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Final Decision: No Predator Control on Unimak IslandState wildlife officials insist the decision to not kill seven wolves ignores subsistence needs and hampers efforts to preserve a rapidly declining caribou herd.Related Content
The battle continues between the State and the federal government as the Alaska Board of Game addresses the final decision of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to take no action on predator control management on Unimak Island.
The heated meeting took place in Wasilla Wednesday morning.
State wildlife officials insist the decision to not kill seven wolves ignores subsistence needs and hampers efforts to preserve a rapidly declining caribou herd.
The decision has sparked controversy and sarcasm fueled by frustration.
“We want to get on the record that that was it, they weren't willing to renegotiate. I've said it for years—it's time for us to go to Washington [D.C.] and try to develop enough support to change these laws,” said Cliff Judkins, chairman for the Alaska Board of Game.
But U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials say they considered all options.
“One of our mandates is to maintain wildlife in its natural diversity and so there is a natural ebb and flow to populations, including impacts put on them by predators,” said Larry Bell, assistant regional director for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, External Affairs Division.
The feds claim that maintaining natural diversity outweighs what they call “limited subsistence opportunity”, which is what they say would happen if seven wolves were killed.
“We're talking about a very precise state-operated selected process of seven wolves, nothing that's going to disrupt the whole ambiance of the refuge. For crying out loud, I can't imagine other than they are just completely biased people that they would come up with this decision. It's just beyond me,” said Judkins.
“When it gets off balance, where some people think that predators have more rights than those who live in rural Alaska, I think something is wrong,” said Joe Chythlook, Board Chairman for Bristol Bay Native Corporation.
“The big issue…we are in dual management. Alaska, and we as rural residents, are stuck between two big entities and we are having a problem with helping to feed our families,” said Frank Woods, subsistence coordinator for Bristol Bay Native Association.
“Unfortunately, this past year we had an incident in one of the villages where one human was consumed by a predator,” said Chythlook.
“We've been here for five days trying to get a harvest of any kind on the north peninsula and south peninsula and they are telling us on Unimak that the local villages there are harvesting caribou from those regions when there is [sic] no hunts anywhere on the peninsula right now,” Woods said.
Some say the federal decision has caused irreparable harm to the relationship between the feds and the State.
“I don't know where to go from here, but I think this is going to have a major impact in our relationship between these agencies,” Judkins said.
Officials say the caribou herds on Unimak Island are just the tip of the problem; moose herds are also in decline.
Both the Wildlife Conservation and the Alaska Department of Fish & Game say they are trying to figure out other ways to increase herd populations.
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ol timer said on Friday, Apr 15 at 6:29 PM
time to end the feds grip on Alaskan lands.they need our oil we do not need them.
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