Brown bear cub running
We 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 program resulted in the State killing of 99 bears (including 11 cubs) from helicopters and airplanes in less than a month, with no scientific justification or public input. The Alaska Wildlife Alliance seeks: a declaration that the Board of Game failed to meet its constitutional requirements for due process, a declaration that the Department of Fish and Game failed to provide the necessary information to properly institute bear control consistent with sustained yield, and requests an injunction to halt the bear control program until it complies with the law and the Constitution.
Read Lois Parshley’s article in Grist Magazine for more information on the issue and our lawsuit.
We need $50,000 to bring this case to bear.
A few generous donors have come together to match all donations up to $40,000. If you donate to our Wildlife Defense Fund, your contribution will be doubled.
Map of Mulchatna wolf and bear predator control areas, from ADFG Predator Control Operational Plan
Our suit focuses on the Wasilla Board of Game meeting in January 2022. There, the board heard a proposal to expand an existing wolf control program onto the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge. After public comment closed, the Board amended the proposal to create a new six-year bear control program for black and brown bears on Wood Tikchik State Park and surrounding state lands. This was done despite the fact that bears were never mentioned in the original proposal. Additionally, there was no opportunity for the public or state biologists to comment on adding bears to the predator control program, nor did the Board hear any reports or presentations from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on bear populations in the region before adopting the proposal. In fact, the Department of Fish and Game has never conducted a bear population survey in the area. Nonetheless, the department now plans to kill all black and brown bears that wander into the Mulchatna calving grounds each year until 2028.
Brown bears graze on tundra blueberries.
Our lawsuit claims that the proposal addressing wolf management was improperly amended to include bears without necessary consideration and without regard to state due process requirements for public notice and an opportunity for the public to be heard. This failure on the part of the Board of Game resulted in the Alaska Department of Fish and Game unlawfully killing ninety-four brown bears and five black bears.
“This program should alarm any Alaskan interested in our state’s wildlife management. The State’s aerial killing of 99 bears this spring was made possible by a wolf proposal that magically morphed into a new bear control program lasting until 2028, funded by hundreds of thousands of State dollars. If the Board is allowed to completely re-write proposals and pass them without public input, then trust in the State’s wildlife management system collapses.” - Nicole Schmitt, executive director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance.
Our case is represented by Former Board of Game member, Joel Bennett, and Juneau-based attorney, Joseph Geldhof.
“With this egregious mass shooting of a valuable public resource, the state has run roughshod over the rights of its citizens, and will be held accountable for its wrongs.”
The Alaska Wildlife Alliance is a grassroots, nonprofit organization founded by Alaskans in 1978. The organization commented and testified at the January 2022 Board of Game meeting on multiple wildlife issues, including on Mulchatna wolf control. Alaska Wildlife Alliance advocates for healthy ecosystems, scientifically and ethically managed to protect our wildlife for present and future generations. We are a member-supported organization that relies on donations to do our work. Thank you to the members and volunteers who make our work possible!
