The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (Department) has sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to allow the Department to kill wolves on Unimak Island in order to protect a declining caribou herd, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The FWS, however, counters that the island, the easternmost in the Aleutian chain, is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and, therefore, an environmental assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act must be completed before any action can take place. On June 7, a federal judge denied the Department an injunction to allow the predator management to occur during this caribou-calving season.

The caribou on Unimak Island are the only naturally occurring island caribou herd in the nation, and represents the southwesternmost extension of natural caribou range on the North American continent. The herd has decreased from 1,260 animals in 2002 to about 400 animals today, with only about 20 bulls remaining on the island. According to the state, the causes of this rapid decline are unknown but it is continuing in part due to high levels of predation on newborn calves resulting in a prolonged period of poor calf recruitment. Although wolves and grizzly bears are known predators of caribou calves, the Department has determined that wolf predation is the primary cause of reduced calf numbers. All hunting, including subsistence hunting, has been prohibited by the state since March 2009 and by federal authorities since July 2009.

The Department first notified the FWS refuge manager of the declining herd in December 2009. On May 20, it sent the FWS a letter announcing the state's intention to begin a predator-control operation on the island starting on or about June 1. On May 24, the FWS responded to the letter stating that the proposed predator-management program requires a special-use permit from the FWS and is considered a significant action since aerial predator control has not been conducted on national wildlife refuge lands in Alaska in recent history. The letter further stated that "Conducting any such activity without a special use permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would be a violation of the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act, as amended, and considered as a trespass on the Refuge; and would be immediately referred to the United States Attorney."

Alaska officials filed suit on May 28 and requested a preliminary injunction in order to immediately remove seven wolves?the number determined by biologists to maintain the herd at its current levels while the lawsuit proceeds?during this year's calving season to protect caribou neonates from predation.

"The actions of Fish and Wildlife have set the stage for the worst possible outcome?the potential disappearance of this caribou herd and a total loss of subsistence opportunity in the area for the foreseeable future," said Denby Lloyd, commissioner of Fish and Game. ?"We pushed as hard as we could, recognizing that time was running out fast, but I wasn't going to put my employees into a situation in which the federal government prosecutes them for carrying out their state responsibilities."

At a hearing on June 7, U.S. District Judge H. Russel Holland refused to grant the injunction to the state. The judge said that, while sympathetic to the state's argument, he had to abide by law when ruling against the state's request, "Somebody's governmental pride will be bruised here and there is no avoiding that. ?It is the federal agency's prerogative to decide what they have decided. "

After the ruling, the FWS announced that it will issue a special-use permit to the Department to authorize the translocation to Unimak Island of 20 bull caribou from the Southern Alaska Peninsula Caribou Herd on the Alaska Peninsula.

"The State has stressed the urgency of both predator control and bull translocations in part because of the belief that the low bull-cow ratio on Unimak and the island's aging population of bulls will lead to increasingly poorer calf production in future years," the FWS announced in a written statement. ?"We believe this is an important first step that can be taken while the NEPA process is being completed, which will insure that further appropriate, scientifically-justified management actions can be taken." ?(jas)