Controversial wolf season extended for Prince of Wales Island

Monday afternoon update: Juneau Superior Court Judge Daniel Schally rejected filings for an injunction that would block the three-week trapping season that opens on November 15.

Original story: Federal and state wildlife managers announced on Friday they would extend the wolf harvest on Prince of Wales Island. That’s following a contentious  hearing in which island resident hunters said too many wolves were preying on deer.

This comes as conservationists have filed a lawsuit to stop the controversial harvest following an unprecedented number of wolves legally killed last season.

Tongass National Forest Supervisor Earl Stewart opened an October 29 telephone hearing with about 100 people on the line.

“It’s really important that we hear from rural users on the importance of wolf to game management unit 2 and to those users that rely on that resource,” Stewart said.

He got an earful. One by one resident hunters and trappers told wildlife managers were under-counting wolves: state and federal officials recently released their fall 2019 estimate of 316 wolves in and around Prince of Wales.

“These wolves definitely are far from endangered on this island — far from it,” Joshua Peavey testified. “It’s the worst I’ve ever seen. It’s worse anybody’s ever seen. I just want to know how you guys come up with the numbers. Because it’s all B.S.”

Other wolf trappers were more tactful.

“I don’t want you guys to think that we all want them all to die because we don’t you know, they’re really cool animals,” said Samuel Sawyer, who identified himself as lifelong island resident. But he says hunters like him are finding venison scarce — and it’s not for sport.

“I can’t go to the grocery store and pay $8.99 for a pound of hamburger — it’s just unrealistic,” Sawyer said. “And then we have to worry about the wolf killing all the deer then what are we supposed to do?”

Federal and state officials apparently listened. On November 6, they announced they’d extend the trapping season by five days for a full three-week opportunity.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s regional wildlife supervisor Tom Schumacher said on Friday that managers took another look at their data. And they feel trapping could be safely allowed from November 15 to December 5.

“It’ll allow a little bit more opportunity,” Schumacher told CoastAlaska. “But we think that that will also result in a sustainable harvest. And we’ll be able to keep our wolf population within our harvest or a management objective of 150 to 200 wolves in the fall population.”

The state is also agreeing to open up a five day hunting period: with a five wolf bag limit.

Trapping is more controversial because the season has no bag limits and it’s more efficient. That’s a key piece of context in the wolf debate. Last year wildlife managers dropped its season quotas. And after eliminating the hard limits, residents took a record 165 wolves in the area — mostly by trapping.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang told residents on the October 29 call that level of killing is unsustainable. But no cause for alarm.

“We remain convinced that the Southeast left the wolf population remains healthy,” the commissioner said, “and that the population is not threatened with extinction now or in the foreseeable future on our management approach.”

Conservationists have already filed a lawsuit accusing the state of violating its constitutional mandate to keep wildlife sustainable.

“Adding season length to the intended two weeks makes matters worse in our view,” said former Board of Game member Joel Bennett of Juneau, a  plaintiff in the lawsuit. “They are playing Russian roulette with Prince of Wales wolves. How can they control the harvest to prevent what happened last season.”

But on Monday, Judge Schally denied a preliminary injunction that would’ve halted the season just six days before it’s slated to open. His ruling did not dismiss the lawsuit, which is still active and will require an answer from state attorneys.

Separately, The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a petition — the third since the 1990s — seeking federal protections for Southeast’s subspecies of grey wolves.

The center’s Oakland, California-based biologist Shaye Wolf testified that commercial logging’s destruction of habitat,  not wolves are to blame for the scarcity of deer.

“The key reason why deer are declining on Prince of Wales is because of the past like legacy and ongoing legacy of clear cut logging of old growth forest,” she said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has already blown past a 90-day deadline to respond to the petition. But state officials say they expect it to formally respond early next year.

If the feds add protections for wolves, it’ll greatly change how they’re managed. Hunting and trapping would be greatly restricted. And almost all development on federal lands would have to take into account potential impacts to the wolves critical habitat.

This article has been update to add Monday’s court decision, correct a transcription error and add the updated audio version of the story.