FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Rick Steiner (907) 360-4503 richard.g.steiner@gmail.com
Jeff Ruch (510) 213-7028 jruch@peer.org
Alaska to Resume Aerial Gunning of Bears and Wolves
Strafing Predators Aims to Increase Moose and Caribou Hunting Permits
Washington, DC — The State of Alaska is poised once again to take to the air to shoot on sight hundreds of wolves and bears, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The latest plan would use state Department of Fish and Game gunners in helicopters, snowmobiles, and other equipment to eliminate up to 80% of these predators across a 20,000-acre area bordering the Denali and Lake Clark National Parks and Preserves.
Under the plan, which is open for public comment through December 27th, state agents could pursue “Intensive Management” targets to lethally remove –
- 73 – 80% of wolves (until the population is reduced to 35);
- 60 – 80% of black bear (until the population is reduced to 700); and
- 60% brown bear (until the population is reduced to 375).
“Alaska’s practice of indiscriminately strafing predators is both inhumane and inane,” stated Rick Steiner, an ecologist, former University of Alaska-Fairbanks professor, and Chair of PEER’s Board of Directors. “There is no scientific evidence that this carnage will boost populations of moose and caribou, and there is a growing body of evidence that it disrupts a healthy predator/prey balance in the wild.”
A similar Alaskan predator control operation in 2023 killed approximately 100 brown bears (including cubs) and black bears, far more than the original planners estimated, suggesting that controlling the true mortality levels during these exercises can be problematic.
In addition, the proximity of these mass lethality events to national park lands causes significant declines in these predators from federal lands. Due to state predator control practices on adjacent lands, the ability of visitors to see intact wolf packs inside Denali National Park, one of the state’s major tourist draws, has plummeted. For the same reason, the National Park Service has ended a more than 20-year study of wolf behavior in Yukon-Charley National Preserve because the resident wolf population has imploded.
“Alaska’s predator control policies are cruel and the epitome of penny wise and pound foolish. The amount of tourist dollars from people seeking to view these predators in the wild dwarfs any incremental increase in hunting fee revenue the state hopes to realize,” stated PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse, whose organization is both seeking to alert Alaskan residents and is circulating a national petition protesting this latest aerial gunning operation. “Unfortunately, given its prior track record, we do not expect a Trump administration to protect wildlife on federal lands from state predator removal operations no matter how devastating or barbaric.”
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Look at Alaska’s latest aerial gunning plan
Submit a comment to state Fish and Game
Revisit the 2023 aerial gunning fiasco
See the impacts on national park lands
Examine Trump rollback of wildlife safeguards on federal lands in Alaska
