Board of Game

 The Board of Game recently voted 4-3 to not retain the Denali wolf buffer, despite the fact that the National Park Service has documented a decline in the wolf population inside the Park.  Over 500 signatures were gathered and presented to the board in support of retaining the buffer.  Instead, the board decided to favor the few trappers who wanted to take advantage of the opportunites to kill wolves who are known to use this area as part of their range.

ACE believes this is an egregious action taken by the Board. This decision was immediately followed by the killing of collared wolves outside of the Yukon-Charley National Preserve.  We believe the Board of Game and the predator control program has gone too far. 

Please contact Governor Sean Parnell and let him know  that you support a more balanced approach to wildlife management by appointing new members to the Board of Game wih a diversity of interests such as wildlife viewing, tourism and ecosystem-based management.

Contact Governor Parnell today at http://gov.alaska.gov/parnell/contact/email-the-governor.html

To contact the Governor's office of Boards and Commissions
By phone: (907) 465-3500

Wildlife Viewing

·         Denali National Park provides the best wolf viewing opportunities in the State of Alaska.  It is second only to Yellowstone in the opportunity to see wild wolves in the United States.

·         Denali’s East Fork (Toklat) pack holds enormous historical value, representing the 1^st ever group of wolves ever studied in the wild.  Dr. Adolph Murie studied these wolves back in the late ‘30’s, resulting in a book entitled The Wolves of Mt. McKinley which is still sold in Park bookstores and throughout the state today.

·         Protecting Denali’s wolves is an allocation issue.  The Board of Game is charged with providing wildlife opportunities for different user groups of Denali’s wildlife.

·         Protecting Denali’s wolves would represent protecting 3-4 of the 1,500 or more packs in Alaska, less than 3%.

·         95% of federal land and 99% of state land is currently open to wolf hunting and trapping in Alaska

·         The first 15 miles of the Denali park road accessible to private vehicles provides the elderly, families with small children, the disabled and others who are unable to ride the bus into the Park an opportunity to view wild wolves in their natural habitat.  These opportunities have been greatly diminished by the lack of a stable wolf pack in the region.

Tourism Benefits

·         Tourism is the #1 economic generator for local residents in the Denali Borough, including for those residents who hunt and trap.

·         A 2006 study reported that wolves in Yellowstone National Park increased visitor numbers and expanded ecotourism spending by $35 million in 2005.

·         According to research in the Yellowstone ecosystem, each wolf is worth over $280,000 annually to the area economy.

·         The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation found that wildlife viewers (primary activity) brought in $581 million dollars to the Alaska’s economy, compared to $125 million for hunting expenditures.

Biological/Research Concerns

·         Since the buffer was established in 2002, more radio-collared Denali wolves have been taken than in the previous 11 years.

·         Denali wolves represent the longest studied group of wild wolves in the world.  They provide researchers from around the globe long-term data on wolf ecology and behavior. 

·         According to state wolf pelt sealing data, 2007 wolf harvests in Game Management Units abutting Denali National Park were double the annual harvest of previous years.

·         Since the mid-nineteen eighties, five wolf packs in the front country of Denali National Park (along the first 15 miles of the Park road accessible by private vehicle) have been severely impacted or completely wiped out by hunting and trapping.   

·         Frequent dispersal of wolves into the Park (to replace wolves trapped or hunted) increases the vulnerability of Park wolves to lice and other pathogens.

·         For all radio collared wolves in the Park, human caused mortality for the past 6 years has nearly doubled from the previous 16 years.

Other Considerations

·         The Board of Game should provide Denali National Park wolves the best protection possible. 

·         The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Memorandum of Understanding with the National Park Service (1982) recognized the differing resource management goals of the State agency (to manage for sustained yield) and of the Park Service (to manage for conservation of natural and healthy populations). The MOU recognized the "increasing need to coordinate resource planning and policy development," and to "consult with each other when developing policy, legislation and regulations which affect the attainment of wildlife resource management goals and objectives of the other agency."

·         In the early nineties, the Alaska Board of Game recognized the viewing value of Denali’s wolves and approved approximately 600 square miles of no-wolf-trapping for their protection.  The buffer was subsequently removed due to politics.

·         In recent years, visitors to Denali National Park have witnessed several Park wolves with snares and leg-hold devices attached.  These incidents create a bad image for the National Park Service, the State of Alaska and hunters and trappers.