Wolf ‘control’

In Alaska, the wolf wars have taken a sobering turn for the worse. For 30 years hunting lobbyists have campaigned for what is euphemistically called wolf "control." Thanks to the compliance of Governor Frank Murkowski and the state’s official game board, the legal protections for Alaska’s 7,000 to 9,000 wolves have been seriously eroded. In nearly 20,000 square miles of the state it is now legal for private citizens to shoot wolves from airplanes and helicopters.

In these districts, the new regulations call for an 80 per cent "temporary" reduction in the wolf population. But a reduction on that scale is merely likely to be the first step towards the total elimination of wolves. There is already a hunting and trapping season for Alaskan wolves, and some 7,500 wolves have been legally killed in the past five years. But hunters want more moose meat on the table, and the state has promised them unnaturally high numbers.

Wildlife biologists disagree, and so do most Alaskans, who have voted against aerial sho-oting twice, in 1996 and 2000. But now the extremists have taken over. Elsewhere in this country, biologists have devoted themselves to protecting and restoring wolf populations. Most Americans have welcomed wolves’ return not only as symbols of wildness but as critical players in the pattern of nature, helping balance the population of deer and elk. — The New York Times