Governor Palin Introduces Bill to Streamline Predator Management Laws

From an ADFG News Release dated 11 May 2007:

Governor Sarah Palin has introduced a bill in the State House and Senate that will simplify and clarify Alaska’s intensive management law for big game and the state's "same day airborne hunting" law. “I have said many times that my administration is committed to management of game for abundance, and to a proactive, science-based predator management program where appropriate,” said the Governor. “The bill I am introducing will give the Board of Game and state wildlife managers the tools they need to actively manage important game herds and help thousands of Alaskan families put food on their tables.”

The bill, House Bill 256 and Senate Bill 176, clarifies and simplifies the language of what is known as the “intensive management” law (AS 16.05.255 (e-g)), which requires the Alaska Board of Game to adopt regulations to restore populations of moose, caribou and deer in parts of the state where they have been depleted over time. During the last four winters, the state has been conducting predator control programs in some areas to build up moose and caribou herds.

“We have had good success in achieving lower wolf densities in the predator control areas during the first few years of the programs,” said Matt Robus, Director of the Division of Wildlife Conservation in the Department of Fish and Game. “There are now indications in our longest-established programs that moose populations are responding well to reduced levels of predation, and this will directly affect the harvestable surplus so that people will be able to harvest these animals for subsistence and personal use.”

The Governor’s bill clarifies state law that requires the Board of Game to implement regulations to help manage important game herds for both abundant numbers and abundant opportunities for Alaskans to harvest game. In addition, the bill uses the new term "active management,” which is broader and is used in place of "intensive management." The bill also would eliminate several current requirements that have proven to be problematic for both the Board and the courts, and definitions that vary from existing usage within the wildlife management profession.

HB256/SB176 takes two laws that were written to achieve almost exactly opposite purposes and harmonizes them so that the state's game managers, the courts, and the public will have less trouble understanding how they work together and the legal requirements that apply in each situation. The important principle of limiting use of airborne and same day airborne shooting of large predators is retained, while the process for conducting game management programs critical to meeting the state's constitutional mandates is made simpler, more workable, and more legally defensible.

Governor Palin said she is introducing the bill at this time because she wants to generate discussion on the important issues related to predator reduction as a component of abundance-based management. “I understand that the legislature doesn’t have time to give this bill a committee hearing before the end of this session,” she said. “I want Alaskans to look at this new language over the summer and fall, debate the issues and urge their legislators to pass the bill into law early next year.”

Objectives met, wolf control suspended in one area

From an ADFG news release:

The wolf control program in the Nelchina Basin has been suspended as the latest population estimate is within the range established by the Alaska Board of Game.

As of Monday, biologists in the Glennallen office of Wildlife Conservation estimated 162 wolves in Game Management Unit 13. The long-term spring population objective set by the Board of Game is 135-165.

Typically, trappers and hunters take a dozen or so wolves in April, so the population might dip a bit more but still remain within the objective.

This is the second year in a row the spring population estimate has been within the objective. Last spring’s figure was 157. Prior to that, the last time the objective was reached was in 1989.

“By sustaining the wolf control program since its inception in 2004, we have been successful in reducing and maintaining wolf densities at a level that has allowed moose calves to survive and become the foundation of a growing moose population,” said Matt Robus, director of the Division of Wildlife Conservation.

As recently as 2000-01, the wolf population in Unit 13 was estimated at as many as 520. A dramatic increase in wolves in the 1990s contributed to a decline of more than 50 percent in moose numbers.

This was the fourth winter that wolf control has been conducted with the use of aircraft. Since the program began, moose trends in count areas surveyed every year indicate a promising turnaround.

Since 2000, the number of moose in the count areas is up 14 percent. More careful examination of the survey figures is even more encouraging. The number of calves in the count areas is up 110 percent and the number of yearling bulls is up 176 percent. Calves and yearlings are most vulnerable to predation by wolves and bears.

Overall bull numbers have increased 45 percent. Hunting in Unit 13 is limited to bull moose, and the harvest of 685 in 2006 is up 46 percent from the low harvest in 2000.

Cow moose numbers are down 3 percent in the count areas, but biologists say that is not surprising. Cow moose make up most of the population, so they are expected to have the longest recovery time. Cows born in the 1990s are dying of old age and haven’t been replaced fully because so few calves survived during the decline.

The 2006-07 control program took 33 wolves. Hunters and trappers so far have reported taking another 62. That number will climb as they bring in their pelts for sealing. The trapping season runs through April and trappers have 30 days after that to get furs sealed.

Control efforts focus on more inaccessible areas in Unit 13 where trapping pressure is less and some of the best moose habitat exists.

Given the high productivity of wolves, it is anticipated the wolf population will bounce back up to more than 250 by next fall. Therefore the department will resume control efforts next December aimed at maintaining the spring population at the Board of Game objective.

Judge Stops State Wolf Incentive Program

An Alaska Superior Court judge has ordered the state of Alaska to halt its new program of paying gunners $150 for wolves taken, the Anchorage Daily News has reported.

The financial incentive was designed to increase the take of wolves in areas where wolf predation control efforts are underway. Preservation groups maintained that the incentives constituted a "bounty," and the judge agreed.

The state is now considering other options, including the use of state personnel shooting wolves from helicopters.

Read the entire article in the Anchorage Daily News >>>

Judge Refuses to Halt Wolf Control Program

An Alaska Superior Court judge has refused to halt the State's wolf control program, saying that there was no showing of immediate harm. The request came as part of yet another lawsuit by Defenders of Wildlife, The Alaska Wildlife Alliance and the Alaska chapter of the Sierra Club.

The judge ruled that wolf packs can regenerate, but if the State's plans were halted, harm would be done to the project.

Read the entire story in the Anchorage Daily News >>>

Aerial Wolf Shooting Ban to be on 2008 Ballot

In the here we go again department, initiative petition sponsors have collected enough signatures to put yet another aerial wolf shooting ban ballot measure before voters in the August 2008 elections, according to the Anchorage Daily News:

"According to co-sponsor Joel Bennett of Juneau, a former member of the Board of Game, the initiative is basically the same one Alaska voters passed twice before in 1996 and 2000 banning land-and-shoot hunting of wolves.

Both times, the Alaska Legislature gave the game board authority to develop the programs after the two-year initiatives had expired."

Read the entire story in the Anchorage Daily News >>>