Wood Bison project moves ahead.

[Dand]

Wood bison: giant blast from the past
Biologists hope to re-establish herds of the 2,000-plus-pound beasts

Anchorage Daily News.
By KYLE HOPKINS
khopkins@adn.com
Published: July 9th, 2008 12:01 AM
Last Modified: July 9th, 2008 12:06 PM


Pelted with fat drops of rain in a grassy field not far from Portage Glacier, a chocolate-brown wood bison shook its coat like a wet dog, flinging water in all directions.


It was a scene straight out of Alaska's distant past. And, biologists hope, its near future.

Bison lived in Alaska for more than 400,000 years but then disappeared in a drought spurred by changing habitat and hunting, biologists say. Wood bison -- a tall, rangy subspecies well suited to the cold -- haven't been seen here for roughly 100 years or more, according to Fish and Game.

Now they're back.

In June, the state packed more than 50 wood bison into a pair of special semi trailers and trucked them from Canada to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in hopes of creating a new seed stock that could one day repopulate portions of the state.

The bison imported last month aren't alone. They join another 30 or so bison that a Delta Junction rancher illegally brought into Alaska within the past 10 years, according to the state.

Those animals were at the Conservation Center too. They're the ones visitors were most likely to spot Tuesday, chewing absently and lounging in the wet grass with their rusty brown calves. The newer bison are smaller, more shy and less used to human gawkers.

Tuesday, biologists trumpeted the arrival of the new animals and pitched their plans for re-establishing herds across the state.

"All the wood bison in the United States of America are here," Fish and Game spokeswoman Cathie Harms said Tuesday. (No, she's not counting zoos.)

"They're very rare in the United States right now, and we've got them," she said.

Alaska already has about 800 to 1,000 so-called "plains bison" in the wild, said Fish and Game wildlife planner Randy Rogers.

Unlike wood bison, plains bison aren't native to the state and were first brought to the Delta area from Montana in 1928.

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Wood bison are bigger -- a bull can hit 2,200 pounds or more -- darker, and with a squarer hump.

"Wood bison are the largest land mammal in North America," Rogers said.

Biologists once thought the subspecies hadn't lived in Alaska for hundreds if not thousands of years. But Athabascan elders talk of relatives who remember the big animals, said wood bison project biologist Bob Stephenson.

In 1969, an archeologist and his kids found a wood bison skull in Anchorage's Chester Creek. Radiocarbon-dating said it was about 170 years old.

Stephenson has been talking about bringing the animals back to their former range in the Interior for more than 15 years.

Bringing the bison back would be good for soil, good for bison and good for Alaska's ecology, he said.

They're also good eating, Stephenson said, comparing the meat to grass-fed beef.

Researchers see the bison playing another role -- preparing Alaska for global warming, or climate change.

Some University of Alaska Fairbanks professors predict our boreal forests may start converting to grasslands, Rogers said, which are better suited to a grazing animal like bison than to moose that browse woody stems and shrubs.

The state hopes to put the bison in three areas -- the Minto Flats, the Yukon Flats, and Innoko/Yukon River area.

The project could cost $500,000, Stephenson said. Television mogul Ted Turner kicked in $100,000 through his endangered species fund.

Arnold Hamilton, from the village of Shageluk, sat on an advisory board on the bison project. He hopes bringing wood bison to his region will ease hunter competition for moose.

But how's the meat taste? Hamilton was diplomatic. "It's different," he said.

The state plans to hold the Canadian wood bison in quarantine for about two years before taking some of the animals to the Minto Flats area to kick off the restoration project.

"It's a smaller area but it has road access. We think we could have 400 or 500 there," Rogers said.

In the meantime, there's still plenty of work to do.

For example, Doyon Ltd. -- a Fairbanks-based Native corporation -- considers the Minto and Yukon flats as potential places to explore for oil and gas. Things get complicated if the bison are placed in those areas and considered an endangered species.

"While we support the general notion of reintroduction of wood bison in both places, we don't support reintroduction currently when there are Endangered Species Act implications," said Jim Mery, Doyon vice president of lands and natural resources.

Rogers said the state is looking into getting a special ruling from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that would allow for moving the bison without impeding development.

After the state moves the bison to their new home, it would likely be another 10 years before hunting is allowed, according to Fish and Game.

Find Kyle Hopkins' political blog online at adn.com/alaskapolitics or call him at 257-4334.

[thxmrgarand]

I think this is a great idea and I am therefore a little surprised that ADF&G supports it.  After all, they opposed putting elk in Southeast even though it has worked very well so far as I have ever heard or observed.  Elk and blacktail deer seem to do well in Southeast just as they do in western OR and WA.  One thought I have is whether we need some state legislation which would ensure that these bison are not used to in part provide private hunting preserves on ANCSA land.  That land pays no property tax (under ANCSA amendments) but non-Natives are either barred from using it or charged huge fees for doing so in most cases.  Yet the fish and game belong to the state.  There has been legislation proposed for large blocks of land in other states that essentially says that if the public is barred from using it or charged a fee then it's an illegal game preserve using publicly owned fish and game and therefore hunting and fishing on the closed land is prohibited - by anyone.  Perhaps that would be especially appropriate in Alaska since the only large blocks of private land are ANCSA lands and the landowners pay no property tax (and little or no taxes of any kind).  Enacting legislation like that in Alaska would ensure that ANCSA corporations think twice before using their tax-free land to designate most Americans as second-class citizens.  What do you think?

[corbanzo]

I think it is good that they are putting them back in Alaska, but I also think that it causes some problems. 

As both have stated above, and as I see it, land use is probably the biggest issue.  I belive that these animals should have no effect whatsoever on land use.  I don't think there should be any sanctuary for them, as they are, in my mind, extint to alaska, and just a toy of the ADFG as it stands right now.  Putting animals in a place and saying we need to protect them would be like taking ten eagles down to Texas, putting them in different areas in the state, and calling Texas a national eagle reserve.  This is in reference to two things: public use: don't block it.  Don't block hunting rights for other animals, and tree and water rights.  And economically:  if there is a resouce which can be used efficiently and non-intrusively, those resources should be allowed to be explored, even with these bison there, they are a project, not an endangered species. 

I do believe that protecting an animals habitat is important, but not just for a single animal, for all animals.  There are other animals that live in the areas that these woods bison will, so therefor because of the concern for the other animals, there should already be protective measures in place, meaning that these get no special concessions.  The special concessions should be regulations concerning the animals themselves, as in hunting regulations.  You already aren't allowed to harass wild animals. 

As for the ANCSA issue...  I don't belive that hunting of any non-all-inclusive kind should be allowed on private lands.  I hate private hunting.  Renting private land to hunt on, just because you have the money, or the connections to do so, as is the custom in many lower 48 states is a travesty to free chase and especially the subsistance lifestyle here in Alaska.  I am not of native blood, but I am Alaskan, and I consider myself to have every right to the game and lands here as anyone else.  How are you going to tell me otherwise?  This is what I always have been and always will be. 

[Sourdough]

Initially F&G wanted to put them in the Yukon Flats, and Illanilko, period.  At one of the first public hearings I went to I realized what the plan was and the ramifications of that plan.  If they were released on Native lands, then only natives, or native guided hunters paying the native corp would be able to hunt them.  I raised an objection, but F&G was not listening.  They went on with the plan for the first release to be in the Yukon Flats, on native lands.  I took my concerns to the Fairbanks Advisory Committee, they listened, and came to the same conclusions I had.  The FAC really got behind the idea of not releasing them only in the Yukon Flats.  The FAC agreed with me that they should be released in Minto Flats first.  F&G still refused to listen to our concerns.  It took some doing but one of the FAC members finally got through to F&G and convinced them it was in their best interest to make the first release in Minto Flats.  F&G finally agreed to make the first release in Minto Flats, where all Alaskians will have an opportunity to hunt them when the herd reaches health numbers.

[thxmrgarand]

My view is that since the state (all Alaskans) own the fish and game (per the Constitution) then setting up a private hunting preserve using state-owned fish and game should be against the law.  Also, since ANCSA land is free of property tax (whereas if you or I owned the same acre we would need to pay any local property tax on that same land) and ANCSA corporations have special Internal Revenue Code treatment, their lands should be open to everyone - not just to shareholders.  The Alaska Legislature could enact legislation to do this, and in this election season we might suggest it to people running for elected office.

[deltecs]

Whether our legilators will enact some law on private Native property is doubtful, however, I think the State is out of line by stocking private lands with game from State revenue.  I believe that any game stocking must be in State owned or controlled areas.  Any stocking on private property is a violation of Alaska's Constitution, which prohibits granting special priveldge of State game resources. 

[Sourdough]

Someone told the ADF&G that since Pittman/Robertson money had been spent doing the studies, and on the project.  That when the first Wood Bison was released on private land, he would see them in court the next day.  That was when F&G decided to make the release in Minto Flats first.  After that we shall see what happens.