Success Stories
Promoting Coexistence
In the Alaskan community of Chignik Lake, residents smoke enough fish each year to last through the winter - an annual event important for the residents' sustenance as well as their culture. Unfortunately, the smell of fish smokers often attracted unwanted attention from brown bears. Defenders worked with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to show residents how electric fending could keep bears away from their smokers. With these extra prevautions in place, we expect that Chignik Lake will see a decline in direct conflict with bears in their community.
Stopping Aerial Gunning
Defenders partnered successfully with numerous local Alaska groups to twice bring Alaska’s aerial wolf-control programs to a halt. In 1996 and 2000, we helped local groups run two successful citizens’ ballot initiatives that stopped the programs for a period of three years. In 2010, Defenders worked with our partners to successfully prevent the state of Alaska from conducting an aerial wolf control program on Unimak Island, a remote National Wildlife Refuge and wilderness area at the tip of the Alaska Peninsula. Programs such as the one proposed for Unimak are inappropriate on Alaska’s federal lands. We will continue to support federal wildlife management strategies that are consistent with federal policies and mandates.
