Will the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service give Idaho a Free pass? Or will they rein in one of the worst states when it comes to disobeying Federal Policy?
The Obama administration has approved a rule that ends a state hunting program allowing aerial gunning of bears and shooting of wolves and pups in their dens.
Alaska has long allowed authorities and hunters to kill bears and wolves on national wildlife refuges as part of what it called an “intensive predator management” program. Approved methods included shooting wolves and their pups in dens, using bait to hunt bears, killing mother bears with their cubs — and one made famous by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin: gunning down wildlife from helicopters.
That’s now about to change. In defiance of several Alaska officials, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved regulations that ban nearly all predator hunting on national wildlife refuges that is not approved by the federal government and “based on sound science and in response to a conservation concern.” The new regs specifically prohibit hunting bear cubs as well as bear hunting using traps, snares or helicopters, among other methods.
[There once was a man who found three bears in his house. It didn’t go like Goldilocks.]
Alaska’s predator hunting has been a flash point in a growing battle between state and federal officials over who has authority over federal lands. Alaska officials, who criticized the ban as federal overreach, say their program increases moose and caribou populations that attract hunters and serve as a food source for rural Alaskans. But in a column for the Huffington Poston Wednesday, Fish and Wildlife Director Dan Ashe denounced it as unethical and based on flawed science about predator-prey relationships.
“Over the past several years, the Alaska Board of Game has unleashed a withering attack on bears and wolves that is wholly at odds with America’s long tradition of ethical, sportsmanlike, fair-chase hunting,” Ashe wrote. “We have a long history of cooperative management with the states, including Alaska, and we have deep respect and admiration for our state agency professional colleagues. But there comes a time when the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service must stand up for the authorities and principles that underpin our work and say ‘no.’”
[New Zealand vows to kill every weael, rat and feral cat on its soil]
The new rule, which takes effect in early September, will protect a lot of predators on a vast amount of land. National wildlife refuges in Alaska cover 73 million acres — an area larger than the state of Virginia — and include the 20 million-acre National Arctic Wildlife Refuge. The regulations exempt subsistence hunting.
Fish and Wildlife often goes along with state rules for hunting on national wildlife refuges. But it has shown increasing frustration with Alaska’s liberalization of predator hunting, which wildlife advocacy organizations say is unusually cruel. In its announcement, Fish and Wildlife cited “public interest and concern” about the bear and wolf killings and said the regulations simply “clarify” federal domain over the refuges.
Source: Feds to Alaska: Stop killing bears and wolves on our land – The Washington Post