Defenders' Experts
Scientific Opinions on Alaska's Predator Control Programs
Over the years, Alaska’s predator control programs have been carefully examined by scientists. The following information summarizes some of those reviews.
American Society of Mammalogists
In July 2005, the American Society of Mammalogists communicated their concerns to Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski regarding the potential mismanagement of large carnivores and their prey in Alaska based upon a review of the state’s predator control programs.
In September 2006, a vitriolic response from Board of Game member Ron Somerville is sent to the ASM. In his letter he criticizes the society for relying on “the result oriented biological prostitutes hired by the environmental groups.”
In January 2006, the Director of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game sends a letter to the ASM but still fails to address the Society’s concerns. At their annual meeting in June 2006, the American Society of Mammologists passes a resolution calling upon Governor Murkowski and the Alaska Board of Game to collect reliable data on populations of large carnivores and ungulates and to work closely with professional wildlife biologists to ensure the sound design of predator-control programs. They further recommend that assessment of predator control be conducted with approaches of sufficient scope, duration, and spatial scale to implement adaptive-management practices that will ensure the conservation of the Alaskan ecosystem and its unique mammalian fauna.
In August 2006, the resolution and a letter are sent to Governor Murkowski.
In September 2006, the Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game sends a response.
In February 2007, the ASM sends a letter to newly elected Governor Sarah Palin reiterating the Society’s concerns over the manner in which regulations were implemented for the harvest of wolves in Alaska and how the state to date has failed to adequately address their initial concerns over the harvest regulations.
The National Research Council
In 1996, Alaska Governor Tony Knowles asked the National Research Council to examine the scientific and economic bases of its predator management programs, and to identify gaps that need to be filled to improve scientific understanding of the ways wolves, bears, and their prey interact.
The Council's report, Wolves, Bears, and Their Prey in Alaska: Biological and Social Challenges in Wildlife Management, stated "Except in cases where predator reduction has been substantial and sustained, it is difficult to determine whether most predator control experiments in Alaska have achieved their ultimate goal of improving hunting. By improving the design and monitoring of its predator control efforts, including both biological and sociological components, the state can close some of the gaps in understanding and help assure the public that it has considered all of the relevant information and interpreted it appropriately."
Read the press release about this report.
Eight years later in 2005, and after Alaska had resumed aerial gunning of wolves and implemented several intensive management predator control programs, a January 2005 report, Biological Standards and Guidelines for Predator Control in Alaska, authored by Dr. Victor Van Ballenbergh, evaluated Alaska's predator control programs in relation to the National Research Council’s recommended biological standards and guidelines and found that the programs failed to meet most of those standards. The report was endorsed by 123 scientists and academic wildlife professionals who outlined their support through a letter to Governor Frank Murkowski that called for a return to "sound experimental design and monitoring so that the results of any predator control program can provide reliable data for policy and management decisions."
Read the press release about the report and the scientists' letter.
In September of 2007, more than 150 scientists wrote to communicate these same concerns to newly elected governor Sarah Palin.
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