As I write these words, Alaska Department of Fish and Game employees are planning the next phase of the brown bear slaughter they began last year in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region. By the time this letter is published, the obscene and unnecessary killing will likely have commenced.
Last year, working from planes and a helicopter, Fish and Game staff gunned down nearly 100 bears, 94 of them browns, during a wasteful “intensive management” effort ostensibly undertaken to benefit the Mulchatna caribou herd. They did this though there is no hard evidence the massacre of so many bears will benefit the herd. As I wrote at the time, it boggles the mind and tears at the heart that the people entrusted with managing Alaska’s wildlife would so callously kill scores of brown bears — including moms with cubs and the cubs themselves — if you care anything about wild creatures.
I have written several pieces critical of — and lamenting — this state-run travesty. And I’ll continue to do so as long as it continues. What I want to do here is call out the leaders of our state’s conservation and environmental community, Alaska’s Native community, and the tourism industry, who have remained silent despite the values that purportedly guide their work. They’ve made the political calculation that it’s the “smart” thing to do. Or they rationalize it’s not their problem to address.
The leaders of those communities understand that our state’s wildlife management system — run by the Board of Game and Department of Fish and Game — is a rigged and corrupt system, as rotten as it’s ever been under Gov. Mike Dunleavy, at least since I began following Alaska’s wildlife politics four decades ago.
I understand there is much else to fix in our city, state, and beyond and that many people don’t pay much attention to how wildlife is managed — or mismanaged — despite their importance to Alaska and what our state supposedly represents. But there are enough Alaskans to make a difference if they would choose to get involved. I urge them — you — to do so. In the meantime, I and some other like-minded and hearted folks will continue to bear witness and publicly share what we know about a system gone horribly wrong.
— Bill Sherwonit
Anchorage
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