The Alaska Superior Court ruled in favor of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance in a lawsuit challenging the predator control of brown bears by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on certain state public lands.
The litigation, filed by AWA, stemmed from a 2023 predator control operation that authorized by the Alaska Board of Game in 2022. In May and June of 2023, ADF&G conducted a predator-control operation in the Mulchatna caribou calving grounds, resulting in the killing of 94 brown bears, 5 black bears, and 5 wolves.
AWA raised a constitutional claim that the Board of Game failed to provide procedural due process under Article I, Section 7 of the Alaska Constitution. The group also claimed that the Board of Game’s decision violated Article VI, Section 4, which mandates that replenishable state resources be managed under the “sustained yield principle.”
“The notice provided by the BOG contemplating extension of an existing wolf control program to lands managed by the federal government that was altered to include a bear removal program on state lands substantially
changed the subject mater of the proposal. These changes went far beyond varying, clarifying or altering the specific matter of the proposal addressed in the original notice. As a result, the BOG failed to adhere to mandatory due process standards,” Judge Andrew Guidi wrote in his decision.
The State of Alaska and others denied any constitutional violations and said the Alaska Wildlife Alliance lacked standing to bring the case. However, the court granted AWA standing to challenge the state’s actions.
ADF&G, represented by the Department of Law, has not yet announced whether it plans to appeal the decision.
I don’t know what the intent of the suit was, but if a black bear, brown bear, polar bear, or environmentalist threatens my family, I will take whatever steps are necessary to protect them at the moment. Just sayin’.
Again shows readers that inside the USA, democratic means are essentially devaluing democracy: things don’t get done. Remember the axiom: “committees take minutes, waste hours?” Everyone is allowed to debate. Debating without conflict resolution time goals leads to delays: denial of achieving productivity. Agreed policies of trade require discipline. Conflicts arise out of non-compliance to pacts. Debates have their limits. Remember the adage: “justice delayed, is justice denied”? Autocracy works as it accelerates enacting of goals, productivity. The Occident continues to lose ground with the arise of dictatorship. NIMBYISM is an expedient method of accelerating decisions in the West. Reason? Autocracy is fast. Hence MANY decisions work quickly inside autocratic systems. Growth and economics still mandate return on investment. The same holds true of prey-predator relationships within environmental resource management. Through leaving decisions to the judiciary, or worse, to judges, alleged statuatory or policy transgressions are simply too frequent leading to even another greater delay and costly decision-making-outcome. No?
This is why we should feed lawyers and judges to Brown Bears and save caribou and moose calves..
One group has a valve to humans as a food source and the other group is simply a parasitic tapeworm.
I wonder what our new state doge has to say about the costs/ benefits of this predator removal program?