Pilots apply to participate in aerial wolf hunt

FAIRBANKS - Bob Magnuson considers it his "civic duty" to kill a wolf every now and then.

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That's why he's planning to apply for a permit to shoot wolves from his airplane this winter after the Alaska Board of Game approved the state's first aerial wolf-hunting program in more than 15 years.

"If you take a moose, you should take a wolf or five wolves," said Magnuson, a pilot who owns an air taxi service in the Bush village of McGrath. "You gotta maintain a balance."

The program is intended to increase the number of moose for local subsistence hunters. The state wants to remove 40 wolves from a 2,200-square-mile area east of McGrath, the same area it captured and moved more than 80 bears from earlier this year before the moose calving season.

Alaska voters essentially banned aircraft-assisted, land-and-shoot wolf hunting in ballot measures in 1996 and 2000, and although regulations allowing state biologists to shoot wolves from the air for predator control remain on the books, Gov. Frank Murkowski has refused to let state employees do the work.

The Alaska Legislature earlier this year passed a law allowing private citizens to participate in state-sponsored predator control programs.

Joel Bennett of Juneau, a former game board member, helped organize the two ballot measures, which he said 60 percent to 70 percent of Juneau residents favored.

"The fundamental concern is we had two statewide votes on this subject of aerial shooting, whether by the state or by private persons detailed by the state," Bennett said. "I'm disturbed by this Legislature, especially with the governor, signing off on it. I mean, how many times do the people have to vote on this?"

Bennett said the issue isn't hunting wolves, but the fairness of hunting them from the air and the difficulty of retrieving the killed animals for their pelts. He also said there isn't a biological emergency justifying the wolf killings.

Officials don't know how many permits will be issued or who will get them at this point, said Matt Robus, director of the state's wildlife conservation division.

Permit applications became available beginning Tuesday. Pilots will have to detail their qualifications, he said.

"It's not like we have exact criteria," he said. "Obviously, (pilots) will need to know how to handle an airplane low and slow. It's not your everyday point-to-point flying."

Pilots will have to demonstrate a high level of flying skill, previous experience hunting wolves and knowledge of the area they will be hunting in, said Robus.

"We're going to start fairly conservative," he said. "We're going to put a small number of people out there to start and see how harvest goes. "If we find out there's not much effort and it's resulting in a harvest lower than what we want to achieve, we'll adjust the number of permits."

Robus said the state will maintain a waiting list of qualified pilots.

The game board also is expected to approve an aerial wolf-hunting program in the Nelchina Basin south of Fairbanks, another area where moose populations have plummeted while wolf packs have thrived.

The board approved the Nelchina plan in its meeting two weeks ago, but a technicality prevented it from being put in the regulation books. The board is expected to approve that program during a special meeting next month. The program could begin in January.

The state is targeting between 100 and 130 wolves to be taken from the 7,800-square-mile region. While permits are available, the state doesn't expect much hunting to take place yet. The best hunting is in the spring when the days are longer and the snow is deep, making it harder for wolves to get around.

"We recognize conditions don't get good until daylight starts coming back, but the board was interested in getting this program up on its feet so we could get something going when conditions do get favorable," Robus said.

The game board approved the plan despite the threat of a tourism boycott by animal conservation groups, the same tactic that prompted then-Gov. Wally Hickel to eliminate an aerial wolf-control plan in the early 1990s.

• Eric Fry of the Empire staff contributed to this report.