The Mulchatna Predator Control Program

In 2022, the State of Alaska created a bear-control program in the Wood-Tikchik basin, hiring State employees and contractors to aerially gun down nearly 200 bears from helicopters and spotting planes, despite opposition from dozens of biologists and the public.

The proposal that established this program was developed behind closed doors, and the public did not have a chance to comment before it was passed. 

As a result, 99 bears, including 20 cubs, were killed by the State’s aerial gunners in less than a month in 2023.

In 2024, the State killed 81 brown bears in one month.

The program is scheduled to continue every Spring until 2028.

The State’s Board of Game and/or the Commissioner of ADF&G can stop the program but have so far denied the requests of countless biologists and the public.

AWA has filed a lawsuit against the State for unlawfully adopting this bear control program without biological, fiscal, or public review. Learn more about our efforts, support the case, and help us tell the State that the Mulchatna bear control program is unacceptable.

The Issue

The driving factor behind the Mulchatna Predator Control program is the decline of the Mulchatna caribou herd. At its peak in 1997, the Mulchatna caribou herd reached over 200,000 animals. During this time, around 4,770 caribou a year were harvested from the herd for the subsistence needs of more than 48 local communities, providing a vital food source for rural southwest Alaska.

However, in the late 1900s and early 2000s, the herd began to decline steeply. By 2009, the herd numbered 30,000 animals. By 2019, it consisted of just 13,000 - a 94 percent decline from its peak. The population objective set by the State for the Mulchatna herd is between 30,000 and 80,000 animals; the population remains far fewer today.

In 2020, a group of State biologists were tasked with studying the vanishing herd. They found that the main reasons for the decline were disease and a lack of food. Brucellosis, a relative of mad cow disease, has decimated the herd, causing lameness, infertility, and lower birth rates. Over a third of the caribou tested at the time were infected. Likewise, climate change has slowly shifted the Mulchatna herd’s habitat. The lichen that caribou depend upon is disappearing, and the landscape is becoming more and more shrubby; prime moose habitat, but poor caribou habitat. Overpopulation and habitat damage when the herd numbered 200,000 may have also contributed to the sharp decline.

To try and save the Mulchatna herd, the State enacted a predator control program, operating under an Intensive Management law passed in 1994 that allows ADF&G to take action to manage struggling populations. One of the tools under Intensive Management is predator control, which allows the increased killing of large carnivores like wolves and bears to increase ungulate populations for hunter harvests. Despite AWA’s persistence and the overwhelming evidence that these predator control programs do not work to recover struggling moose and caribou populations, the State Board of Game continuously approves these programs.

In areas known as Predator Control Areas, ADF&G is authorized to shoot bears and wolves from helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, as well as kill predators of any sex and age. While a wolf control program has existed in the Wood-Tikchik area for years, it wasn’t until 2023 that the State adopted a bear control program as well. In the last two years, the bear control program has resulted in the killing of 175 brown bears.

However, bear predation isn’t even in the top three identified causes of mortality among the Mulchatna herd (and golden eagles have carried off more caribou calves than bears and wolves in some study years). There is no data to support that predator control programs, and the mass killings of wolves and bears, will recover the Mulchatna herd.

Instead, studies, including one on moose harvests in GMU 13 and another on wolf predation on the Nushagak Peninsula caribou herd, have shown that reducing predators doesn’t lead to an increase in ungulates. Further, wolves and bears are known to prey on weaker animals, which may have helped keep brucellosis levels down in the Mulchatna herd. By 2017, 250 wolves had been killed in the original Mulchatna predator control program; the caribou herd declined rapidly at nearly the same time.

Timeline of the recent predator control program

January 2022:

At the spring Board of Game meeting in Wasilla, Proposal 21, written and submitted by the ADF&G, requested that the Board extend the existing wolf control program for Mulchatna onto Togiak National Wildlife Refuge.

• AWA opposed the proposal because the State can’t enact predator control on Federal lands and predators are not the main problem facing the Mulchatna caribou herd. Our comments cited research from both State and Federal agencies supporting our argument.

• The Board was presented with a report from the area biologists about their Mulchatna studies. Researchers suggested that the Board reconsider the wolf program, and ADF&G biologists said the predator control program wasn’t working. Listen to the biologists’ audio report here.

• The Board deliberated on Proposal 21 in a closed-door meeting, where it was rewritten by an amendment, and then carried 7-0. There was no chance to comment on the amended proposal.

• The amended proposal:

  • Created a second predator control area for the Mulchatna caribou on Federal lands in Game Units 17 and 18. Game Unit 17 was not on the agenda for the meeting, so the amendment created a proposal with impacts out-of-cycle.

  • RC 47 amended the proposal to include Units 17A and 18 in the intensive management plan.

  • Removed 10,000 sq. mi. limitation to allow control to be conducted over a larger area if warranted.

  • Extended the plan until 2028.

  • Allowed predator control of both wolves and bears, despite the Board having no data on how many bears are in the area. The goal set by the program is to kill every bear, regardless of age or sex, within a nearly 3,000 square mile “control area” each year.

Following the meeting, the ADF&G wrote a Feasibility Assessment and Operational Plan, without any public input.

March 2023:

Nothing further was heard about the Mulchatna predator control program until March 2023, on the last day of the Board of Game meeting in Soldotna.

• ADF&G reported to the Board about the development of the predator control program and presented their Operational Plan. The operational plan stated:

  • ADF&G would fly over a nearly 3,000 square mile area in the Tikchik Basin, half of which is in Wood-Tikchik State Park, between May 10th and June 5th.

  • They would fly 2 fixed wings and 1 helicopter for 30 days, weather permitting.

  • They would aerially shoot every wolf, black bear, and brown bear they saw, regardless of sex and age classes. They estimated 15 to 25 brown bears would be killed. They estimated that 54 to 112 brown bears use the “control area” annually.

  • All hides and heads would be salvaged and shipped to Anchorage for an auction. Bristol Bay native community would identify communities who wanted brown bear meat.

Listen to the audio of the Operational Plan presentation.

Over $415,000 of State money was allocated for the planned spring predator control program removal.

May-June 2023:

ADF&G completed their first cull. They had estimated killing 15 to 25 brown bears. In under four weeks, they killed 94 brown bears, as well as 5 black bears and 5 wolves.

Alaska Wildlife Alliance filed a lawsuit against the State for unlawfully adopting a bear control program on the Mulchatna caribou calving grounds without public, biological, or fiscal review.

Public outcry against the program is overwhelming:

• OPINION: Let’s make sure the Mulchatna massacre never happens again — Tony Knowles, former two-term Governor of Alaska, ADN

• OPINION: Alaska’s game management goals for Mulchatna caribou are unrealistic — 34 retired Alaska wildlife scientists and managers, ADN

• OPINION: Alaska should discontinue its ‘intensive management’ of Mulchatna caribou — Ken Taylor, Retired Deputy Commissioner of ADF&G, ADN

• OPINION: Killing 99 bears risks credibility of Alaska’s wildlife management — Frank Rue, Commissioner of ADF&G from 1994-2002, ADN

• OPINION: Alaska’s bear slaughter is disgusting, heartbreaking - Bill Sherwonit, author of more than a dozen books, including "Alaska's Bears" and "Animal Stories: Encounters with Alaska's Wildlife."

• OPINION: Alaska’s recent brown bear massacre is a historic disgrace - Rick Steiner, conservation biologist in Anchorage and former professor at the University of Alaska for 30 years.

Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) passes a resolution in support of the predator control program at the fall 2023 meeting. Outside of the AFN meeting, communities near the control area are divided - some in support and others opposed.

Spring 2024:

ADF&G completes its second year of the Mulchatna predator control program, killing 81 brown bears and 14 wolves. Read the press release here.

What AWA is doing and how you can help us

In 2023, AWA filed a lawsuit in Alaska Superior Court against the Alaska Board of Game and Alaska Department of Fish and Game for unlawfully adopting a bear control program on the Mulchatna caribou calving grounds in southwest Alaska. The Board and ADF&G violated due process when they adopted the program, as there was no public comment period and no true proposal.

As we wait for the lawsuit to work its way through the court, AWA is reaching out to Native communities, hunters, biologists, and the public to support actions that protect southwest Alaska’s bears and help the Mulchatna herd recover.

• If you are interested in getting involved in our coalition, email us or call 907-917-9453.

• Sign up for our e-newsletter and follow us on social media to receive our Wildlife Action Alerts, which provide information on ways you can use your voice and experience to speak up for wildlife.

• Contact the Board of Game and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to encourage them to stop this program:

  • Board of Game: Stosh.hoffman@alaska.gov, Allen.barrette@alaska.gov, Jacob.fletcher@alaska.gov, Ruth.Cusack@alaska.gov, James.baichtal@alaska.gov, Jake.garner@alaska.gov, and Dave.lorring@alaska.gov

  • ADF&G: douglas.vincent-lang@alaska.gov, ben.mulligan@alaska.gov, ryan.scott@alaska.gov, and kristen.romanoff@alaska.gov

Resources and Reading List

Research Articles and Reports

• Influence of wolf predation on population momentum of the Nushagak Peninsula caribou herd, southwestern Alaska

• Agency-conducted Aerial Shooting of Bears in Alaska: Is it Justified?

• Efficacy of Killing Large Carnivores to Enhance Moose Harvests: New Insights from a Long-Term View

• February 2024 — ADFG Annual Report to the Board of Game

• Mulchatna Caribou Intensive Management Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) — December 2023

• Review of factors in public and agency predator control for Mulchatna caribou, 2012–2023

• Proposal 21 and RC47

• Predator Control Operational Plan

News Stories

• Open Season — Lois Parshley, Grist

• One of the Largest Caribou Herds in Alaska Is Careening Toward Extinction — Lindsey Botts, Sierra Club

• Fish and Game announces conclusion of predator control efforts to address massive Mulchatna caribou herd decline — Evan Erickson, KYUK

• Fish and Game kills over 100 bears and wolves to boost Mulchatna caribou numbers — Christina McDermott, KDLG Dillingham

• State wildlife officials trying to revive Southwest Alaska caribou killed almost 100 brown bears in less than a month — Zaz Hollander, ADN

• Killing wolves and bears over nearly 4 decades did not improve moose hunting, study says — Zaz Hollander, ADN

• Alaska Officials Kill Nearly 100 Brown Bears in Attempt to Boost Caribou Numbers — Dac Collins, Outdoor Life

• 94 brown bears eliminated in government predator control measure — Joe Cadotte, Alaskas News Source

• 100 Dead Bears — Craig Medred

• Government-Backed Brown Bear Culling Sparks Controversy — Eli Fournier, MeatEater

Opinion Pieces

• OPINION: Biologists dispute the state’s Mulchatna ‘intensive management’ rationale — Bill Sherwonit, ADN

• OPINION: Lamenting the State’s Kill of Wood-Tikchik Park Bears — Bill Sherwonit, ADN

• OPINION: Alaska’s bear slaughter is disgusting, heartbreaking — Bill Sherwonit, ADN

• OPINION: Alaska’s recent brown bear massacre is a historic disgrace — Rick Steiner, ADN

• Letter to the Editor: Dead bears — Marilyn Houser, ADN

• OPINION: Let’s make sure the Mulchatna massacre never happens again — Tony Knowles, former two-term AK Governor, ADN

• OPINION: Alaska’s game management goals for Mulchatna caribou are unrealistic — 34 retired AK wildlife scientists and managers, ADN

• OPINION: Alaska should discontinue its ‘intensive management’ of Mulchatna caribou — Ken Taylor, retired deputy commissioner of ADF&G, ADN

• OPINION: Killing 99 bears risks credibility of Alaska’s wildlife management — Frank Rue, commissioner of ADF&G from 1994-2002, ADN

• LETTER: Alaskans need to stand up against intensive wildlife management - Marybeth Holleman, ADN

•  OPINION: Stop the killing of Alaska’s bears - Debbie Miller, 49-year Alaska resident and the author of many nature books including Grizzly Bears of Alaska.

• OPINION: Alaska’s misguided bear control continues - Bryan Reiley, former ADF&G wildlife biologist for Unit 17, where the Mulchatna herd has its calving grounds