Sarah Palin's Board of Game - The games continue under Parnell

I received an e-mail from the representative of Defenders of Wildlife in Alaska:

Aerial gunning kills too many wolves in Alaska as it is, but a new policy could allow for aerial gunning as a way to manage bear populations.

This week, the Board of Game (BOG) will be meeting in Wasilla to consider many important proposals that will impact our wolves, bears and other wildlife.

One of the major issues the BOG will consider is accepting a six-year management plan for wolves and bears. Under this policy bears could be managed by aerial gunning and baiting would be implemented to kill wolves.

What:
Alaska Board of Game Hearing
When:
Friday, March 4th – Thursday, March 10th
Public Comment Period:
Friday, March 4th- Saturday, March 5th
Where:
Lake Lucille Inn
1300 West Lake Lucille Drive
Wasilla, AK 99654

Wolves and bears could be in serious trouble if some of the BOG proposals are passed. Proposal 103 seeks to reauthorize the Intensive Management Plan for wolf and black bear control in Unit 16 for an additional 6 years. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game recently amended the proposal to include a brown bear predation control "experiment" which could allow for more of these animals to be killed.

"Predation control" is a convenient excuse to protect and promote the interests of trophy hunters. It's a very profitable business and the Board of Game is full of people appointed by Sarah Palin who have very "special interests." They call themselves "conservationists," but they're nothing of the sort.

In March 2009, I wrote a post about it:

The Board of Game has many members connected to the powerful Alaska Outdoors Council, which places strong emphasis on sport and commercial hunting.

"We are an association of clubs and individual members. Together with our sister organizations – the Alaska Fish & Wildlife Conservation Fund, the Alaska Trust Fund, and the Hunter Heritage Foundation of Alaska - we work through advocacy, education and research to promote responsible outdoor recreation, conserve our natural resources, and protect Alaskans’ rights to enjoy our great outdoors.

The AOC is the official State Association of the National Rifle Association. We work hand in hand with the NRA, doing at the state level, what the NRA does on the national level, to protect your Second Amendment Rights, promote gun safety and encourage participation in the shooting sports."

The AOC has very narrow views:

• Oppose laws that give a preference to users based on residency, culture or ethnic background
• Attempts by individuals or organizations to obtain tribal government control over lands in Alaska must be recognized and proclaimed as a threat to a) effective management of fish, game and other resources; and b) equitable allocation of fish and game stocks.
• Oppose federal recognition of Indian country in Alaska.
• Oppose the use of public funds to promote Indian country recognition.

Not only do they advocate "predator control" in order to guarantee plentiful prey for the trophy hunters, but they also want the Alaska Natives, who are the true conservationists, out of the way.

Things were bad enough for wildlife in Alaska under Sarah Palin and the farce about "conservation" continues under Parnell.

If any of the readers from Alaska can make it to Wasilla for the meetings, please bear in mind that the public comment period is very limited:

Public comment starts Friday morning and ends Saturday. In order to speak, you must show up by 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 5th.

Please read all posts about the Board of Game and Wildlife on Palingates.

Sarah Palin and the wolves, again

This is how dead wolves look after Sarah's men have shot them from the air. It's not a pretty sight. They ran out of money and snow to finish the job. For now...

The Department of Fish and Game stopped shooting wolves from a helicopter in the eastern Interior on Thursday after killing 66 wolves in five days as part of an intensified and controversial predator control program to increase caribou and moose numbers in an area east of Tok.

State officials were hoping to kill as many as 150 wolves by tracking them via airplane and shooting them from a helicopter, but a lack of both fresh snow and money prompted the department to temporarily halt the program.

The department had $100,000 set aside for the helicopter shootings, and James said the agency had used “probably 80 percent” of that as of Wednesday.

Asked what it would take to get department sharpshooters back in the air, Fairbanks regional supervisor David James replied, “More money and more snow.”

Private pilot-gunner teams with permits from the state can continue to take wolves until April 30 or conditions are such that planes can no longer land to retrieve wolves that are shot. The wolf trapping season also closes April 30.

Even though the department didn’t kill as many wolves as it set out to, James said the program was a success.

“Considering the portion of the total control area we covered we’re pretty pleased at this point,” James said. “There are substantial portions of that control area that we haven’t covered yet.”

I'm sure Sarah Palin will find plenty of money to continue the slaughter. Sarah and her Board of Game have their own stimulus plan to preserve prey for sports hunters. In 2007 they spent $400,000 in a state propaganda campaign to "educate" the public about predator control.

They don't have money problems, but hopefully there won't be any fresh snow.

Links
Newsminer, ADN. Further links on how to take action. Eye on Palin, Care2, WWF, Wolf Song of Alaska, Defenders of Wildlife, Alaska Wildlife.
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Sarah Palin's Board of Game

Sarah Palin's appointed Board of Game announced new guidelines in a predator control program that now allows the use of paw snares to catch and kill bears, and helicopters for access.

Under the new guidelines, hunters can use snares to trap black bears in a specific area and can access the area via private helicopters. As for wolves, state employees are now authorized to use poison gas to kill wolf pups, orphaned after aerial hunting, in their dens.

Most existing wolf-kill programs have been renewed.

Overall, the program is designed to remove enough predators to allow other animals, such as moose and caribou, to rebound and flourish.

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Instead of implementing such an intensive predator control program, why don't they ban trophy hunting of moose and caribou, allowing subsistence hunting only?

The Board of Game has many members connected to the powerful Alaska Outdoors Council, which places strong emphasis on sport and commercial hunting.

"We are an association of clubs and individual members. Together with our sister organizations – the Alaska Fish & Wildlife Conservation Fund, the Alaska Trust Fund, and the Hunter Heritage Foundation of Alaska - we work through advocacy, education and research to promote responsible outdoor recreation, conserve our natural resources, and protect Alaskans’ rights to enjoy our great outdoors.

The AOC is the official State Association of the National Rifle Association. We work hand in hand with the NRA, doing at the state level, what the NRA does on the national level, to protect your Second Amendment Rights, promote gun safety and encourage participation in the shooting sports."

Another snippet from the AOC website:

"Up for Grabs"- Hunting, trapping, fishing, and motorized access to public lands in Alaska are all up for grabs in the current political arena. “Up for grabs” means whoever expends the greatest energy, money, or ingenuity and sticks with it wins. Regulations propagated by Alaska’s administrative staff, department heads, and appointed Boards have a great influence on whether you are going to have any fish or game to harvest and where, plus how you will be allowed to go about harvesting your wildfood source.

Some of their views:

• Oppose laws that give a preference to users based on residency, culture or ethnic background
• Attempts by individuals or organizations to obtain tribal government control over lands in Alaska must be recognized and proclaimed as a threat to a) effective management of fish, game and other resources; and b) equitable allocation of fish and game stocks.
• Oppose federal recognition of Indian country in Alaska.
• Oppose the use of public funds to promote Indian country recognition.

They're not very keen on protected subsistence hunting rights for rural villagers...

I obtained these prices from a random hunting club :

Day hunt for a single species
Moose $10,500
Grizzly Bear $8,500
Brown Bear $12,500

Combination hunts (add the species above to the species price below)
Black bear $2,500
Wolf $750

Rates from another site:
Trophy Fee on Grizzly Bear $9750, Moose $9450, Caribou $6800. These prices are on top of the $19,500 all inclusive (licenses, air charter, G.S.T. and meat flight) for the hunt.

If there's this much money to be made from organized hunts, no wonder the Board of Game makes rules to protect their mates hunting rights and take every step to ensure there's plenty of prey for their hunts. They profit from hunting under the guise of predator control as well.

Who pays the price for their enjoyment and profits?

The bears, the wolves and the native subsistence hunters.

Article about guidelines.
Link to the AOC website.
To read other posts about Board of Game, Predator Control, appointments to the board, the "science" of predator management, and what you can do to help, click on the links.
Please read this article, it's unmissable!
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Science???

Dear Governor Palin:

On behalf of the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance and the listed conservation
organizations supporting this letter, we want to publicly endorse your wolf
management policy. We believe the recent public relations blitz initiated by the Defenders of Wildlife grossly mischaracterizes you Administration’s wolf management policy.

After years of research, it is recognized by practically all state and federal wildlife officials that predator management is a prerequisite for guaranteeing stable populations of prey species. Given that many Alaska residents rely on moose, caribou, and other wildlife species for food, it becomes imperative that those species not be decimated through lack of predator management.

The Alaska wolf management program accomplishes this. It does so through a
rigorously regulated, scientifically based system targeting only those predators
in areas where wildlife populations are not able to reach adequate levels of
sustainability in the program’s absence.

As each of our organizations works within the conservation movement,
we understand the critical importance of science in wildlife management.
It is evident that the Defenders of Wildlife attacks are part and parcel of a
well orchestrated publicity stunt meant to achieve maximum exposure and
minimum discourse.

The future of effective wildlife management necessitates that emotional
pleas not substitute for reasoned analysis.

Sincerely,

Walter P. Pidgeon, Jr.
President and CEO
U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance
(On behalf of eight Conservation organisations)

They call themselves conservationists... the Alaska Board of Game is full of these characters!

(cartoon by Mike)
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