Sean Parnell is Killing Local Business from a Helicopter.
19 03 2010
~Photo by Florian Schultz
Contrary to the opinion of my ex-governor, all progressive bloggers do not live with their parents, and eat cheetos while wearing pajamas in the basement.
This blogger, for fifteen years, owned two businesses in bustling downtown Anchorage. After a decade and a half in retail, you learn the cycles. There’s early fall and back-to-school shoppers, then a spike in sales around the beginning of October when everyone gets the Permanent Fund Dividend check. Then there’s a lull until right after Thanksgiving. Black Friday launches the holiday shopping season which is the biggest money-making time of the year. Then the doldrums of January, the little spikes for Valentine’s Day, and Mother’s Day, and then Memorial Day Weekend hits, and summer begins. June, July and August are all nice and steady. The locals are all out of town fishing, camping, hiking, kayaking, sailing, but the tourists have come to town. Hallelujah.
Suddenly the stores are filled with smiling happy people who have saved up for their once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Last Frontier and are here to make the most of it. I’ve talked to a lot of tourists in my life. I hear where they’ve come from, where they’re going and what they’d like to see. I always heard about two things. First, the Kenai Fjords National Wildlife refuge with its puffins, sea lions, whales, otters and glaciers. The other one was Denali Park. I heard about the long hot bus ride into the park – and how it’s a real kidney buster. It was dusty and people were packed in, and how it took all day. They wondered about whether to even do it. And then I heard how it was the best thing they’d ever done.
I never got tired of hearing about it. It’s like going on a nature walk with a little kid. Everything is new, and wondrous. It’s all magic. I’d hear about moose, and foxes, and bears, and eagles, all through new eyes. But most of all, I’d hear about the wolves. Hearing a 70 year old man in a white windbreaker sound like a little boy at Christmas saying with sparkling eyes, “I couldn’t believe we saw a wolf!” is a wonderful thing. Of all the wildlife in Alaska, a wolf sighting is the most special of all.
I’ve seen wolves in the wild, and they’ve seen me. It’s a moment I’ll never forget. Two black wolves, like dark spirits, racing across the golden Nogahabara sand dunes – a remarkable place in the interior that looks like a chunk of the Sahara punctuated by isolated spruce trees. I had no camera, but the image in my mind of cresting a dune in a small plane, and seeing those two wolves running across the sand and into the trees is one I will not forget.
I thought many things, like “Why is my camera in my bag?” and “My God, they are incredible. So wild, so beautiful.” I did not think how fun it would be to chase them down and shoot them. Most people don’t.
That’s why, when comedians and critics try to be particularly cutting about Sarah Palin, they often invoke the image of her in a helicopter shooting wolves. They do this because it’s the worst thing they can think of. They do it because reasonable people find it abhorrent.
And when reasonable people find a state practice abhorrent, they will rail against it.
The recent actions, and extreme predator control tactics employed by the state are raising the hackles and the bile of reasonable people. A recent vote by the Board of Game eliminated the buffer zone around the National Park that protects those Denali wolves so beloved by tourists when they stray outside the park boundary. The measure benefits a handful of trappers in the area, and robs thousands of their dream of shooting these wolves with a camera. And the deciding vote to eliminate the buffer was cast by the newest member of the board – Al Barette, who happens to own a commercial tannery, and the company that makes the Alaska wolf trap. He cast his first vote for his own self interest at the expense of the interest of tourists, and the tourism industry. He was also the recipient of the first aerial wolf hunting permit issued.
Then there’s Corey Rossi, a friend of the Palins. He doesn’t have a college degree, but they waived that requirement for his recent appointment as Division of Wildlife Management. He’s not a biologist. His previous job was eradicating invasive species – a professional killer whose nickname is the “gopher choker,” he is unqualified for the job. His first mission is to obtain $100,000 in public funds to do a high-quality video about the joys of killing wolves and bears in Alaska. The fluff piece on why it’s OK to eliminate 80-100% of bears and wolves in some areas is the quintessential anti-science video that gives all the reasons why good science should be ignored, so that we can usher in a new era of massive extreme predator control in order to artificially inflate the numbers of moose and caribou that are available to be hunted.
It snowed here recently, which means the planes and helicopters were in the air. It’s easier to track wolves on new snow. Those who flew out and shot wolves seemed to have had a great time, and emailed their smiling victory photos to family and friends.
Others further north targeted the Yukon Charley preserve area. Last year, the state agreed they wouldn’t shoot wolves in packs where members had collars. Collared wolves in the area are part of a 16 year study of wolf packs conducted because the National Parks Service wants to make sure the area has adequate wolves, and that they are managed properly. These radio collared wolves have been monitored and science has gained a tremendous amount of data.
This year the state made no promises about the pack mates of radio collared research wolves, but agreed not to shoot the wolves with collars. This week, helicopters took off, spotted the wolves and shot every member of the pack – collars and all.
Sixteen years of research, the time and expense of collaring the wolves, the fact that the area had few wolves to begin with – none of this seemed to matter. The Department of Fish and Game says that the shooters saw the collars and shot anyway. The Department has recently claimed “sovereign authority” to manage all wildlife in the state, including federal lands that they previously have not had access to.
So, as someone who used to rely on Alaska’s tourists for my livelihood, I have to wonder what those people in the Lower 48, who are planning their summer vacations must think. When that couple decides on a destination, how do they feel about spending their money in a state that has recently instituted policies like the gassing of wolf pups, the snaring of bears, the shooting of bear cubs, the extermination of research wolves, and the eradication of areas that have been preserving the beloved wolves of Denali? How do they feel about the sneering contempt for science, the appointment of only those who share a narrow vision for Alaska’s wildlife that does not include tourism, nature photographers, and those who think that when we try to manage and control nature, we usually lose.
Reasonable people are revolted, and reasonable people will take their money and their business elsewhere. Of this, I am sure. And I am angry.
I hear all the time about how Republicans are pro-business, about how the Chamber of Commerce is supposed to be looking out for the interest of businesses. I hear about how small business owners are the bread and butter of our economy. I hear about how what’s really killing business is taxes. And I say that what’s really killing business is killing. The Parnell administration has its own agenda and it does not include supporting tourism, or mom and pop businesses across the state – hotels, motels, gift shops, gas stations, fast food places, restaurants, camera stores, sporting goods stores, and anywhere people spend money.
Small businesses should not tolerate an administration that stacks boards and commisions with unqualified non-scientists who vote to serve their own narrow interests at the expense of the majority. What happens this year when that summer cycle comes around, and business owners look for the steady income in June, July and August that keeps their staff employed, and provides revenue until the holiday season arrives? I hear nothing but crickets coming from Juneau. Maybe that’s the only wildlife left.
Alaskans who work hard, trying to put food on the table, and braces on their kids’ teeth, and pay their mortgages shouldn’t be second-class citizens whose needs are subjugated to satisfy what amounts to nothing more than blood lust – a blood lust that kills not only the wolves, but the industries and businesspeople who rely on those who love them.
The boycotts you invite and the ire of small business owners will wake you up, even if your common sense does not.
~From the Friends of Animals "Boycott Alaska" campaign
Categories : Alaska, Environment, Nature, Numbskullery, Parks, Republicans, Rural issues, Sarah Palin, Sean Parnell, Skullduggery
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