Many knowledgeable biologists, both inside and outside Fish and Game, strongly disagree with the state’s official position.
Caribou cross the Kanektok River in the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge on Aug. 25, 2009. The Mulchatna caribou herd, which ranges in the refuge, has declined sharply since the 1990s, and scientists cite numerous factors. The controversial Mulchatna predator-control campaign was conducted this spring to help boost the herd’s numbers.
What Alaskans need to know is that many knowledgeable biologists, both inside and outside Fish and Game, strongly disagree with the state’s official position — and its rationale. Some of the biologists and lower-level managers most familiar with the Mulchatna IM program say that not only is Fish and Game’s predator-kill approach wrongheaded, but that upper-echelon administrators pushing the program have ignored the work and recommendations of the agency’s own caribou researchers.
Walsh recently shared a critique of Fish and Game’s recent Mulchatna “advisory announcement” press release, in which he disputed many of the agency’s points. Here I’ll share just a few. Next is the state’s assertion that “Reducing the number of bears and wolves was a logical step in adaptive management . . . predator control is an immediate tool the department can use to attempt to reverse the herd’s decline.”
That last point is hugely important, because the state’s primary IM rationale is to “restore this source of food.” If hunting of the Mulchatna herd were to again be permitted, no state-run massacre of bears and wolves would be needed.
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