Former Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist, and Game Management Unit 17 area biologist Bryan Reiley’s criticism the state of Alaska’s recent Mulchatna predator massacre — in which Fish and Game shot and killed 175 brown bears, 5 black bears, and 19 wolves in the past two springs, after allowing the killing of 140 wolves “indiscriminately using airplanes and snowmachines,” with no positive effect on caribou recovery — was absolutely spot-on.
Thank you, Mr. Reiley, for exposing the pervasive dysfunction within ADFG and the Board of Game on this issue. Reiley’s clear-eyed critique should shock all Alaskans, on whose behalf the state ostensibly manages wildlife.
Reiley confirms that the Mulchatna predator control effort was contrived by the Board of Game without due process, that it is overtly unconstitutional, based on bad science, ignores the natural population dynamics of the Mulchatna caribou herd, and is unlikely to help the Mulchatna herd. He notes that the state’s bear population estimates for the area “were little more than a poorly informed back-of-the-envelope calculation.” Reiley reiterated many of the serious concerns raised by the National Research Council’s 1997 study of Alaska’s predator control programs, commissioned by Gov. Tony Knowles.
Alaskans have pleaded for years for ADFG to commission a follow-up independent scientific assessment of the state’s predator control programs, post-1997, by National Research Council, or NRC, funded by the state’s Intensive Management Fund. But the state continues to ignore this request, obviously fearing that the results of such a credible assessment by independent scientists would show the predator control program as an ineffective, political abomination. In fact, the state’s continuing refusal to submit its predator control program to independent scientific review is essentially an admission of its lack of confidence in the veracity of the program. Gov. Mike Dunleavy, what are you afraid of here?
It is imperative that the state of Alaska now commission an NRC scientific review of Alaska’s controversial predator control program, suspending all such programs until the NRC review is complete.
— Rick Steiner
Anchorage
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