The Alaska Board of Game reauthorized a proposal to reduce the Kenai Peninsula wolf population on Jan. 9. It aims to increase the region’s annual moose harvest by reducing the number of predators.
The proposal would allow Fish and Game and members of the public to kill wolves in the area north of Kachemak Bay through July 2022.
“It’s obvious to anyone who pays attention that if you have an imbalance, this is what you need to do,” Board of Game chair Ted Spraker said.
Spraker supported the proposal, which was passed unanimously on Jan. 9 in Bethel.
Under Alaska’s Intensive Management Law, the Board of Game must ensure deer, caribou and moose populations meet certain population size and harvest thresholds.
It’s called “Intensive Management” for a reason. If populations or harvest dip below the mandated levels, Fish and Game must recommend how best to increase those numbers.
That can involve habitat improvement, revising hunting laws and perhaps the most controversial of all – predator control.
“Or you just let the moose populations go lower and that doesn’t benefit anyone,” Spraker said. “So you need to keep populations healthy and there are times that you need to temporarily reduce the impact of predation to do it.”
Aerial wolf control is not a new issue on the Kenai Peninsula. A similar program had been on the books since 2012, but at that time, Fish and Game chose not to act.
Unlike the previous time around, the new proposal submitted by Fish and Game calls for eliminating all wolves from nearly a third of the management area – about 1,200 square-miles.
There are 35 to 40 wolves in the entire 15C management area, according to the most recent Fish and Game census in 2013.
The Homer Fish and Game Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations to the Board of Game, voted unanimously against the proposal on Dec. 13.
Committee Chair Dave Lyon argued there’s no justification for predator control in the area.
“We have a healthy ecosystem here and we have ample surplus animals for us to harvest and plenty of opportunity for folks to hunt and plenty of public land for them to do it on,” Lyon said. “Those are things that we need to preserve, but I like to hear wolves from my house. When I see wolf tracks when I’m hunting, I know that there’s moose. Because there wouldn’t be wolves if there weren’t moose.”
Intensive management guidelines for the area set population size and annual harvest goals.
Based on the most recent moose census from 2013, the population in the 15C area was 3,204 animals. That’s well within the objective of 2,500 to 3,500 animals.
When it comes to moose hunting, the target harvest is 200 to 250 animals. That number was met in 2016 with 211 total kills. In 2015, it fell short at 181 kills.
Lyon argued the harvest objective could be met consistently by relaxing current hunting regulations – focusing on the prey not the predators. He says eliminating predators could increase the moose population to an unsustainable size.
“There’s no reason to believe that we can support more moose than we have right now on the browse that’s available. If we boost the numbers by doing predator control, all we need is one really bad winter and there’s not enough food to go around and suddenly we don’t have very many moose,” Lyon said.
Thomas McDonough is a research biologist with Fish and Game. He said there are many variables to consider when it comes to assessing the health of a population.
“When you think about moose densities, a lot of people think in a linear sense, like more moose is better than fewer moose,” McDonough said. Then there’s the health component. Is survival okay? Is body condition okay? Are the cows producing calves with a good frequency that’s indicative of a healthy population?”
“Let’s say we’re able to reduce predation pressure by removing a whole bunch of predators, that will invariably change the density of moose,” McDonough said. “If you change the density of a prey species, you’re most likely going to change a certain vital rate, whether that’s survival of adults, calves or both. Changing density can change all that. And then that of course affects all the browse the moose rely on.”
Although the Board of Game has given predator control the green light, it’s unclear if or when the process will actually begin.
Fish and Game Director of Wildlife Conservation Bruce Dale has said they need to conduct an updated moose census and do more research.
Commissioner Sam Cotten will make the final decision as to whether or not the wolf control project will move forward.
Shahla Farzan is a reporter with KBBI - Homer.
Shahla first caught the radio bug as a world music host for WMHC, the oldest college radio station operated exclusively by women. Before coming to KBBI, she worked at Capital Public Radio in Sacramento and as a science writer for the California Environmental Legacy Project. She is currently completing her Ph.D in ecology at the University of California-Davis, where she studies native bees.
When she's not producing audio stories, you can find Shahla beachcombing or buried in a good book.
