Alaska's Wolf Management Program Back In Court

Alaska's wolf management program has landed back in court with another challenge from the Defenders of Wildlife and the Alaska Wildlife Alliance.

The Anchorage Daily News reports that groups "asked the court last week to halt the program authorized in 2003 by the state Board of Game. A similar court challenge launched by the Connecticut-based group Friends of Animals was not successful in putting an end to the program."

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OPINION: In their usual tiresome refrain, the litigants claim that Alaska does not have the science and the information needed to justify wolf control programs. It is almost as if decades of Alaska's investigation of predator prey interactions counts for nothing. It makes me wonder if what is really happening is that the "wolf control card" is just a sexy way of raising funds.

Managing wolves in Alaska is done at very little environmental cost and returns benefits to Alaskans and others. When compared to the very real issues of global warming, depletion of ocean resources by over fishing and habitat damaging gear, rain forest loss and much more, wolf management ranks very low on the threat scale. There are only so many dollars in the hands of Americans concerned about conservation issues. Why waste them on legal fights over issues that have negligible environmental consequence?

David Johnson