Voices from the Flats – A Positive Step for the Wolves of Denali Park
2 12 2009
This One’s for You, Gordon Haber – Denali Wolves Proposed for More Protection
Dr. Rick Steiner, Professor, University of Alaska
Dec. 2, 2009
In a state like Alaska, consumptive use of wildlife (hunting, trapping, commercial guiding) is the rule, not the exception. Efforts of those trying to protect Alaska’s wildlife for aesthetic, ecological, economic, and scientific reasons are almost always overwhelmed by those who want to hunt or trap. And when it comes to wolves, this dynamic is even more pronounced. Each year, hundreds of Alaska’s wolves are killed for sport and in the state’s predator control program, where they are shot from planes, helicopters, and pups are sometimes clubbed to death or shot at their dens. The ideological zeal with which wolves were eliminated from much of the lower 48 is very much alive and at play in Alaska today.
And this is why what occurred at last night’s meeting of the Anchorage Fish & Game Advisory Committee is so remarkable. The committee was asked by a dozen or so Alaska residents to sponsor a proposal to the Alaska Board of Game to expand the protection for wolves of Denali National Park when they range across the park boundary onto state lands. This was an issue that the late Dr. Gordon Haber, who studied Denali wolves for 40 years and died doing so in October, had worked diligently to accomplish for many years. And last night, by a 6 to 3 vote, the Anchorage Advisory Committee approved a proposal to expand the protection for Denali wolves. Here’s what the dozen or so Alaska wildlife advocates told the Anchorage Advisory Committee last night, and why the Committee adopted the proposal.
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The Problem:
When Denali National Park boundaries were finalized in 1980, they were established on a political basis, not an ecological one. The eastern park boundary makes no ecological sense whatsoever to wildlife, and leaves a critical area of wildlife habitat out of the Park, and in state and private hands. Each year, wolves that are protected within Denali National Park range across the eastern boundary of the Park where they are legally taken by recreational hunters/trappers. Denali wolves are an extremely high-value ecological, economic, and scientific asset for Alaska, and the current recreational trapping/hunting take along the park boundary is having a significant negative impact on these wolf family groups. Denali National Park Superintendent Paul Anderson confirmed in a meeting a week ago, that the park is very concerned about the take of park wolves outside the borders. While the park normally supports about 120 wolves in 13 or so family groups (packs), Anderson said that this past spring the park biologists estimated that perhaps only 60 or 70 survived.
The existing wolf protection “buffer” – prohibiting the hunting and trapping of wolves on state lands along the boundary — has been one of the most contentious wildlife issues in Alaska for decades. The buffer was first put in place in 1992, and spanned some 600 square miles of land on the eastern boundary of the National Park. But this protective buffer was eliminated just 2 months later by the Board of Game, in political retaliation for the state limiting the aerial predator control program. A buffer was reestablished in 2001, but as this buffer did not cover a significant part of the winter range of Denali’s wolves, the wolves continued to be taken.
Areas to the east of the current buffer are important wintering area for ungulates, particularly caribou. Established groups of wolves are thus attracted to areas outside the park for varying winter intervals, and a few recreational trappers/hunters target them accordingly. These groups of wolves come from adjacent areas of the park, but also from as far as 60-70 miles or more away, most notably in the Wonder Lake area and beyond. Further, the Toklat and Margaret groups also take “extraterritorial forays” east of the Nenana River, where they are exposed to take by trapping and hunting. The eastern park boundary area is integral to the park ecosystem, but the present park and buffer zone boundaries are not consistent with appropriate ecological boundaries. In short, current state and federal management does not adequately protect Denali wolves.
In some years, as many as 18-19 wolves from five radio-collared Denali study groups – including the famous Toklat/East Fork family – were snared, trapped, and shot in the area adjacent to the existing buffer. Since 2003, when the present state buffer zone areas were finalized, at least seven of the nine radio collared Denali study groups known to have spent time in that area suffered trapping and shooting losses while there. Since 1987, when wolves were first radio-collared in Denali, 19-20 collared wolves (among others without collars) from 11-12 Denali study groups have been snared, trapped, or shot in the northeast boundary area. The 11-12 groups included 3-4 groups from areas west and northwest of Wonder lake, seven from areas within and adjacent to the state area, and one from an area between. Occasionally, wolves with snares from the Stampede area around their neck or paws are seen in the Park.
The Denali wolves are highly valued by Alaskans and around the world for ecological, scientific, viewing, economic, and other reasons. Their economic value alone to Alaskans is enormous, because of Denali’s importance as the state’s top tourism attraction and the importance of wolves as one of the park’s top attractions. Denali is one of the only places in the world where tourists have a reasonable chance to see wolves in the wild. The park service says that the chance for visitors to see wolves from the park road is now about 20%. But the aforementioned losses, which included key wolves of the most visitor-accessible groups (e.g., alpha male of the Margaret family in 2004, alpha female of the Toklat family in 2005), have translated into significant deleterious impacts to all of these values.
The trapping/hunting of wolves on state lands along the park boundary is conducted primarily by 3 or 4 recreational users who have other sources of income. This is not a subsistence take. Recreational trapping/hunting along the boundary of a national park also raises significant ethical take issues. There can be little justification for prioritizing the recreational benefit to a few individuals over the economic, recreational, and scientific benefit to hundreds of thousands of Alaska and U.S. citizens, as well as tourists from around the world, that would derive from additional protection of Denali wolves as proposed here. While the hides of these wolves may be worth $200 to the trapper / hunter, these animals are worth millions of dollars to the tourism economy of the state. As one advocate told the committee last night: “Denali wolves are rock stars.”
The state has a Memorandum of Understanding to work cooperatively with the federal government on wildlife management in Alaska. The mandates of the Denali National Park management plan include the maintenance of the natural abundance and diversity of wolf populations in the park. Current non-essential harvest on state lands along the boundary is causing significant negative impacts to the integrity of Denali National Park wolf groups, and the Alaska Board of Game has an obligation to adapt management on adjacent state lands accordingly.
Last night, the wildlife advocates told the Committee that if this trapping / hunting problem is not solved, the significant economic, scientific, and ecological value of these Denali wolf family groups (packs) will continue to be degraded and/or lost. As well, the growth potential for tourism based on wolf viewing at Denali, and the unique opportunity for science, will not be fully realized.
The Solution:
One solution to provide additional protection to Denali wolves in consideration is to have the National Park Service acquire or trade for the state lands in question along the northeast boundary of the Park, and place them under federal management as part of Denali National Park. This would be controversial among local landowners (including the state, borough, and others), but would be the best way to permanently protect park wildlife. Another solution in consideration is to attach conditions to the transfer of federal Pittman-Robertson funds to ADF&G (about $14 million this year) that would require the state to provide reasonable protections to wildlife that range across boundaries of federally protected areas onto state lands. This too would be controversial in ADF&G and local consumptive use groups. Thus, an expanded no-take buffer at Denali is the most immediate action the Alaska Board of Game can take to protect Denali wolves.
So the group of wildlife advocates proposed last night that the Anchorage Advisory Committee sponsor a proposal to the Alaska Board of Game that will expand the current wolf protection area – the no-take “buffer” closed to trapping and hunting of wolves — to encompass a greater portion of the traditional ecological range of Denali National Park wolves. The proposal is to keep the current 90 square mile buffer in place, and expand its boundaries to include the entire Stampede Trail / Wolf Townships area northeast of the park boundary, and the area to about 10 miles east of the Nenana River and Parks Highway. The proposal would prohibit any hunting or trapping of wolves in this 600 square mile region outside the park, much as did the original buffer that was in place for only 2 months in 1992, and will afford Denali wolves the protection they so richly deserve.
After hours of impassioned public testimony and heated discussion, the Anchorage Advisory Committee voted 6 to 3 to sponsor the proposal to the Alaska Board of Game, which will now take up this proposal at its February – March 2010 meeting in Fairbanks. There will be other proposals to the Board to eliminate the Denali wolf buffer altogether, and some proposing more limited protections. But clearly, if the goal is to protect Denali park wolves as completely as possible, then the Anchorage Fish & Game Advisory Committee proposal is the best action to accomplish this.
If the Anchorage Advisory Committee proposal is adopted by the Board of Game this winter, then the 450,000 visitors / year to Denali National Park will benefit from increased wolf viewing success, thus enhancing the tourism economy at Denali and the state. Scientifically, the long-studied Denali wolves will now be protected, and thus provide opportunity to study long-term population and social dynamics of unexploited wolf family groups (packs). The solution proposed would establish the only protected wolf family groups anywhere in Alaska, thus providing unique scientific opportunities. And as there are only 3 or 4 primary recreational wolf trappers who would be impacted by the proposal, and as these individuals have other accessible areas to replace the area that would be closed to take by this proposal, the impact to them would be negligible.
When the Board of Game publishes its proposal booklet in early January for the upcoming meeting in Fairbanks, then letters of support to the Board for the Anchorage Advisory Committee proposal for the Denali buffer will be very helpful in convincing the Board to adopt the proposal.
This is a close to a win-win in wildlife management as it gets. Last night was one small step for Denali wolves, one giant leap for Alaska wildlife across the state.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:09 PM
thanks, rick for this informative post.
we have a number of wolf lovers on this blog and you have certainly brought smiles to their faces with this information.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:22 PM
An Arctic wolf is the lovely photo on my wall calendar. I swear she smiled at me when I read this!
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:45 PM
The most disgusting image I have ever seen is Quittypants hunting wolves from a helicopter. Nice to have a better image to replace it. Question is, how influencial is the Advisory committee on the State Board of Game? Let’s hope they are very influential.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:59 PM
I adopted a Denali wolf for DH in memory of Gordon Haber.
DH loves it and will continue the adoption annually.
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:00 PM
Trapping sucks, plain and simple. It’s an 18th or 19th century lifestyle that should no longer be practiced in our modern society, especially by those making a profit from furs rather than using the furs to keep themselves warm.
These anachronistic “mountain men” who are glorifying the way of life practiced before there were other methods of keeping warm are a blight on the natural world and should be stopped.
You are not Jeremiah Johnson guys (and gals) you are 21st century Americans using modern tools (snowmachines) to run your giant traplines of death merely for profit and you should be ashamed. I hope the tortured souls of your injured, maimed and killed trapline fodder come back to haunt you in your dreams. Join the 21st century and stop trying to keep alive an ideal whose time has come to pass. The future will catch up with you sooner or later, why fight it?
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:04 PM
This is good news, not just for wolf lovers. Animal lovers, people lovers, environment lovers all will be happy with this giant step forward. I too am keeping my fingers crossed that the Board will see this as a win-win for all involved.
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:14 PM
Thank you so much for posting this positive news. Make it happen! I don’t know a happy wolf pup song but Baby Beluga is still going on in my head (o:
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:20 PM
Well, thank God.
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:32 PM
I live in Wisconsin and our wolf population is just starting to come back,there have been a few sightings.
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:33 PM
Finally, sanity.
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:34 PM
PPS meant to say shooting animals fron a plane or helicopter is NOT hunting it is slaughter plain and simple
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:56 PM
Well, this is exactly what I love about this “blog”. An opportunity to learn. There are so many different subjects. I would have never known anything about the Denali wolves if not for here. I will now look up more information.
AKM, you are a truly remarkable person with so much information and writing talent. Many thank yous.
December 2nd, 2009 at 7:25 PM
Nice to hear a little good news about wildlife. More often than not, the stories I see are too heartbreaking and discouraging to read.
December 2nd, 2009 at 7:27 PM
Thank you for a very informative post. I learned a lot about Denali and the surrounding areas and how the wolves are impacted by the policies we make.
The Game Board is supposed to heavily weigh suggestions from its advisory board so I would think this stands a decent chance of passing. It is important to manage the resources of this state for maximum benefit of all, if at all possible. Support letters from the public once published is something we will all have to follow up on.
On the other hand people need to realize that SOMETIMES a predator control program is needed to manage entire game populations. The most humane way is to take care of cubs in a den, not from a airplane or a trap. Not pretty but more humane.
As someone who lives in an area that the state manages its bear and wolf population for ‘maximum trophy’ opportunities, we are well aware of this.
This means the caribou and moose (and thus the residents) are being hurt so some high priced hunters can have the best chance for taking a ‘trophy’ home. (many times this also means we have wolves in the villages killing animals and scaring the heck out of parents and kids. NOT something you want to come face to face with after the sun goes down and you step out your front door!!)
Local advisory boards are one of the best ways for the state game boards to hear how these programs effect each area they are responsible for. Opportunities for tourists, scientist, hunters and subsistence users need to be weighed for the best possible management.
December 2nd, 2009 at 7:36 PM
First off, AKPetMom, your vitriol is not appreciated or necessary. Trapping provides income for quite a few people who live in the villages or in the bush and can be done ethically. Pain will be inflicted on the animals taken, no doubt, but it can be minimized by good trapping techniques and with the use of good traps. I was happy to see this article on Mudflats, as the management of wildlife has become increasingly politicized and radical in this state. Most Alaskans have absolutely no idea how extreme things have become, even within the dept. of fish and game since Palin appointed friends to positions (newly created, interesting story there) of power high in the dept. Unbeknownst to most AK residents, laws that are barely constitutional have been passed that require the state to manage game for maximum abundance ostensibly to provide food for residents, and yet there is no move whatsoever to restrict non-resident take of game. All readers concerned about the future of wildlife in AK should familiarize themselves with current management practices, and the people involved in passing the laws, our BOG.
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:12 PM
here is a great site about Denali wolves:
//alaskawolves.org/Alaska%20Wolves.html
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:37 PM
GREAT news of forward progress! Thanks Rick for an interesting & educational post. Sounds like it was a VERY productive meeting, I just hope Alaska Board of Game follows through.
Speaking as a former tourist, you’re correct. We paid a bundle of money in Alaska State for the chance to see wildlife. If 3-4 people (won’t call them “hunters”) need to decimate the Denali Wolves just to ‘get their jollies’ – your state’s economy will definitely take a loss financially when the tourists take their vacation money elsewhere!
December 2nd, 2009 at 9:38 PM
As on so many other topics over the past 2 decades, Dr. Steiner has offered a host of valuable insights about killing of Denali wolves. Since these are potentially the least-human impacted wolves accessible to researchers in the United States, as well as the most viewable wolves for viewers, their value to humanity is enormous.
Nevertheless, even a 6:3 vote in Anchorage for more wolf protection is not likely to have significant influence on the Board of Game. During the two years that I was on a Kenai Peninsula fish & game advisory council, there was very little indication that the BofG paid any attention to any proposal that we authored or forward to them — unless the proposal supported the BofG agendas, none of which included more protection for predators or for eco-tourism. Quite the contrary, such proposals seemed to elicit only contempt by the BofG. Part of that comes from individual mind sets that are locked in concrete and impervious to contrary facts. And part is due to what many believe to be overwhelming evidence that wolf (and bear) numbers need to be drastically reduced to allow “recovery” of moose and caribou populations. The BofG has shown no interest in evidence indicating that “intensive management” is not the best solution in all situations even where the primarily goal is maximizing hunter harvest of moose and caribou, much less in situations where other goals could and arguably should take precedence over harvest. The BofG does not attempt to meet the needs of all Alaskans, much less of everyone who visits Alaska. Rather, BofG works primarily for the benefit of one special-interest group (ungulate-consumers) and secondarily, if only inadvertently, for the benefit of the firearm and off-road vehicle industries.
Given those realities, the only way to improve protection for wolves on the eastern boundary of Denali is to do a trade — offer the BofG and its special interest constituents something they want more than opportunities to kill wolves (or bears) on the eastern boundary of Denali. For many Alaskan hunters, progressive shrinkage of huntable areas in the state has become an intolerable imposition. They hate it even more than they hate wolves. So find some areas of the state where hunting is no longer allowed, and offer to re-open those areas. The eastern margin of Denali is highly accessible to hunters and trappers from Anchorage and Fairbanks; so any newly huntable lands would likely also have to be highly accessible. Time for wolf advocates to do some clever brainstorming and politicing.
For more information on the scientific limitations to the state’s predator control policies, visit http://www.bear-viewing-in-alaska.info. On the homepage, scroll down to the bottom of the left-hand column and click the link on the wolf photo.
Stephen F. Stringham, PhD
President, WildWatch
December 2nd, 2009 at 9:47 PM
It’s wonderful to hear of the proposal to protect the Denali wolves.
It’s less than wonderful that in this day and age wildlife protections still have to be presented by necessity in economic terms to win consideration and approval: “If the Anchorage Advisory Committee proposal is adopted by the Board of Game this winter, then the 450,000 visitors / year to Denali National Park will benefit from increased wolf viewing success, thus enhancing the tourism economy at Denali and the state.”
When wildlife protections can be presented with the primary argument that wildlife is inherently valuable regardless of the economic value to humans…..then humans will have evolved a quantum leap.
Thanks for the informative post, Dr. Steiner.
December 2nd, 2009 at 9:50 PM
hey Gramiam… i would like to know where you saw “that image”, because i don’t think that ever happened. Prior to quitter girl being governor there were no helicopter predator control programs, and helicopters have ALWAYS been illegal for any other type of gunning.
After she installed good family friend Corey Rossi (spokesperson for SFW, “sportsmen for fish and wildlife” and currently on leave from the feds where he was a professional trapper and “wildlife damage control” agent) in the newly created #3 position in F&G there was helicopter wolf shooting by F&G employees out of Tok within a few days of the close of the Anchorage meeting of the BOG last spring.
To think that the current BOG will extend or maintain the buffer zone around Denali is naive.
The AC’s in the Denali area are quite excited to see the buffer zone sunset…. and they will be a loud voice at the next BOG meeting where this issue is on the table.
December 3rd, 2009 at 6:14 AM
This is the most interesting thread !
For those of us in Southeast Alaska issues are very different and we have little view into the issues presented here by commenters and poster alike BUT we do hear from our million plus visitors a year about their perception of predator control policies in the state.
Boy- do we hear!
December 3rd, 2009 at 3:37 PM
Good on ya, Anchorage. Keep us posted when it’s time to write to the Board of Game.
The very name of this board gives one pause.
December 3rd, 2009 at 7:36 PM
We used to cruise up to Alaska quite frequently, but our last trip was and will remain 2004, when our sons went on a helicopter tour outside of Juneau. On the way back to the ship, on board a tour bus, a ‘hunter’ on the side of the road shot at a bird on the other side of the road (main road) sending a bullet through the windows of the bus, about 4 inches above one of the passenger’s head. The police did nothing and the ‘hunter’ (there are other names for goons like that) didn’t have the brains to realize how close he came to shooting someone. If you go to Alaska, don’t go during hunting season (which seems to be year-round up there), you may end up being the trophy because of some of these thick-necked nitwits.
December 6th, 2009 at 10:21 AM
I was very glad to read this summary of some of the history of the Denali wolves and their “border issues”. I see the efforts mentioned in Dr. Steiner’s essay as in some way carrying on the work of Dr. Gordon Haber. The wolves have lost their greatest advocate, and I am glad that there are others who are still here and at work on the wolves’ behalf. Thank you Dr. Steiner, and please keep the Mudflats updated when you have further information or ideas for how those of us who care about wolves can do things to help make a difference for them.