JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Conservation groups have filed a lawsuit challenging a state program in Alaska that authorizes the killing of brown bears and black bears. The program aims to increase the size of a once-significant caribou herd in the southwest part of the state.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in state court, claims the program lacks a scientific basis and is unconstitutional. It alleges that the program, adopted by the Alaska Board of Game in July, does not require the Department of Fish and Game to monitor bear populations to ensure their numbers remain sustainable. Furthermore, the program allows department employees to shoot bears from helicopters without setting limits on how many bears can be killed within an area roughly the size of Indiana.

Filed by Trustees for Alaska on behalf of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance and the Center for Biological Diversity, the lawsuit names as defendants the state, the Board of Game, the Department of Fish and Game, and the department’s commissioner. A message seeking comment was sent to the Alaska Department of Law, which typically represents state agencies in litigation.

This lawsuit is the latest chapter in an ongoing legal battle over what Fish and Game describes as an effort to restore the Mulchatna caribou herd. Named for its traditional calving grounds, the herd peaked at around 190,000 animals in the late 1990s and served as an important food source for subsistence hunters across dozens of communities.

However, the herd’s population began declining sharply, dropping to about 13,000 caribou by 2019. Hunting has been prohibited since 2021, according to Fish and Game. The department has cited several factors affecting caribou survival, including disease, hunting, food availability and quality, and predation. In this case, the Board of Game determined that predation could be addressed directly.

The board stated it was responding to requests to help rebuild the herd and restore caribou as a regional food source. In a fall newsletter, the department identified bears and wolves as “significant calf predators.” An aerial survey conducted last fall reported the highest recorded ratio of calves to cows in the herd’s western subgroup since 1999, suggesting a “positive response” to the 2023 and 2024 predator control program targeting bears and wolves on calving grounds.

According to the lawsuit, in May 2023, the agency killed “every single brown and black bear it found” within a 1,200-square-mile (3,108-square-kilometer) focus area encompassing the western Mulchatna caribou herd calving grounds. Altogether, in 2023 and 2024, 180 bears—most of them brown bears—were killed.

The Alaska Wildlife Alliance had previously sued to end the program. In March, a judge criticized the adoption process and ruled that the state lacked sufficient data on bear sustainability in the region before implementing the program. Despite this, the board and department moved forward, implementing emergency regulations under which 11 bears were killed before those regulations were struck down by another judge.

Following this, the department announced a public comment process regarding plans to reauthorize the program. Monday’s lawsuit claims the reauthorization plan adopted by the board in July includes elements previously struck down by the courts. The program is authorized to continue through 2028.

Doug Vincent-Lang, commissioner of the Department of Fish and Game, stated after the board’s action, “We were trying to rebuild the caribou herd, but we’re not going to jeopardize long-term sustainability of bears in so doing.” He added there is “strong evidence that neither disease nor nutrition are preventing this herd from recovering,” and that predation “has been isolated as the limiting factor preventing the herd from growing.”

Nicole Schmitt, executive director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, voiced concerns about the program, saying it “threatens bears who move across vast stretches of public lands.” Schmitt noted that parts of the area where bears can be killed are near Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Katmai National Park and Preserve, and near wildlife refuges.

Michelle Sinnott, staff attorney with Trustees for Alaska, characterized the program as unconstitutional. She criticized it for giving Fish and Game “a blank check to destroy bears across an entire region with impunity.” Sinnott added, “The Board of Game has once again shirked its constitutional obligations and ignored prior court decisions in its unscientific and relentless war on predator animals.”
https://ktar.com/national-news/a-lawsuit-challenges-an-alaska-program-that-allows-killing-bears-as-a-way-to-rebuild-a-caribou-herd/5774048/