Sound absurd? You bet!

Yet when a member of the Defenders of Wildlife was asked by the Legislature how to solve Alaska's problem with wolves killing pets, stalking families, and decimating wildlife populations, this is exactly what he suggested. Just fly people to where game is plentiful and fly them back to their communities with their meat. If it weren't for the fact that the Knowles Administration actually takes these people seriously, it would be funny.

However, there is nothing funny about the catastrophic decline of moose and the explosive growth of wolf populations in Alaska. There is nothing funny about the fear rural mothers experience as their children walk to school in communities where hungry packs have entered town to kill and eat family pets. It isn't funny -- it's absurd. It's absurd that our state spends $20 million on a Division of Wildlife that is not allowed to manage wildlife. It's absurd that this administration has abandoned the people who depend on moose and caribou for food in favor of animal rights extremists who live thousands of miles away. It's particularly absurd that people do not feel safe in their own communities. That is why I introduced Senate Bill 267.

SB 267 allows people to hunt wolves on the same day they are airborne, but only in about five percent of the state. It applies specifically to areas where the Board of Game, through an extensive public process, has established a wolf-control program. This bill does not allow hunters to chase, harass, or shoot wolves from airplanes, and it does not gut the 1996 voter initiative banning land and shoot. It does, however, provide the Board of Game with an effective method of predator control while bypassing an administration that wouldn't manage wolves even if they were killing poodles in Spenard. It's no surprise the Governor intends to veto SB 267.

There is no denying that this bill makes changes to the 1996 initiative, but the changes are restricted to a tiny portion of the state and require intense scrutiny by the public and the Board of Game.

Unmanaged predators are causing game populations to plummet throughout Alaska. Nowhere is this more evident than in the McGrath area, where the moose population has fallen from historic highs of around 5000 to fewer than 1400 last year. After this particularly harsh winter, that number may well have dropped to under 1000. Beyond the game issues, there is a public safety concern as well. Rural communities are making dramatic appeals to the legislature about the veritable siege of their towns by starving packs whose hunger has overcome their natural fear of man. We must control the wolf population. Waiting for Mother Nature is not only poor management, it could actually put people at risk.

Some legislators say you should never change a law enacted by a vote of the people. This is a politically safe approach to the problem, but our founding fathers saw it somewhat differently. They recognized that a statute enacted by referendum could have problems, so they included a provision that allows us to amend initiatives. But we in the legislature did not pass SB 267 just because we have the power; nor did we pass it out of disregard for the will of the people, as some have suggested. We did it because there is a problem and it is our responsibility to fix it.

Attachments:

• Sponsor Statement for SB 267