First off yes I posted this in the Alaska Forum, but it needs to be here as well so everyone knows what is happening.
Was talking to a Guide this week about hunting and areas not to bother with. We both agree, there is large expanses of land with no game what so ever. I have crossed mountains and gone into valleys where there was not a track of Moose, Caribou, Sheep, or Bear. Just an occasinal old Wolf track. I've gone into the mountains in Febuary, after our last snow was in December. There I found no tracks of any thing but birds. No Moose, and that was surprising. I spent three days looking for tracks and found old Wolf tracks and trails crossing the area.
I came back and questioned the biologist about it. They just shrug their shoulders and say maybe the game moves out during the winter. No that area is prime winter Moose habitate. Go in during the summer and still no game. Go there during the fall and no game. The only thing I see is old wolf tracks. The Biologist just shrugs their shoulders and say some areas just don't suport game.
Talked with old guides, and old retired Biologist. They tell me those areas used to be teaming with wildlife, back in the 60s and early 70s. Back then the Guides and Natives performed preditor control in those areas. The Guides would fly over the area during the winter and shoot the wolves they could find. Then the state made it Illigal to shoot same day you are airborne, or to shoot from an aircraft. The Natives for hundreds of generations had been taking short little willow sticks and sharpening the ends. Then they would bend them into a circle and squeeze a ball of grease around it. Then freeze the ball of grease. They would make dozens of these grease balls and spread them out on the trails. The wolves would come along and eat the grease balls, swollowing them whole. Then after getting into the stomach the willow twig would thaw and straighten, sticking into the stomach or intestines. Ultamately killing the wolf. With few wolves in the area, the game, Moose, Caribou, and sheep, flourished. It was easier to feed their families, and the dead wolves were picked up and the fur used to make clothing for the families.
Then the state stopped the practice by the Guides and the Natives. The number of wolves exploded and the game numbers suffered. Today it is not politically correct for the Biologist to point that out so they just claim ignorance. And Alaska is rapidly becoming a big waste land of no game. It's going to get aq lot worse, Mr we can't shoot those poor wolves Tony Knowles has been appointed to a high level position in the National Park Service. So now the Park Service and the US Fish and Wildelife are attempting to take over the management of Fish and Game in Alaska saying Federal Law trumps state law. They have changed seasons and meathods and means of hunting and trapping on Federal lands. The federal government owns 74% of Alaska like they own large portions of other western states. Look out Utah, Arizonia, New Mexico, and all the rest of you western states. We are the test bed.
