The long-simmering dispute between the state of Alaska and the National Park Service over how to manage wildlife in northern ecosystems has erupted again with Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve upset about a 50 percent drop in wolf numbers since fall 2012.
Wolf numbers usually fall significantly over winter due to natural death from starvation, injuries and territorial wars between packs, but the Park Service noted in a press release that the latest drop "is substantially more than normal and coincides with predator control efforts by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game near the preserve."
That's a polite way of saying the state agency has been killing wolves around the perimeter of the preserve to try to give moose and caribou a better chance at survival. The state is engaged in what it calls an "intensive management program'' to maximize moose and caribou numbers. The park service favors what it calls a more natural situation in the 2.5-million-acre preserve.
Federal biologists argue state wolf control has now depressed the Yukon-Charley wolf population. They say a 50 percent decline in numbers is the largest they've seen in 20 years. The previous high was 37 percent.
Gee cannot imagine how an "intensive management program," ie aerial wolf slaughter, could have anything to do with the decline in the wolf population can you?
But hey just so long as people can still get the chance to fly in from out of state to kill a real live moose without having to worry about some indigenous predators eating them to survive the winter, who cares that the population has been cut virtually in half?
No wonder people in the lower forty-eight think we are a bunch of barbarians!
I wonder what numbskull is going to come in on this thread and call the killing of that wolf, murder.
ReplyDeleteThere is no police jurisdiction in the country they will call the killing of an animal, murder.
I wish people would educate themselves before they make dumb statements.
"I wish people would educate themselves before they make dumb statements."
DeleteMaybe YOU ought to try that? Murder is murder.
Last year they "murdered" a pack that had stepped outside the Yukon Charley National park.
Two Alpha wolves (male+female) and two other members of the pack. One of the wolves was Collared but "They didn't see the collar"...uh huh.
So now the wolf population is down? When the pack Alphas are destroyed or "murdered" the pack scatters. Pups are not born. :(
Also in WY same thing. When are these a$$holes going to learn that the problem is NOT WOLVES but man's greed over hunting and in Alaska's case extreme mis-mangement of Game.
Greed, I saw sled dogs being fed last years Salmon when I went to Alaska. Why didn't the people eat it? All that great protein? Over fished and do it every-year. The high protein salmon goes to sled dogs.Well good for the sled dogs at least. But it just shows the mismanagement of wildlife up there and the greed of the people "I gotta get mine" with no respect for any other forms of life.
Talk about numbskull Anonymous5:15 AM KILLING IS MURDER YOU NRA TROLLIE!
Soon we will not have any wolves and deer/moose/coyotes will over-run everything.
Already moose are a problem on the highways in Alaska b/c the wolf population is declining.
The BOG should be abolished. All the good biologists have left the Fish and wildlife in Alaska. All the park ranger extremely depressed about the wolf situation.
For those who love wolves here is a PBS Lobo the wolf that changed America
http://bit.ly/YkMdkx
I think its too late now with a the bitter clingers, clinging to their stupid guns while the earth's creatures are decimated and the earth is raped and plundered by the likes of Koch, and trans Canada and Fukishima poising the oceans.
Thank Gryphen for posting this, it is extremely important to document the loss of our wildlife in this country.
Anonymous 5:15 AM wrote, as the very first comment on the article: I wonder what numbskull is going to come in on this thread and call the killing of that wolf, murder.
DeleteWhy was it so important to you to (attempt to) forestall the use of the word "murder"? Avoiding the use of that word won't bring any of those wolves back to life! Whatever word is used, whether emotionally loaded or not, the fact remains that the estimated wolf population is down 50% from last fall. I suggest that that fact is a more appropriate object for your concern.
"No wonder people in the lower forty-eight think we are a bunch of barbarians!"
ReplyDeleteYeah, yeah we do think that.
Yep, the main reason we canceled our family reunion cruise tour was this program. Sorry Alaska, but you lost at least a million bucks on this from our family alone. NO ONE goes there and won't until it is rescinded. We all wrote letters to everyone we could think of and got back stupid forms letters that we not even fit for bird cage liner.
DeleteFUCK ALASKA!
Yes, I aagree that Alaskans are barbarians. Sorry Gryph, you are the only exception I can think of. I have made a fervent vow to never ever travel to Alaska.
DeleteThe most dangerous, the most destructive, the most omnivorous, the most prolific predator upon this planet? The destroyer of whole ecosystems and possibly the whole planet?
ReplyDeleteMankind!
Or, if you wish, the Arrogance of Power of those who wrongly consider themselves at the top of it all, the Masters of their limited twisted notion of the Universe.
Agreed. Well put.
DeleteToo many people either living in or acting out of fear Too many people wanting to feel powerful by killing things.
Even as a hunter (for food) I find this deplorable and a waste of State resources. This kind of management ultimately fails to boot. It they succeed in raising prey populations, they put too many animals onto the winter feeding grounds which get damaged to the point it won't support as many animals. Sometimes the habitat takes decades to recover.
ReplyDeletepersonally, I'd like to see the hunter that hunts this way, hanging under the wing of the plane.
ReplyDeleteA natural situation? More for...me...me..me! That's the truth of the matter. Anon. 8:38, you nailed it.
ReplyDeleteGee, you think there is a decrease in the wolf population? Assholes! I truly didn't like it when they were shooting them from airplanes...it must have been so frightening for the animals. They are beautiful and run in family groups.
ReplyDeleteSome of the hunters we have in Alaska should be put out there and hunted in the same manner. Then, we'd get to see how they like it!!! Who was the governor at that time? Wasn't it the idiot Palin?
I find that picture so disturbing. This is not "hunting."
ReplyDeleteR in NC
I am sick to tears...to death of this bloody minded attitude people have toward wildlife and animals in general. It is hard for me not to go to a dark place whenever I hear of another animal being mistreated or murdered, especially our wolves, which we went to great pains to bring back from the brim of extinction. It will take me awhile to come back out of this dark, angry, curse-casting place. I much prefer animals to people and I think I'd rather run into a pack of wolves in the woods than a predator of the two-legged variety.
ReplyDeleteM from MD
This aerial "hunting" has always bothered me. It's neither hunting nor sport, it's savagery. The wolves don't stand a chance, they're deprived of any form of cover.
ReplyDeleteOf all the wild animals, wolves come pretty damn close to living as human families do. They have meaningful interactions with other wolves, protect the young and nursing females. The thing humans can learn from wolves is that they only kill to survive, and when they do kill, it's more humane than how we treat them.
Real Barbarians are warriors with weapons they have made themselves who are fighting against a tyrannical Kingdom or some kind of brutal situation in which they are run off their land or their food is stolen. Barbarians were those who lived on the fringes of society and were discriminated against that organized into armies to fight their oppressors for the most part. There are many people in Alaska who are working to stop the incompetent management of wildlife in this state. When you appoint people who don’t have the right education and experience and are instead fulfilling a political agenda you get a cluster instead of intelligent management, you know just like so many other agencies here. They are unethical in many ways because they care nothing for the animals or the people of Alaska, just their overlords who will retaliate against them if they do not do as they are told. As many of us who do speak out have found they will hurt you if you talk about the problems, so those who know better than what they are doing keep quiet.
ReplyDelete