Dec. 22 – State wildlife officials want permission to kill 100 wolves a year via aerial gunfire in a massive wildlife unit bordered by Denali National Park and Preserve and Lake Clark National Park and Preserve.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s request is expected to be considered by the State Board of Game at a mid-January meeting in Wasilla, along with more than 80 other proposals. The predator control proposal is open for public comment through December 27.
The change would allow state personnel in planes and helicopters to shoot wolves in what is known as Game Management Unit 16. It would also give them the authority to hunt brown and black bears in the future.
The approximately 14,000-square-mile unit runs from Denali’s southern border, along the west side of Cook Inlet, and to Lake Clark. Located adjacent to population centers in thriving Mat-Su, the unit also includes the communities of Tyonek, Skwentna and Trapper Creek.
If approved, Fish and Game staff would for the first time directly kill predators in the unit instead of relying on hunters and trappers to reduce their numbers.
State biologists say they are seeking approval to help restore moose populations hit by several heavy snow winters that led to a spate of encounters with aggressive animals around Southcentral last season.
Predator control is often applauded by hunters but reviled by wildlife advocates. Critics of the state’s new proposal point to research showing that killing predators has not improved elk hunting in Southcentral.
The proposal takes the state’s reliance on predator control to a “whole new level” given the likely costs, the potential for reducing wildlife in beloved parks and the questionable guarantees of success, said Nicole Schmitt, executive director from Alaska Wildlife Alliance.
“It’s distasteful enough that we pay state employees to shoot bears, wolves, cubs and cubs out of the sky,” Schmitt said. “Then you add that it’s on the border of Denali and Lake Clark… it’s very close to places that people care about, and the whole Anchorage Bowl.”
Efforts to kill predators near Denali National Park — an international destination for people wanting to see a wild wolf — have long been blamed for declining wolf sightings there.
National Park Service officials in Alaska said this week that aerial killing of wolves is not allowed in Denali and Lake Clark.
“Both parks where GMU 16 overlaps routinely patrol areas within the national park and monitor boundaries to ensure compliance with regulations,” Park Service spokesman Pete Christian said in a message Thursday.
[For days, a wolflike canine known as Gary roamed Anchorage. But things were not as they seemed.]
State biologists say their research shows the number of wolves in Unit 16 exceeds the number set by a 20-year-old intensive management plan that calls for predator control when elk fall below levels considered healthy enough to allow hunting to support.
Estimates indicate just under 6,800 elk live in a portion of the unit that numbered about 10,000 in 2019, according to Tim Peltier, Palmer-based regional supervisor with the state Division of Conservation. Moose calf survival is also low, he said.
“Snow knocking down the moose population, combined with predation, probably keeps it in check to some extent,” Peltier said.
The plan sets a goal of between 35 and 55 wolves in the unit. Biologists estimate there are now 150 to 180 wolves, according to Fish and Game’s comments in the board pack. The state proposal calls for reducing the number of wolves in the unit by at least 70% per year.
One hundred wolves must be killed per year to “achieve the wolf population goal of 35 to 55 wolves,” according to the proposal.
The unit’s intensive management plan has in the past called for the removal of 60% of brown bears and 60% to 80% of black bears, although government officials say they have no immediate plans to cull bears now.
Critics of the proposal, including Alaska Wildlife Alliance and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, say they expect the state to expand predator control efforts to include bears once they are allowed, despite growing scientific research that killing predators does not necessarily lead to leads to more prey.
They compare the proposed predator control to an ongoing program at Mulchatna caribou calving grounds, in which state workers have killed nearly 200 bears and about 20 wolves since 2023, despite studies by agency biologists showing the herd is struggling with disease and malnutrition . Conservationists say caribou calf survival has improved since predator killings began.
The Mulchatna program cost more than $1 million over two years. A Fish and Game analysis found that deploying predator control personnel in Unit 16 would result in “significant” costs, but did not provide a specific estimate.
