Reuters.
A judge declared illegal
Alaska's controversial program of shooting wolves from the air to boost the
population of moose and other game, prompting state officials to suspend the
policy.
Superior Court Judge Sharon
Gleason said Tuesday the Alaska Board of Game failed to follow its own
requirements when it launched a program allowing private hunters to gun down
wolves from an aircraft to remove the animals from the food chain.
Since the program started in
2003, licensed hunters have shot and killed hundreds of wolves by tracking the
animals and shooting them from above in the face of protests from animal rights
groups and the occasional tourism boycott.
Gleason ruled that the state failed to adequately address
regulatory requirements, calling for proof that aerial wolf control is
necessary and would be more effective than other, less-drastic steps to boost
game populations.
"The Board is bound by its
regulations," Gleason wrote. "A review of the enabling regulations for the
aerial wolf control programs ... indicate that the Board failed to adequately
address some or all of these regulatory requirements."
Governor backs
program
Alaska
has halted the program pending further review of the ruling and the state's
Division of Wildlife Conservation is trying to contact licensed hunters to
inform them of the suspension, said Matt Robus, the division's director.
Governor Frank Murkowski vowed
that aerial wolf control will continue -- after some adjustments are
made.
"I stand firmly behind the
state's predator control programs, which are based upon sound science," the
Republican governor said in a statement. "I look forward to prompt and
appropriate action."
Other states have taken action
to control wolf populations. Earlier this month, Idaho signed an agreement to
place management of an estimated 500 gray wolves into state, rather than
federal, hands.
The agreement gives ranchers
permission to eliminate wolves that harass livestock and empowers Idaho
wildlife managers to cut down wolf packs that make a dent in deer and elk
populations.
Goal was 400 culled
this winter
Alaska's aerial wolf cull was
authorized mostly in the interior part of the state, extending to five separate
areas that comprise about 6 percent of its land mass, said Robus.
Under the program, more than
400 wolves have been killed. The state had set a goal of another 400 this
winter. The state issued more than 100 new permits last month.
Alaska wolves are
not classified as endangered or threatened, and Alaska has 7,000
to 11,000 wolves, biologists estimate. Early indications are that the program
had been working, Robus said.
State officials said they are
studying the decision to determine the proper legal response to it, while
critics praised the ruling.
"It reaffirms what some of us
have been saying, and that is that the programs are poorly grounded," said Vic
Van Ballenberghe, a retired federal biologist.
Van Ballenberghe, a former
Board of Game member during the administration of Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles,
said the current administration has "cut corners" and launched wolf control
programs for political rather than scientific reasons.