170 POW Wolves My Ass!

This article actually bears good news for Prince of Wales. On the heals of many complaints from residents of Prince of Wales over the growing wolf population, the ADF&G and the Federal Subsistence Board have opened up the trapping season for wolves this year from a strict quota system that limited the amount of time one could trap. To a special two months period:

The new wolf harvest strategy, built on the cooperative spirit among the ADF&G, the Federal Subsistence Board, and GMU 2 hunters and trappers, offers the full two months of wolf trapping opportunity allowed under the management plan for the 2019-2020 season. State and federal trapping seasons will both open on Nov. 15, 2019, and close on Jan. 15, 2020. The federal wolf hunting season in GMU 2 opened on September 1, 2019, but the state wolf hunting season will not open until Dec. 1, 2019. State and federal GMU 2 wolf hunting seasons will also close on January 15, 2020. Hunters and trappers are reminded that the goal of the new GMU 2 wolf harvest management strategy is to maintain the fall wolf population within the range of 150-200 wolves.

Of course the released report (which you may read in full below) had to slip in that their last population estimates was only 170 wolves:

Data collected from October through December 2018 resulted in a GMU 2-wide population estimate of 170 wolves, with high confidence that the actual number of wolves in GMU 2 prior to the autumn 2018 hunting and trapping seasons was within the range, 147 to 202 wolves. This is the most current population estimate. The autumn 2018 estimate was lower than estimates in fall 2016 (231 wolves) and fall 2017 (225 wolves), but well within the population objective range of 150-200 wolves established by the Board of Game. Under the new harvest management plan, when the most current population estimate (170) is within the objective range (150-200) the trapping season may be up to two months long.

While locals have howled to the Federal and State Managers that there are WAY MORE THAN 170 WOLVES on the island and the managers stubbornly admit they can't properly record the wolf population because aerial surveys are impractical. They keep maintaining that their "DNA-based mark-recapture technique" gives them a "high confidence that the actual number of wolves in GMU 2 prior to the autumn 2018 hunting and trapping seasons was within the range, 147 to 202 wolves." Rumors from the locals are that these "DNA-based mark-recapture techniques are nothing more than fur samples from near the highways and road systems. If that is the case, then the fact that the wolves are so close and near the road-systems already, is a mark of over-population.

Regardless.

While a tag system is still in place to maintain the target wolf population to 150-200, the extension of a two month period puts less stress on trappers to make their limits in case of bad weather Global Warming. POW Report would like to thank District Ranger Scot Shuler and others who listened to the locals and did what they could, within their power, to help trappers and hunters have an effective Alaskan experience.

Importantly:

The board also changed the wolf sealing period, the ADF&G monitoring process of placing a tag or seal on harvested animals, in Unit 2 to within 30 days of the end of the season.

Full Document:

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