Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Suzie Homemaker
This is a topic that is very important to me. Wolves are a passion for me. I've studied them and the different populations--Yellowstone and Greater Yellowstone, Alaska, Isle Royale Nat'l Park--for years. This video shows what Palin and the Alaska Board of Game--made up of hunters and guides mainly--call "predator management/control." It is, in fact, not predator control. Sure, some of that has to be done as well--but it should be based on pure science and good numbers. This is based on money and politics, hoping to artificially inflate the moose numbers, so as to continue attracting huge revenues from out-of-state trophy hunters. Palin recently made it so the Board of Game can make all of their "management" policies without consulting state biologists or the Dept. of Fish and Game. Is this the trend she'd live by as VP or, gasp, President?
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4 comments:
Good lord I hope not! That's why there should be checks and balances, and taking away those checks leads to abuses of power. That is to say, greater abuses of power, since anyone with power tends to abuse it.
I worked at Wolf Park in Battleground, Indiana for almost a year. I worked with 18 wolves and 3 foxes (there were 2 coyotes, too, but I was not involved with them). This kind of cruelty was discussed weekly, not to mention the fact that no one who would actually be in the know about wolves was consulted.
The threat of wolves is not high in Alaska, and if they really wanted to take care of the issue, they'd transport some of those 60,000 wolves down to the Lower 48, where we barely have 2,000 total.
I appreciate your comments. I'd love to have had your job at Wolf Park. Wow. I'll bet that was amazing. Actually though, there are an estimated 7,500 to 10,000 wolves in Alaska--not 60,000. And, there is so much habitat in Alaska, there's no reason not to keep sustainable wolf populations up there. As I suggested in the blog, the decisions and policies are purely political and motivated by money--not by sound scientific evidence.I wouldn't be opposed to transplanting wolves, especially as an alternative to the aerial wolf-killing. But the ranching and hunting/guiding people in the lower 48 are just as stubborn, if not more so than those who would "shoot, shovel and shut up" in Alaska. The only real way to work toward better policies is by educating the public, enough so to overpower the would-be corrupted lawmakers.
Oops, 60,000+ in Canada -- got my facts confused. (This is what happens when you haven't led tours in months!)
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