Urgent! Stop wolf killing plan in Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness in Alaska
Kathy Kilmer, The Wilderness Society
The Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) is pushing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to allow aerial hunting of adult wolves – and gassing of pups in their dens – on Unimak Island, 98% of which is designated Wilderness. Unimak Island is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.
Help us stop this outrageous proposal. Take action now.
Unimak, part of the Aleutian Islands 700 miles southwest of Anchorage, is an island so wild that 98% of it is designated Wilderness. It’s marked by towering volcanoes, soaring bluffs with surf booming beneath, forest and tundra. Marine mammals inhabit its waters and coasts, migratory birds use its headlands and wetlands, and it is home to brown bear, wolves, wolverines, and caribou.
Help us protect this Wilderness and the wildlife that live there. Click here to take action.
ADFG has asked the US Fish and Wildlife Service to allow the killing of wolves on Unimak Island because the number of caribou on the island is dropping. The state of Alaska would like to boost the caribou herd for various reasons, including for the benefit of big-game hunting.
But neither the US Fish and Wildlife Service or the Alaska Department of Fish and Game know the cause of the caribou herd’s decline.
More information is needed before the Fish and Wildlife Service makes its final decision. While wolf predation may be part of the reason the herd is faltering, other elements such as climate change, forage availability, habitat, and/or disease may be affecting the herd, and these issues have not been sufficiently analyzed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should not rush to kill wolves when it has too little information to effectively address the problem. Moreover, allowing this type of hunt in designated Wilderness within a National Wildlife Refuge sets a dangerous precedent.
These wolves inhabit designated Wilderness lands owned by all Americans. Please take action now to ensure that any management efforts are based on sound, scientific rationale in this Wilderness. Once you’ve taken action, be sure to contact friends and spread the word.
Thanks for all you do!
Sincerely,
Kathy Kilmer
The Wilderness Society
Aerial shooting of wolves on a national wildlife refuge?
Act now to stop this outrageous plan!
Jan. 28, 2011