Alaska’s game board has decided to delay a decision on a controversial plan to expand the use of snares to kill grizzly and black bears as a means of predator control. Bear snaring is limited to an area on the West side of Cook Inlet. A proposal before the board at the current session had allowed for expansion of the practice to Game Unit 19 A, on the Kuskokwim river.
Supporters of the proposal say it will boost moose populations by removing predators. But opponents, told the board during public testimony, that it is not an effective management tool
The panel could reconsider expansion of bear snaring in Game Unit 19A at its March meeting in Fairbanks.
The board of game Tuesday did pass, with amendments, a predator control program for Game Unit 26 B in the Barrow area, which allows for land and shoot killing of brown bears by agents of the state only.
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APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
