Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Wolf control purpose in Alaska

Meanwhile, back to wolf-moose management....


Casey

Very good article. It makes the case for predator control very effectively.

Casey
You keep using the phrase "Dramatically high moose populations" and yet have only mentioned a single area in the Farewell Burn, now long past its most productive stages. Can you give another moose overpopulation site? How about an historical event of same?

Sportsmen are clamoring for opportunities to hunt wolves... But those outside dollars went and got the only viable option outlawed.

Now that we have a pro-ungulate gov we are slowly making a few steps toward a recovery. It is my understanding ADF&G has but a single biologist that believes there is a moose over-population somewhere in AK. To get it under control he has allocated a bunch of moose calf tags. His rationale being the calves have a smaller chance of survivng the winter and the herd has little invested in the calf. Lowering recruitment will not hurt the population and it creates more hunting opportunities...

The other bios I have spoken to about it simply shake their heads in wonder at the situation... I suspect he is from CO and here to undermine our way of doing things.
art

It takes no sophistication to expose you. It is very easy.

Farewell burn doesn't sound like the one I was listening in on--but I may be wrong.

I'm not making the claim that currently there are high populations, but the density goals seem to be artificially high--and wolves seem to be getting the blame when habitat conditions may be an equal or bigger factor than wolves--that's all.







Tell me about that--I'm interested.






Again, I'm not claiming over population of anything. But another issue is trying to maintain populations at consistent levels when natural high-low cycles may benefit the habitat--because the habitat evolved with those cycles--just like it evolved with fire.

You know, I have always said a drip torch and a fast pickup could be the best wildlife tool we will ever have






It's all a Rocky Mountain plot


Casey

You never miss a chance to denigrate American sportsmen.

You still seem to hold on to that Disney concept that wolves make prey "wilder". As if once you take away canine predators cervids just walk into the guns sights.

Uh-oh! The industry twit had popped outta the weeds again!......

You are the ONLY member on the entire Campfire that I utterly and completely disrespect--I have faced off with you industry reps before--absolutely no integrity.


Casey

You know, it's proven that wolves and lawyers share the same DNA. Maybe that will cause you to leave us be...........

Hunting has always been the goal. It is only recently that hunting has become something we need to defend. It is only recently that ecology has become a religion.


Wrong. What happened was that the rest of the country did not care one iota about wildlife management - period. Sportsmen are the true and original conservationists, and they still are.

Like I said, he never misses a chance to ridicule the American sportsman.

Like I said, transparent.


Actually, I retract my statement here. I misread the meaning of this post. Fire is a very good management tool.

Casey, I don't care what you think about me. As long as your true colors are shown I'm happy. Man you are delusional. So what industry do I represent anyway?

The Farewell Burn is huge and close to McGrath. An area with interesting history in moose management. There have been multiple studies done to show severely depressed moose numbers. Guides in the area have quit taking hunts because there are no moose to hunt. Locals say the same thing.

Locals have been hammering wolves in ever increasing numbers, but ADF&G breaks down harvest by tagging station, not kill location. Funny how the Anchorage office (with over half the state population with a few miles) tags more wolves than any other!

But the bios keep getting changed because no one is happy with them. The last one reported the herd was well above historic numbers... starting to sound familiar yet? Of course the moose harvest is non-existant in the area, but those they do record according to actual kill site.

Among the really brilliant moves they have made is to trap and relocate calf-killing bears. As you might know the occasional old boar black or brown bear comes forward and does all he can to kill every calf in a herd. And some get real good at it. I forget which African predator correlates to that with just a single old male killing virtually all of the calves dropped in a an area that concentrates all of the ungulates for hundreds of square miles. But there must be one, no?

The ADF&G folks trappped one old black boar with a known history of killing calves. They spent thousands of dollars to chopper his worthless hide to a new location so he would not impact the McGrath herd any more. How long do you think it took the bear to return to the land of milkin' calves? Less than a week and over 200 miles IIRC.

More bears were moved including sows and cubs and all sorts of other bears. All of which is ridiculous because they are rarely the problem, or at most a minor part of the bigger problem. Wasting resources that could be better spent on all sorts of things.

So density goals are the problem? As I have yet to see government EVER reach a goal they mean nothing to me. What matters is the fact the moose herds are as low as they have been in my life time. Wolves and bears are more numerous than they have ever been. Pressures from many fronts are negatively impacting our hunting and we have morons from other states getting information at least third hand telling us how to do it their way.

We have had multiple votes about managing wildlife, especially about airborne wolf hunting and hunters lost repeatedly because in large part the antis collected tons of money from outside. SCI stepped up and spent tons of money here, but that money could have been used for so many things with potential to help everyone.
art

You betcha Scott. But glad to see you back anyway

Casey

A lot of people espouse enlightened/liberal views about the proper way to deal with child sex offenders/predators. . . .until a couple of them decide to move into the neighborhood. Bears cougars and wolves tend to generate similar "enlightened" opinions witin the same elite nimby peanut gallery.

good point skeeter!

Thanks art.

You mean in Alaska they relocate problem bears? What happened to hunting for black bears?

And while they relocate black bears they are going to aerial gun wolves?

Talk about a strange juxtaposition of management

Casey

Often the ones who blame everything and everybody else for their lack of hunting success usually are the ones who don't get too far from the pickups--they're too fat and weighed down with the latest hardware..............


Casey

Was that the infamous Selway study? The model used for the entire country, for years.