Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce once said, “It does not require many words to speak the truth.”
Gov. Sean Parnell’s Board of Game is a sham; its goal is to put moose and caribou populations on steroids by expanded killing of wolves and bears by whatever methods they can get away with. The long-term health of the ecosystem is irrelevant to this Board of Game.
Voltaire once said, “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
I demand that Parnell declare an immediate moratorium on predator control until the state of Alaska’s scientific justification has been peer-reviewed by an independent group of scientists.
John Johnson
Anchorage
Comments (6)
Add commentLETTER
Well written and truthful letter. Total game management like the board wishes to do is WRONG!
Not really a science problem
The Board of Game is using peer-reviewed science to base its predator control policies on. But rarely does peer-reviewed science help make what comes down to a societal decision in the case of aggressive predator control to boost populations of subsistence species. There are trade-offs with conducting such a program, which the science can help define, but that is about the extent of what science can do. And to be fair, there are trade-offs with not conducting such a program, which science could also describe, but we (the public) often ask science to do too much, and I think that is the case here with Mr. Johnson's letter.
If the membership of the Board were changed, it may come to a different decision on the issue of aggressive predator control practices in Alaska, but the scientific literature on the topic would not.
Is this the John Johnson of
Is this the John Johnson of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance?
Pure politics and ideology at play here.
Here's a tidbit from his website - "Palin's wildlife cartel represents the greatest circumnavigation of ethics, truth, science and morality ever perpetrated on the people of Alaska by their government."
To not use too many words...
If we updated the constitution to give the BOG the mandate to 'manage for maximum diversity' instead of for 'maximum sustainable yield' (presumably for humans) - perhaps we could have an elegant solution for this sticky issue.
How True
"Palin's wildlife cartel represents the greatest circumnavigation of ethics, truth, science and morality ever perpetrated on the people of Alaska by their government."
I thought that Palin's platform was that she put an end to 'old boy' cronyism.
I guess I misunderstood her, what she meant was that she got rid of those old corrupt bastards to bring in some of her own choosing.
Foxes in Hen House
Corey Rossi and Bob Bell and Cliff Judkins--current Chair of the Alaska Board of Game--have a predator-like mentality when it comes to their trophies that is NOT unlike those of notorious serial killers like John Wayne Gacy or Jeffery Dahmer. That Rossi would make a fiberglass replica of the musk ox horns he had to destroy illustrates the point. They are just sick.
And Cliff Judkins is a known poacher of coyotes. His attempt to change the rules to allow subsistence hunters to keep their horns means he is unsuitable to serve on Alaska's Board of Game in any capacity. The same goes for the rest of Sean Parnell's and Sarah Palin's BOG appointments. They have absolutely polluted game management in Alaska.