Sarah Palin's Board of Game

Sarah Palin's appointed Board of Game announced new guidelines in a predator control program that now allows the use of paw snares to catch and kill bears, and helicopters for access.

Under the new guidelines, hunters can use snares to trap black bears in a specific area and can access the area via private helicopters. As for wolves, state employees are now authorized to use poison gas to kill wolf pups, orphaned after aerial hunting, in their dens.

Most existing wolf-kill programs have been renewed.

Overall, the program is designed to remove enough predators to allow other animals, such as moose and caribou, to rebound and flourish.

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Instead of implementing such an intensive predator control program, why don't they ban trophy hunting of moose and caribou, allowing subsistence hunting only?

The Board of Game has many members connected to the powerful Alaska Outdoors Council, which places strong emphasis on sport and commercial hunting.

"We are an association of clubs and individual members. Together with our sister organizations – the Alaska Fish & Wildlife Conservation Fund, the Alaska Trust Fund, and the Hunter Heritage Foundation of Alaska - we work through advocacy, education and research to promote responsible outdoor recreation, conserve our natural resources, and protect Alaskans’ rights to enjoy our great outdoors.

The AOC is the official State Association of the National Rifle Association. We work hand in hand with the NRA, doing at the state level, what the NRA does on the national level, to protect your Second Amendment Rights, promote gun safety and encourage participation in the shooting sports."

Another snippet from the AOC website:

"Up for Grabs"- Hunting, trapping, fishing, and motorized access to public lands in Alaska are all up for grabs in the current political arena. “Up for grabs” means whoever expends the greatest energy, money, or ingenuity and sticks with it wins. Regulations propagated by Alaska’s administrative staff, department heads, and appointed Boards have a great influence on whether you are going to have any fish or game to harvest and where, plus how you will be allowed to go about harvesting your wildfood source.

Some of their views:

• Oppose laws that give a preference to users based on residency, culture or ethnic background
• Attempts by individuals or organizations to obtain tribal government control over lands in Alaska must be recognized and proclaimed as a threat to a) effective management of fish, game and other resources; and b) equitable allocation of fish and game stocks.
• Oppose federal recognition of Indian country in Alaska.
• Oppose the use of public funds to promote Indian country recognition.

They're not very keen on protected subsistence hunting rights for rural villagers...

I obtained these prices from a random hunting club :

Day hunt for a single species
Moose $10,500
Grizzly Bear $8,500
Brown Bear $12,500

Combination hunts (add the species above to the species price below)
Black bear $2,500
Wolf $750

Rates from another site:
Trophy Fee on Grizzly Bear $9750, Moose $9450, Caribou $6800. These prices are on top of the $19,500 all inclusive (licenses, air charter, G.S.T. and meat flight) for the hunt.

If there's this much money to be made from organized hunts, no wonder the Board of Game makes rules to protect their mates hunting rights and take every step to ensure there's plenty of prey for their hunts. They profit from hunting under the guise of predator control as well.

Who pays the price for their enjoyment and profits?

The bears, the wolves and the native subsistence hunters.

Article about guidelines.
Link to the AOC website.
To read other posts about Board of Game, Predator Control, appointments to the board, the "science" of predator management, and what you can do to help, click on the links.
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