Palin and the Wolves

While sparing orphaned animals the pain and suffering of starvation might be the humane thing to do, it also hands the animal-rights crowd a gift on a silver platter. The activist group Defenders of Wildlife highlighted the gassing of "defenseless wolf pups and their families" on a Web site soliciting donations. The organization recently released a gruesome video of a wolf being chased and killed by a low-flying propeller plane in the Alaska hinterland, in which actress Ashley Judd says, "It is time to stop Sarah Palin."

Wade Willis, a wildlife biologist who works for the Defenders, claims that the state really wants "unlimited commercial consumption" of game. "They want to artificially turn Alaska into a game farm, into one big hunting ground," he says. "It's a gamble based on a far-right political agenda, not on science."

"Absolute baloney," says Valkenburg, the Fish and Game deputy commissioner, who was appointed by the governor last year."It seems that people who don't like Palin are using this as a way to attack her, and raise money. And the people who don't like the predator-control program are using Palin as a way to attack it." Valkenburg says that groups like Defenders of Wildlife "shop around for people who are philosophically opposed to the program and with Ph.D.s next to their names. These are people who have never even been to Alaska. It's absolutely absurd."Pointing out that the predator-control program is required by a law enacted before the current governor was elected, Valkenburg says it protects a way of life important to many Alaskans, including Native American populations. "Further," he says, "why not produce food locally instead of importing food? We have a naturally functioning ecosystem that you can manage to produce food locally. Why not do that? Why not think globally and act locally?"

Valkenburg adds that if state biologists do it right, if they use all the means at their disposal to kill lots of wolves now, they'll be able to act less aggressively later. But other biologists fear the result will be a never-ending predator-control program that will ultimately alter the delicate balance that holds predator and prey in check. Wildlife biologists around the country have sent letters and petitions to the Board of Game, disputing the state's claims about the reasons for declining moose populations, pointing to overhunting and other natural factors like weather conditions. And some think the state has overstated the numbers of wolves in any given area.

Through hunting and trapping, the state says its goal is to kill about 300of the 400 wolves it believes were in the Fortymile area at the beginning of the fall season, leaving one to two wolves per 1,000 square kilometers. But Greg Dudgeon, superintendent of the federal Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, which borders Fortymile, says no one has a good count of the wolf population, or an ideal wolf-to-prey number. Federal biologists have been collaring, monitoring and studying wolf packs in the preserve, which has been run by the National Park Service since 1993, and have conducted extensive surveys on wolf populations in the area—leading them to believe that there are closer to 300 wolves in Fortymile.

But Dudgeon's main concern is that wolves from his preserve are moving into Fortymile, where they could be shot by state employees. As the culling program continues, wolves from the national preserve may migrate to Fortymile because there's less competition and more food. "Nature abhors a vacuum," Dudgeon says, "and wolves are great at filling that vacuum."

This season's program will wrap up in a few days. The hunters will stop their aerial assault, and the wolves will get a break. But come next year the state is likely to be in the air again, looking for wolves. And guess who will be back on the airwaves, bashing Palin?

© 2009