Well it looks like Alaska's predator control program has managed to wipe out an entire wolf pack. I assume that is considered a success.

Courtesy of the Guardian:

The world’s longest-studied wolf pack may have been wiped out, wildlife officials fear amid an escalating battle between federal and state authorities in Alaska over the aggressive hunting of predators such as wolves and bears. 

The East Fork wolf pack, found near Denali, North America’s tallest mountain, was first researched in the 1930s and provided the first detailed accounts of wolf behavior and ecology. But years of hunting, trapping and habitat disturbance reduced numbers to just one known female, a male and two pups earlier this year. It’s now believed all may have perished.

Bridget Borg, a biologist at the National Park Service, said that the body of the radio collared male wolf was seen at a hunting camp and there appears to be no sign of the female nor pups. 

“We investigated a den site after,” Borg told Alaska Public Media. “There was clear evidence it was not being used as evidenced by vegetation that was growing around the entrance to the den site.” 

Three of the four pack members fitted with tracking collars have now been killed by hunters in the past year. The possible demise of the entire pack, which was once a common sight for visitors entering Denali, also America’s largest national park, is likely to heighten criticism of Alaska’s intensive hunting of its largest predators.

Yes but will it change anything?

Probably not so long as the Republicans run this state.

After all the only lives they care about preserving are those of unborn humans.

Sarah Palin pimps her new show that nobody will bother to watch, and jokes about shooting Wolf Blitzer from a helicopter.

I think this might be the Grizzled Mama with Bristol, but don't hold me to that.

Courtesy of Bitchy Hollywood's ghostwritten Facebook page:

Todd and I had a great time in Pasadena with Sportsman Channel working on "Amazing America with Sarah Palin" and dedicating the network to "Red, Wild & Blue America!" The show premieres in April. I can't wait to show you the inspiring people, places, and things that make this country truly amazing! As I told members of the Television Critics Association yesterday, I'm especially encouraged to have opportunities to empower young women to get outdoors, be self-sufficient, and work extremely hard so they can live life vibrantly. (There's that "live vibrantly" phrase again. I swear she never retires these stupid catchphrases no matter how tired and overused they become. Which is why years from now we will still hear her talking about fundamentally restoring the country, cooking moose chili, and the lamestream media until we want to beat our heads against the wall.) See, I'm convinced the world will be a better place when we have more girls holding fish in pictures and fewer holding selfie cameras in front of the bathroom mirror.

In response to that last remark Palin posted this picture of Piper supposedly playfully mocking her "girls holding fish" comment.

Yeah no reason to think that's a setup or anything.

In that same post Palin, or her ghostwriter, also attempted to make a rather ugly joke at the expense of CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

Thank you to everyone who attended the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour breakfast yesterday. And, no, friends, upon spotting CNN's Wolf Blitzer at a TCA event, no one was tempted to re-engage any Department of Fish and Game Predator Control Program to scamper away troublesome wolves! I had a nice chat with him instead. (Plus, I adore his mother.)

Obviously this is a reference to the controversial Alaska predator  control program we have up here, which essentially means that she is making a joke about shooting Blitzer from a helicopter like his lupine namesakes.

Of course I guess it's not so funny if you happen to be a wolf.

Or know Palin's reputation for helping to target people who are then shot by crazy people.

The legacy of Sarah Palin lingers still in the Last Frontier.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:

Less than two years after his appointment as director of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Division of Wildlife Conservation, Corey Rossi has resigned, effective immediately. Dale Rabe, deputy director, has been appointed acting director. 

An email from Fish and Game Commissioner Cora Campbell cited “personal reasons” for Rossi’s resignation. However, he was recently charged with 12 counts of illegal bear hunting as a licensed assistant guide in 2008. 

State wildlife biologists who couldn’t wait to share the news with their peers were calling one another Thursday evening, shortly after Commissioner Campbell’s email announcing Rossi’s resignation was sent to state offices. 

Rossi was arguably the least popular director since statehood, both publicly and internally. He had been appointed to Fish and Game in December 2008 by then-Gov. Sarah Palin, a high-level position specifically created for Rossi, a proponent of “intensive management,” better known as predator control. Rossi listed Palin’s parents as references in his application for assistant commissioner.

We fought hard against this appointment when it happened but we were terribly outnumbered.

We knew what to expect from a Sarah Palin appointee on predator control and we were not disappointed:

Wildlife biologists working under Rossi have been reluctant to criticize him or his pet projects publicly because retribution was swift and harsh.

Big surprise there, right? Well now this bastard has been caught breaking the law and so that is one more Sarah Palin appointee to bite the dust.

Sadly there are so many yet to go.

Predator control hunters using helicopters slaughter ENTIRE wolf pack in Alaska!

Helicopter-borne Alaskan predator control agents have killed an entire wolf pack from Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, prompting the National Parks Conservation Association to call for "immediate suspension" of the program near the national preserve.

National Park Service officials, meanwhile, are wondering why the shooters killed two radio-collared wolves, as the Park Service had an agreement with Alaska Fish and Game officials that collared wolves would be spared as they were part of a long-term study of wolf behavior in the preserve.

“We have meetings set tomorrow with state Fish and Game officials to ask that question," John Quinley, the Park Service's assistant regional director for communications and partnerships, said Thursday evening from his Anchorage office. "Basically, 'How did this happen? You’re two days into the (predator control) program and it’s already gone against the agreement that we thought we had pretty well in place, that was easy to understand.' We’re interested in how that fell apart so fast.”

The four wolves from Yukon-Charley's Weber Creek pack were killed Wednesday in the Fortymile area on the northwest side of the national preserve, the Park Service official said.

“We’ve been studying wolf populations in Yukon-Charley for 16 years and have a long data-set to understand the population dynamics," Mr. Quinley said. "These wolves are a value scientifically and they’re a value for visitors. Our position has been that we want to do all we can to maintain the naturally functionally ecosystems, which is a value of the Alaska parklands that you don’t find everywhere else.”

NPCA officials issued a statement Thursday saying "state gunners in helicopters killed the entire Weber Creek wolf pack from Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, including two collared wolves from a 16-year National Park Service scientific study."

"NPCA calls for the immediate suspension of the state’s wolf eradication program in and around Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve until the Park Service is fully satisfied that the biological integrity of Yukon-Charley wolf packs can be evaluated and a healthy population of wolves can be ensured," the parks advocacy group added. (You can read the rest of this article here)

The Federal Government is clashing with Governor Palin over aerial wolf hunting.

The National Parks Service has complained that a new program under which state workers will shoot wolves from helicopters in the Upper Yukon/Tanana region.

"We’re concerned that it would be difficult and potentially not possible for us to follow our mandates based on the state’s action in the control area," Greg Dudgeon, the superintendent of hte Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, told me just now.

Federal officials are worried there are "fewer wolves than what [the state] believes," he said.

A Fish & Game Department spokeswoman told the local AP that the hunting is necessary to keep Caribou herds growing, and that there's no other way to keep the wolf population in check."It's a very large area and it's become apparent it's going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to reach those numbers with just [private hunting parties]," she said. "Helicopters are much more efficient."

I am definitely on the side of the Federal Government in this debate.

Those of us in Alaska are painfully aware that the the board of Fish and Game up here is completely controlled by hunters. And that what they call "predator control" is really just their attempt to keep wolves and bears from killing the animals that THEY want to kill. And if they can't kill moose, caribou, and Dall sheep like they want then they will just settle for getting a crack at killing more wolves and bears. Because it is not about feeding their families, it is about making them feel like men.

And when you have people with a blood lust deciding what should and should not die, well you get ideas like gassing wolf cubs in their dens, and using automatic weapons to kill entire wolf packs. And that is just fucking barbaric!

It is obvious that we need clearer heads to enter into this debate, and I hope the National Park Service will assume that role.

Alaska Game Board to again open debate on predator control.

Wolves and bears will be in the cross hairs when the Alaska Board of Game this week begins another contentious discussion of how to manage predators in the 49th state.

From villages and small communities in the Aleutian Islands east along the south side of the Alaska Range all the way to Cordova come proposals to kill wolves and bears or both to eliminate competition for the moose and caribou, or -- in some cases -- for simple public safety.

These are not views universally held by urban Alaskans, even less so by the masses of Americans who live Outside and look north longingly at the last, great American wilderness.

Earlier this month, the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife began a preemptive strike against new Alaska predator control programs. The organization attacked high-visibility Gov. Sarah Palin for supporting wolf control programs already in place. Defenders' high-profile spokeswoman, actress Ashley Judd, decried Alaska's intensive management that aims to increase moose and caribou numbers by reducing predation.



Palin dismissed the accusations as nothing but a fundraising scheme. Defenders' Alaska representative Wade Wilson on Friday called that "crap."

Wilson said his organization is trying to bring some reason to wildlife management in Alaska. He noted that a fair number of biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have criticized the intensive management program over the years.

It is simplistic, he added, to blame wolves or bears, or both, for all fluctuations in wildlife populations when a variety of factors can be at play. Weather, food availability, hunting and poaching all affect moose, caribou and Dall sheep numbers in Alaska, but, Wilson said, "everyone just wants to blame the boogeyman, the wolf."

Twice in the past Alaskans have voted against using planes to shoot and kill wolves and bears, and twice the people have been overridden by the state and their vote derided as “ballot box biology.”

Have you ever wondered just WHAT the rules are for participating in this "predator control program"?

Then just check here. But you will be gratified to know the following.

You may NOT:

• Use a helicopter or control activities unless specified under the conditions of the permit.
• Use poison or other substances that temporarily incapacitate wildlife, without written permission from the Board of Game.
• Use a machine gun, a set gun, or shotgun larger then a 10 gauge. (A "set gun" is a gun rigged with a trip wire that shoots when an animal steps on it. This is clearly for the bravest of the "Great White Hunters".)

Doesn't THAT put your mind at ease? There is more but none of it does anything at all to give the animals a fair chance at escaping their fate. Once a hunter in a plane or helicopter gets an animal in his sights the creatures fate is sealed.

I am mightily embarrassed to have this type of activity promoted by my Governor and my state. In my opinion all it is is an excuse to shoot animals more effectively while taking all of the hiking, tracking, and failing out of it. This is a guaranteed way for a man who does not like to come home empty handed (or get his cool leather hunting boots all wet and muddy), to bring home a genuine wolf or bear hide, once and for all proving that despite their childlike penis they are in fact a "real man".

I have been living in this state with these adolescent assholes my entire life and I can only hope that we will soon have some intelligent leadership in Alaska that will be able to address the issue of the reduced number of ungulates by some other method then promoting the increased killing of predators in order to increase the amount of prey that the humans then get the opportunity to kill. Did you follow that?

Update: Here is a link to Shannyn Moore's excellent Huffington Post article on this very subject.