newsminer.com

Bad wolf-hunting weather, not lawsuits, is hindering the state’s controversial aerial predator control program with only about a month left in the season.

As of Thursday, pilot-gunner teams have reported killing 79 wolves so far this winter, and state wildlife officials hope the number increases before what little snow there is melts and pilots can no longer safely land to shoot wolves and pick up their pelts.

The department’s objective for the harvest in the control areas this winter was 455 to 670 wolves, though that number includes wolves taken by private trappers and hunters, too.

“This is the prime time, depending on weather conditions,” said Cathie Harms, spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks. “We have long daylight hours and if we have any fresh snowfall without winds, that’s the best weather for tracking wolves.

“More wolves are traditionally taken in late March than in November,” she said.

But that depends on the weather, noted Harms.

“If there’s no fresh snow and nothing but old, rotten snow, nothing happens because (pilots) can’t see any fresh tracks,” she said.

That’s been the case so far this month — only two-tenths of an inch of snow has fallen at Fairbanks International Airport this March — and the same is true in many parts of the Interior.

This year’s reported harvest of 79 wolves is the lowest in the five-year history of the aerial program. Last year, pilot-gunner teams harvested a total of 97 wolves.

The total harvest since the aerial program was launched in 2003 stands at 746 wolves, an average of 150 a year.

There is no cut-off date for pilots and gunners involved in the aerial control program. The department halts the program when weather conditions dictate, Harms said. That’s usually mid- to late April.

The state’s predator control program also hit a legal bump in the road last week when an Anchorage Superior Court judge ruled that the Alaska Board of Game, which is responsible for approving state predator management, did not follow the necessary steps when it expanded two of the five areas in which the current aerial wolf-killing program is allowed. The judge’s decision came in response to a 2006 lawsuit filed by the Connecticut-based animal-rights group Friends of Animals and two similar Alaska groups, Defenders of Wildlife and the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, which sought to halt Alaska’s aerial wolf-killing program.

The court decision forced the Department of Fish and Game to temporarily halt the program in one Southcentral area (Unit 16A) and in the upper Yukon/Tanana region (parts of Units 12, 20E, 20D and 25) because the department did not provide enough information to justify expanding the two areas.

However, the Game Board is holding an emergency teleconference today to rectify the problem and those two areas should be opened again by the end of today, said Harms.

“My understanding is that it’s a quick fix,” she said, adding that the board took similar action after a court ruling last year temporarily halted the aerial control program.

The information the judge said was lacking was actually in the plans adopted by the Game Board, but rather than appeal the judge’s decision, Harms said it’s quicker for the board to hold an emergency meeting and adopt separate findings for each area.

The 9 a.m. teleconference is open to the public and can be heard at the Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks, but the board will not be taking any public testimony.

A live audio stream of the meeting will also be available on the department’s Web site at www.boards.adfg.state.ak.us/gameinfo/index.php.