Down to less than 50 in count, the Wolves of Denali National Park in Alaska cannot get a closed minded State Fish & Game Dept. to cut them some slack and keep in place a "buffer" outside the Park that would prevent shooting and trapping of them taking place.............Excuses reign supreme in Alaska when it comes to Carnivore protection...........Someone should get the State Commission to read up on how "buffers" can keep wolf populations intact in our shrinking wilderness world---SEE ALGONQUIN PROVINCIAL PARK BUFFER HISTORY RESEARCH BELOW BY TRENT UNIVERSITY WOLF BIOLOGIST LINDA RUTLEDGE,,,,,,,,,,,,In Linda's words: "Since the harvest ban in townships surrounding Algonquin Provincial Park, (ie. the establishment of buffer zones), wolf density has remained relatively constant even though human-caused mortality has significantly decreased" ............... "Even in a relatively large protected area, human harvesting outside park boundaries can affect evolutionarily important social patterns within protected areas"............... "This research demonstrates the need for conservation policy to consider effects of harvesting beyond influences on population size"

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Wolf hunt to resume Monday near Alaska's Denali National Park

Laurel Andrews

August 9, 2015

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Bob Hallinen

Wolf hunting will resume Monday on state lands northeast of Denali National Park and Preserve amid calls by conservationist groups to reinstate the long-disputed “wolf buffer” near the park.

In mid-May, Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten had closed the corridor outside the park to wolf hunting two weeks before the end of the season after two wolves were shot legally near the Stampede Trail.

RELATED: 

As wolf hunt near Denali looms, state rejects calls for another emergency ban

Denali National Park wolf count drops below 50

In the emergency order, Cotten wrote that changes in regulations that allowed bear hunting at baiting stations in the spring had “increased the chance of wolves that primarily inhabit the park being taken as they venture on to adjacent lands.”

Cotten’s decision to close the area early was made so Fish and Game could consider the “potential unanticipated effect” of new bear hunting regulations “without the controversy or hype” that would surround another wolf taken in May, the state's wildlife conservation director, Bruce Dale, told the Board of Game Friday. Bear hunting is only allowed in the spring, and will not occur when the land re-opens, Dale said.

On Friday, Dale confirmed that the northeast corridor would reopen to wolf hunting on Monday, Aug. 10.

In terms of wolf population, “there’s never been a biological concern expressed by either the Park Service … (and) certainly not by the state of Alaska,” Dale told the Board of Game during the meeting.

The issue is one of allocation, Dale wrote in an email, between hunters and viewers who head to Denali National Park and Preserve to see wildlife.

The issue stems from a contentious decision in 2010 in which the Board of Game removed a buffer zone around the northeast periphery of Denali National Park where wolf hunting and trapping was prohibited and had been in place since 2000.

Meanwhile, the number of wolves in the park reached a new low this spring with an estimated population of only 48 -- the lowest since autumn of 1986 and the lowest on record for any spring count, according to a report issued by the park.

There has been significant disagreement regarding what’s causing the wolf population to decline.

The park’s April report said that the causes are unknown, although several factors may be involved; low snowfall during recent winters reducing the vulnerability of moose and caribou to predation; poor pup success; and mortality of wolves "from both human and natural causes."

Environmental activist Rick Steiner, a scientist and founder of the group Oasis Earth, argued that with wolves dying of natural causes, the human element should be removed.

“That’s a risk that should be eliminated immediately,” he said.

“These are million-dollar animals,” Steiner said, referring to their appeal for visitors traveling to Denali National Park. “They should be protected and allowed to survive in their natural setting in the public. That’s the mandate of the park.”

When the buffer was removed in 2010, the Game Board also placed a moratorium on revisiting the issue until 2016. Now, due to changes in board processes, that date has been pushed back another year, until 2017.

The Alaska Wildlife Alliance and Denali Citizens Council on Friday asked the board to consider the issue at the March 2016 meeting. “The wolves that den and spend much of their time in Denali National Park are a scientifically, socially, culturally and economically valuable wildlife resource highly valued by both Alaskans and visitors,” the request states.

The Board of Game voted against the request, with vice-chair Nate Turner the only member to vote in favor of revisiting the issue in 2016. Thus, the moratorium will remain in place until 2017.

Board of Game chairman Ted Spraker told the board that he “really struggled with this.”

“I see good arguments on both sides of the issue. I wish that there was a good fix for this,” Spraker said.

Steiner's group was one of several that in 2013 requested a permanent wildlife conservation buffer for the state lands. Steiner met with Gov. Bill Walker, Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott and Cotten last month to talk about the easement.

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Ontario's Algonquin Provincial Park Buffer Zone Success Story Sets an Example for British Columbia

Wolf biologist Dr. Linda Rutledge has been researching eastern wolves in Ontario's Algonquin Provincial Park since a permanent harvest ban on wolves and coyotes was implemented around the provincial park in 2001. Her findings show that: "allowing wolves to express their natural social behaviour benefits ecosystems". 

The harvest ban, or buffer zones, prevent the harvest of wild canids in every township surrounding the park. It resulted after decades of research by John and Mary Theberge indicated that the wolf population in Algonquin relied on unprotected wolves outside of the park to keep the population stable. The exploited wolves had smaller territories, more dispersers, less cooperative hunting methods, and mixed family relations compared to post-ban wolves who functioned more as a family unit, shared bloodlines and died from natural causes.

Algonquin Park Eastern Wolf

Thanks to scientific research and public pressure, the ban was imposed and has proven to be a model for protected areas in North America, with biologists from Yellowstone as well as the Canadian Mountain National Parks recognizing the need to follow suit. 

Current wolf research indicates that protection of wolf habitat beyond park boundaries is critical, as indicated by Linda Rutledge and her team in 2009:

      "Legal and illegal killing of animals near park boundaries can significantly increase the threat of extirpation of populations living within ecological reserves, especially for wide-ranging large carnivores that regularly travel into unprotected areas".

​ Since the harvest ban in townships surrounding Algonquin Provincial Park, (ie. the establishment of buffer zones), wolf density has remained relatively constant even though human-caused mortality has significantly decreased . The study done by Rutledge et al. in 2009 is evidence that​:

     "even in a relatively large protected area, human harvesting outside park boundaries can affect evolutionarily important social patterns within  protected areas. This research demonstrates the need for conservation policy to consider effects of harvesting beyond influences on population size".