The Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday approved the regulations that ban hunting in Alaska’s national wildlife refuges without express permission from Washington and without proving it would serve a vital role in the conservation of the species.
“In the name of hunters and hunting, [the Alaska Board of Game] have approved shooting of brown and grizzly bears over bait; shooting mother bears with cubs, and even the cubs themselves; targeting bears and wolves from planes; and killing wolves and wolf pups in their dens,” said Fish and Wildlife Director Dan Ashe in a blog post.
The practices he is referring to are those that Palin, a former Alaska governor, has touted in support of maintaining the caribou and moose herds that rural Alaskans depend on as a food source. She was criticized by conservation groups and Democrats for supporting the hunting and shooting of wolves from helicopters.
“This is not sportsmanship,” Ashe said. “It is purportedly aimed at increasing populations of caribou and moose but defies modern science of predator-prey relationships. And finally, it is inconsistent with the laws guiding management of our National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska.”
He added that the practices are “wholly at odds with America’s long tradition of ethical, sportsmanlike, fair-chase hunting, in something they call ‘intensive predator management.'”
The regulations come in response to what Ashe called a persistent movement in the nation to give states ultimate authority over federal lands, alluding to a clause in the Republican Party’s national platform that was approved in Cleveland last month.
“Special interest groups are quietly working at the federal and state level to lay the groundwork for federally managed lands to be handed over wholesale to state or even private ownership,” he said. “Others have sought to erode federal management authority piecemeal, dealing death by a thousand cuts.
