The most commonly seen wolf pack in Denali has lost it alpha female so its unlikely that the pack will have pups this spring. She was snared by a trapper just outside the park.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/west/view/20120522trapper_lures_wolves_from_denali_kills_2_packs_future_in_doubt/srvc=home&position=recent

So sorry to read this Tim, it makes my blood boil and a snare can cause such suffering.

This is very sad and disturbing. It galls me that one guy has the right to kill a wolf like that, especially when that devastates the Grant Creek Pack that millions of people go to Denali to view. I spent some magical time with that pack in 2010 was I was there, including their adorable pups. And on top of that, that wolf killer shot a horse to bait in the wolves and left the carcass in a stream that is a water supply for local people. All of that just one mile from the park border!
I just hope the bloody Board of Game reinstates the no trapper buffer zone around the park that they should never have gotten rid of in the first place!
If there is any action we can take to get that buffer zone reestablished, please post it.

Roberta Olenick
Vancouver, BC
www.neverspook.com

The Board of Game is hopelessly pro-hunting and pro-trapping. Especially with a Republican governor. In the past few years they have moved to an even more extreme position that favors killing bears and wolves to enhance moose and caribou numbers. Of course the moose and caribou are for the benefit of hunters... who are also voters.

It is very sad to hear that both breeding females (alpha and beta) have recently been killed. The beta by natural causes near the den site and the Alpha by Coke Wallace, a trapper in winter and grader operator for Denali National Park, as well as a horse riding tour guide into the Park in the summer. The Alpha male may hold the pack together, but a new alpha female is likely to chose a den site that reduces the visibility of the pack as they travel for hunting.

In 1990, my wife and I began emphasizing wolves during our photography trips to Denali. Car camping at Wonder Lake stopped in 1988 and by 1990 wolves were being seen near the road very frequently, especially the Toklat pack. Wolves had not been introduced into Yellowstone yet and the Toklats were known as the most viewable wild wolves in America. The Toklats grew to 28 members in the mid 90's, but were reduced to only the Alpha male and female in 1998. No specific reason for the drop was known, but hunting and trapping on state land just outside the park was the only thing that could be managed.

We joined the Alaska Wildlife Alliance effort to get what was known as the Wolf Townships closed to hunting and trapping. The 4 townships of land left out of the Denali Park expansion made in the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act were intended to allow Federal and State land exchanges to solve problems that might have been overlooked in ANILCA. Those townships also included about 20% of the home range for the Toklats. This is also where the Grant Creek wolves were recently taken. It is doubtful any land exchanges will every occur and State management will not likely ever emphasize wildlife viewing or coordinated with the National Park.

After years of trying to get a closure to hunting and trapping on 320,000 acres outside the park, the Board of Game finally closed 57,000 acres on March 4, 2000. The only reason they closed the lands was because Wayne Reglin, Deputy Commissioner of Fish and Game, told them that CBS News had featured my wife and I and our efforts to protect the Toklats in their national news. The Board hoped that closing only 57,000 acres would be accepted by trappers and conservationists and allow the Board to begin aerial hunting for wolf control in other parts of the State. The CBS story is still on their web site at http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18563_162-68682.html

The minuscule closure was removed March 10, 2010. During the 2010 debates, the National Park Service finally stood in favor of keeping the closure, something they never did during the process to get the closure. However, in 2010 aerial wolf control to boost hunter success had become well established in Alaska and the BOG did not fear reprisals from removing the closure.

The Alaska Wildlife Alliance and Defenders of Wildlife are striving to get the closure reinstated, but it will be a very difficult fight under current management through the Board of Game and Alaska's legislature and Governor. Writing to the BOG would be a lost cause because they do not care what "OUTSIDERS" think, nor do they support management for wildlife viewing.

Contacting Alaska's legislators and the Governor about your positions and asking for a permanent closure of the 57,000 acres might help, and would be a permanent solution.

Legislator addresses are at http://w3.legis.state.ak.us/docs/pdf/session_phone_list.pdf and the Governor can be contacted at http://gov.alaska.gov/parnell/contact/email-the-governor.html

Those hoping to help the Alaska Wildlife Allicance should contact John Toppenberg at info@akwildlife.org or through their web site at akwildlife.org.

Thanks so much for that, Leo.

Roberta Olenick

Leo - why did he trap the wolf? Does he sell the pelts (financial motive) or is he just trying to prevent wolves from killing game animals that he wants to shoot? steve

Steve,

I believe Coke Wallace is what would be called a "SPORT TRAPPER" i.e. he does not need the money, but considers it part of the life style he wants to live. That's pretty common in Alaska and my guess is only less than 30% of the trappers in AK really need the money from pelts to surpport themselves.

I find it very poor management to have removed the buffer and allow one trapper to jeopardize the enjoyment thousands recieve from seeing this most viewed pack in Alaksa. Unfortunately the Board of Game has found ways around Alaska's constitution requirement that management be in the interest of ALL ALASKANS and that no single user group shall be favored. But by having an all hunter Board of Game, as well as all hunter/fisherment (depending on commercial fishing inductry) Communitee Advisory groups - you can see what really happens. I often wish there was a way to review and tabulate the BOG and Adisory groups votes on non-hunting requests. I think it would show over 90% voting against watchable wildlife opportunities, and any if that is true maybe the BOG system could be challenged in court.

What is most discusting to me is that in AK there is no real, or at least not enforced, timeline required to check on trapps. The Alaph female was in the snare for over a week . That is something I tried to get changed in AK, along with trappers being required to put a tag with name and address on all traps (was accomplished only in a small area near Fairbanks).

That just makes me cry, Leo, to think of her (or any animal) suffering in a trap that long. Do you know if she was still alive that whole time.
You say this guy is employed by Denali. Can they not just fire him for this, destroying needlessly an important part of the park?
I am not clear on why there is not a way to review and tabulate the BOG and Advisory groups' votes. Are there votes not public? If not, can they not be obtained through a Freedom of Information request, or whatever the equivalent is in the US? Because if that would show they are not representing all Alaskans and a court case could be fought over that, that would go a long way to protecting Alaskan wildlife.

Roberta Olenick
www.neverspook.com

Roberta

Unfortunately I believe she was still alive when the trapper returned. As to the Park Service doing something, the activity is on State land and all Federal agencies are limited as to how much they can say about what employees do on their own time - an issue taken to court when a US Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer was featured in Playboy back in the 80's.

Though this specific pack, like the Toklats before they were eliminated, are a significant opportunity for wildlife viewing in the Park, they Park has not stood up to protect sincle opportunities until the last BOG meeting on the Buffer, which they said was needed to protect this viewing opportunity offered by Denali Park. But the BOG has always been very vocal against committing any state land/resource to further federal management. They feel the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 put way to much "STATE RESOURCES" under federal control and closed way to much land to hunting. They are against managing populations based on their need (i.e. home range etc.) and that is why they say 'Denali is already 6,000,000 acres HOW MUCH MORE DO YOU NEED !!!!".

It likely would be possible for someone to get the records of the BOG and Advisory Committees and conduct a review of voting records and develop a case that could be presented to courts. But that would be a very expensive and time consuming chore and all the conservation groups are to deeply involved in protecting lands and do not have the resources to commit to such a task. If any individual or private group steps up to take on this task, I am sure that "Trustees of Alaska" (a group made up mainly of lawyers) would be willing to advise and help establish the contacts needed.

Hope this helps. Leo

Thanks, Leo. I will contact Earthjustice and see what they say about a court action. I could help them fund such a venture.
Hopefully that poor alpha female was caught the same day that evil trapper checked the snare.

Roberta Olenick
www.neverspook.com

According to the Nat Park Service, as of today:
"Wolves
The Nenana River pack is denning near mile 7 again this year and dog
walkers have been asked not to go farther than mile 6.5 as indicated by the
first closure sign. The Grant Creek pack is denning in the same location
as last year on the East Fork River. A pair of wolves has been seen
frequently in Igloo Canyon/Forest. We ask that you report any wolf
sightings or curious behavior."

Hey Tom,

Thanks for the update, appreciated.

Leo/Roberta

One report I saw said the wolf had been in the trap a week or so, and had been fed on by wolverine/s.

Also, just to be clear for folks who don't know, the 6million acres of Denali NP is mostly NOT closed to hunting and/or trapping. It's only in the old part of the original part of the park, established well before ANILCA. I think that area is under 2m acres, and much of THAT land is rock and ice of the Alaska Range, Mt McKinley, etc. So it's really not the great protection of wilderness and wild lands that it's often portrayed as.

Cheers

Carl

Thanks for that info, Carl.
So if she had been fed on by wolverines, she must have been dead then when he finally checked the trap, right? And that also means she died for no purpose whatsoever, not even of benefit to the trapper since presumably her hide would have been ruined by the wolverines, yes? Though Leo says above that she was alive when found. Would wolverines feed on a living wolf? (Maybe she was too weak to stop them?) How can you determine, even, how long an animal has been in a trap? (I like to think that if someone determined that by seeing her there, they would do something about it, at least euthanize her. I hope even trappers and the BOG members would be in favour of that at least.)
Also disturbing that the park does not have as much protection as is generally assumed. Certainly weakens the case for those claiming there is no need for a no trapping buffer since the wildlife has 6 million safe acres to roam inside park boundaries.

Roberta Olenick
www.neverspook.com

Carl,

A slight correction to what part of Denali is still open. The majority of the addition made by ANILCA is closed to hunting, only the lands designated "PRESERVE" lands are open. Preserve lands were established only in the Northwest and Southwest corners of the park are are about 1.5 million acres (just guessing). The "BUFFER" was on the east side within the 4 townships that intrude into the Park.

Here is a link to a map showing the preserve lands. http://www.nps.gov/dena/parkmgmt/upload/DENALI%20NATIONAL%20PARK%20AND%20PRESERVE%20HUNTING%20INFORMATION.pdf

As to if the wolf was alive or dead, trapping with snares is intended to catch the animal around the neck and choke it to death. However it is my understanding that most often they are caught by the leg, or in the middle of the body and thus are still alive when the trapper returns. I do not know for sure if she was still alive, sorry if I am wrong, which I hope.

I saw a report about the amount of fat remaining in her boddy and though she was slinder and not much, if any fat stored along the upper back, the doc. that did the neocropsie said that the amount of fat around the organs was normal.

It was good to hear from Tom that they appear to be using the same den site, so likely there was more than just the two females thought to breed. Hope they are successful and that viewing them continues.

Roberta. Got your e-mail from your web site neverspook.com. Loved the site and your great work BTW. Will send you an e-mail to that addrress once I gather my thoughts, and recall a lot of wolf mgt. history, on what might be done.

Leo

Leo

Are you sure about that? My understanding is the preserve is open to 'sport' hunting and trapping, but the park additions are open to subsistence hunting and trapping: from the pdf you linked it even says that:



The park is "divided" into 3 regions: the original "wilderness", the ANILCA addition as as "park" and the ANILCA additions as "preserve". The ONLY area off limits to all hunting and trapping is the original wilderness, roughly 2m acres.

The article I read where a NPS official mentioned the trapped wolf had been fed on by wolverine/s was the same one, I think, that mentioned the neocropsy and fat tissue information. But it wasn't clear, to me at least, whether the park official was referring to this one wolf or a 2nd one that was also dead. My understanding was that he was talking about the wolf Coke Wallace trapped, but I could be wrong.

With this wolf, and the 3-legged bear running around the park that clearly looks like it lost his paw in a snare, as well as a the 2 wolves that had snares around their necks a few years, this sort of thing seems to be increasing in scale.

Cheers

Carl

Carl, when you say 'the ANILCA additionas as "park" and the ANILCA additions as "park" ', do you mean 'the ANILCA additionas as "park" and the ANILCA additions as "preserve"?

Can you provide a link to the article discussing the article/report on the necropsy done of that poor wolf? I would like to read it and am also curious about why a necropsy was done at all. I am sure that is not done on every animal (among the too many) killed in Alaska.

Leo, I will look forward to your email. Thanks for your kind comments on my website.

Roberta Olenick
www.neverspook.com

Roberta

Yes, thanks, corrected.

I'd have to look for it .. I think it was on adn.com. It may have been referring to a 2nd wolf that had a radio collar on it.

Cheers

Carl

sorry - latimes

article

"On the other hand, said Denali National Park biologist Tom Meier, wild wolves are often on the thin side, especially in the spring, after a hard winter.

The wolf that died in Coke's snare, he said, had plenty of internal fat, though admittedly not much surface fat. "Coke's wolf was in a trap for a week and was scavenged by a wolverine before he ever even saw it," Meier told the Times. "These wolves aren't starving.""

Cheers

Carl

Carl,

You are correct about there being huning in the "PARK" and not just the "PRESERVE" as I had originally stated. I forgot about the Federal Subsistence hunting. Under Federal Subistence Hunting any preson can take 10 wolves from lands added to the Park in 1980.

For those interested, here are a couple links on subsistence hunting in Alaska. I know this will appear strange that there are federal regulations for hunting in Alaska. Unfortunately by Alaska law, every hunter in Alaska is considered a subsistence hunter and ANILC 1980 gave preference for hunting to "RURAL" residents. When Alaska did not adjust it's law, the federal government took over priority management of fish and game on FEDERAL LANDS. State regulations can be applied only when there is an excess beyond what is needed to meet rural needs. Here are some links. http://www.nps.gov/dena/parkmgmt/hunting.htm
http://alaska.fws.gov/asm/pdf/wildregs/unit13.pdf