Alaska’s
Board of Game has shortened the wolf hunting season near Denali
National Park to prevent the killing of wolves that are attracted to
bait put out by bear hunters.
The
state board voted 5-2 last week to make the wolf hunting season end
April 15 on the Stampede Trail corridor to the north of the park. The
change shortens the season by 47 days.
The
growing popularity of bear baiting in the Stampede Trail corridor adds a
new wrinkle to the longstanding conflict between Denali-area wolf
hunters and anti-hunting wildlife watchers.
The
National Park Service wrote the proposal in response to the legal
shooting of two wolves in the Stampede Trail area last spring. One wolf
was wearing a GPS collar from a park service study, which showed the
wolf had recently spent time near bait put out by a bear hunter. The
Park Service argued that an April spike in wolf harvests caused by the
bear baiting stations would be especially costly to wolf populations.
“The
timing of this unforeseen additional harvest (which overlaps with the
whelping and nursing period) combined with the current population status
indicate the potential for population level impacts and present a
legitimate conservation concern,” the Park Service wrote in its proposal
to the state game board.
Wolf
hunting around Denali National Park is especially contentious because
of the park’s reputation as an accessible place to see wolves. The
park’s wolves have been at historically low levels in recent years, so
more visitors have gone home without ever seeing a wolf.
There
are nine registered bear baiting stations in the affected area and
interest in bear baiting has been on the rise since 2012 when rules
changed to allow hunters to shoot brown bears at bait stations in
addition to black bears, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and
Game.
At
last week’s meeting, Alaska Board of Game Chairman Ted Spraker
described the proposal as a compromise that addresses a concern of wolf
advocates without seriously curtailing hunting opportunities.
“This
demonstrates to the public that we are listening to individuals and I
think this is a very minimal loss to hunters in the area who may see a
wolf at a bait station,” he said.
The two “no” votes came from Tok member Teresa Sager-Albaugh and Kip Fanning of Yakutat.
Sager-Albaugh
said she opposed the rule on grounds that, in her opinion, the state
game board has already compromised too much with the federal
government.
“In
terms of small reasonable compromises, I think Congress helped us
compromise 6 million acres — whether we like it or not — with Denali
National Park,” she said.
The
new rule doesn’t affect people with trapping licenses, who will still
be able to target wolves through April 30. It also doesn’t affect this
season. It will take affect in spring 2017.
Longtime
wolf advocate Rick Steiner, a former University of Alaska Fairbanks
environmental conservation biologist, said after the meeting that he
opposes the rule because it doesn’t do enough.
“This
new regulation addresses maybe 2 percent of the problem, leaving the
other 98 percent unchanged. Clearly, this does not protect Denali
wolves, and the State and Park Service are fooling no one on this,” he
said by email. The new rule, he said, “may actually slow momentum toward
the only effective solution to this serious problem — a permanent,
no-kill wildlife conservation easement (north-east) of the park.”
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