote derided as “ballot box biology.”

Have you ever wondered just WHAT the rules are for participating in this "predator control program"?

Then just check here. But you will be gratified to know the following.

You may NOT:

• Use a helicopter or control activities unless specified under the conditions of the permit.
• Use poison or other substances that temporarily incapacitate wildlife, without written permission from the Board of Game.
• Use a machine gun, a set gun, or shotgun larger then a 10 gauge. (A "set gun" is a gun rigged with a trip wire that shoots when an animal steps on it. This is clearly for the bravest of the "Great White Hunters".)

Doesn't THAT put your mind at ease? There is more but none of it does anything at all to give the animals a fair chance at escaping their fate. Once a hunter in a plane or helicopter gets an animal in his sights the creatures fate is sealed.

I am mightily embarrassed to have this type of activity promoted by my Governor and my state. In my opinion all it is is an excuse to shoot animals more effectively while taking all of the hiking, tracking, and failing out of it. This is a guaranteed way for a man who does not like to come home empty handed (or get his cool leather hunting boots all wet and muddy), to bring home a genuine wolf or bear hide, once and for all proving that despite their childlike penis they are in fact a "real man".

I have been living in this state with these adolescent assholes my entire life and I can only hope that we will soon have some intelligent leadership in Alaska that will be able to address the issue of the reduced number of ungulates by some other method then promoting the increased killing of predators in order to increase the amount of prey that the humans then get the opportunity to kill. Did you follow that?

Update: Here is a link to Shannyn Moore's excellent Huffington Post article on this very subject.