Alaskans Will Once Again Vote On Aerial Wolf Management

This will be the third time Alaskans get to vote on whether to stop the Alaska Board of Game from utilizing aerial shooting of wolves in specified areas in order to protect and/or bolster herds of caribou and moose. Alaska Center for the Environment has teamed up with Alaskans for Wildlife, according to KTUU.com, to put a stop to this practice.

“We believe in a balanced approach to wildlife management so we are encouraging our members to vote yes on ballot measure 2,”

ACE also says this kind of “hunting” isn’t fair chase but the Alaska Board of Game counters that they don’t view it as hunting, only as a necessary part of predator control.

“This is about giving a moose a break. Predator management is never pretty. But this is the most humane method available to us,”

Absent from the article is an explanation of one of the major reasons the Board of Game considers it necessary to control predators. Native Alaskans, who depend on harvesting of animals such as the moose and caribou, are seeing reductions in those populations near where they live because of an overblown population of predators, namely wolves and bears.

The same native Alaskans have had their hands tied and can no longer use some of the methods traditionally used to take care of their own predator management. Years ago when the natives began seeing too many wolves, members of the tribe would seek out the wolves dens and kill the pups. Seems cruel, yes, but their lives depended on it. What most people don’t realize is that they still do rely on subsistence hunting to survive.

In the two previous citizen ballots on this issue, the Alaskans voted to stop the use of aircraft for predator control and both times the legislature overturned the vote. Will it happen again?

Tom Remington