Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges

Chasing Answers in the Arctic: Researching the Effects of Climate Change on the Porcupine Caribou Herd

Presented by Heather Johnson USGS Research Wildlife Biologist and Paul Leonard Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Supervisory Biologist
Tuesday, Oct. 15, 5 – 6 AKDT

This event was held with in person speakers at Fairbanks and Anchorage, at watch parties in Soldotna and Homer and on Zoom.

The Porcupine caribou herd is currently the largest in Alaska and one of the largest herds in North America. Each summer, it undergoes one of the longest terrestrial migrations on Earth to birth calves on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But what is the future of the herd given changing climate conditions? Join us to hear about how an innovative research project aims to discover whether and how a changing climate will impact the herd. Arctic Refuge Supervisory Biologist Paul Leonard will share with us the significance of the Porcupine caribou herd as a cornerstone of the ecological, cultural, and economic landscape of the Arctic Refuge, and as a vital part of the livelihoods and traditions of Indigenous peoples of the region, including the Iñupiat and Gwich’in. Lead researcher Heather Johnson of US Geological Survey (USGS) will discuss the research she is conducting on the Porcupine caribou herd in collaboration with partners including the refuge. Their research aims to understand the influence of changing climate conditions on summer habitat for caribou in the Arctic, the impacts of these changes on caribou behavior and population dynamics, and the implications for the future of the Porcupine herd. As part of the project, caribou wear video camera collars so researchers can ‘see’ life from a caribou’s perspective, footage we look forward to sharing with you!

Cow caribou carried video cameras which turned on every 20 minutes to takea 10 second video. This allowed researchers to see what they were eating, what habitat they were using, if they had calves and other important information.

This is a partnered program with the Campbell Creek Science Center serving as not only our monthly meeting but also their Fireside Chats monthly talk series.

Biographies

Heather Johnson is a Research Wildlife Biologist at USGS Alaska Science Center in Anchorage. Heather has a PhD in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana, a Masters in Wildlife Science from the University of Arizona, and a Bachelors in Ecology from the University of California, San Diego. Heather’s research focuses on understanding how changes in climate and land-use are influencing the behavior and population dynamics of large mammals, and how management strategies can minimize impacts. In her free time, Heather loves doing just about every type of outdoor adventure, especially when it means playing outside with her son.

Paul Leonard grew up in the rolling hills of central Kentucky and spent most of his youth playing out of doors and being constantly curious about the living things around him. He came to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2019 after finishing a postdoctoral fellowship at Clemson University in South Carolina. His research and ecological interests are focused on recognizing and quantifying the spatial patterns in the distribution of natural resources and understanding the reasons for those patterns. He strives to synthesize large, complex spatial data on land use change, climate change and other human caused impacts to develop decision support tools and conservation strategies for diverse communities at a landscape level.In his free time, he likes self-powered adventures in the outdoors via boat, bike, and foot. He also spends a fair amount of time studying, photographing, and reading about birds.

It’s National Wildlife Refuge Week, and We Need Your Help

This week, October 13-19, 2024, we celebrate National Wildlife Refuge Week, a time to honor the special places that make up the National Wildlife Refuge System. Here in Alaska, we are home to 16 national wildlife refuges, vast and diverse lands that protect an incredible variety of wildlife. From migratory birds to bears and salmon, these refuges safeguard species that are crucial to Alaska’s ecosystems. They also give us beautiful spaces to explore and enjoy the outdoors.

But Alaska’s refuges are just part of a much larger system that stretches across the entire United States. Together, these lands form the largest network of public lands dedicated to wildlife conservation. Sadly, this system is in danger. Severe budget cuts have left many refuges understaffed and underfunded. Nationwide, the system has lost over 800 staff members since 2010, making it difficult to maintain habitats and protect wildlife.

Why Refuges Matter in Alaska and Across the Country

In Alaska, our 16 refuges are vital to protecting our state’s unique landscapes and wildlife. Whether you’ve visited the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, hiked the stunning Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or explored the vast wetlands of the Yukon Delta, you know how special these places are. They protect important habitats and give us a chance to experience nature up close.

But this problem goes beyond Alaska. Across the country, national wildlife refuges are facing similar challenges. Without enough staff and funding, many refuges are struggling to meet basic needs like habitat restoration, infrastructure upkeep, and visitor programs. This puts wildlife and the lands they depend on at risk.

How You Can Help

There are several ways you can support our refuges during National Wildlife Refuge Week:

Explore a Refuge: Get outside and visit one of Alaska’s refuges, or find a refuge near you. Spending time in these wild places is a great way to appreciate their beauty and learn more about their importance.
Raise Awareness: Help spread the word about National Wildlife Refuge Week by sharing posts on social media with #RefugeWeek. Let others know why these places matter and what they can do to help protect them.
Advocate for Change: One of the most powerful ways to make a difference is by contacting Congress. Let your representatives know that you care about national wildlife refuges and want them to support increased funding. It’s quick and easy to take action—just click here to get started.

Our national wildlife refuges, both in Alaska and across the country, are essential to protecting wildlife and preserving the natural beauty we love. By raising awareness and taking action, we can help ensure these special places remain protected for generations to come.

Walk for the Wild 2024 – 10/12 Bethel event cancelled

Unfortunately, the Bethel Walk for the Wild event in support of the Yukon Delta Refuge has been cancelled due to weather.

If you’re still interested in supporting Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges on our team page on the Walk for the Wild website. AlaskaTeam16! has set a goal of raising $2,000. Anyone can donate so encourage your friends and family to donate too, whether or not they join the walk. Any amount is gratefully accepted and will be put to work on refuge projects. And because you are contributing through Walk for the Wild 2024, the Public Lands Alliance will match your contribution, in part, increasing the impact of your gift.

Through your donation to Friends, you are investing in conservation and the future of refuges. Wildlife and humans need these critical places to thrive. Your gift ensures we can leave this vital legacy to the next generation.

Walk for the Wild is part of America’s Wildlife Refuge initiative and is coordinated by the Public Lands Alliance. This year there are 36 Friends teams participating from 23 states, supporting over 60 national wildlife refuges. The event demonstrates our commitment to deepening human connections with nature and to protecting the thriving ecosystems we all depend on.

Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge 5K walk/Run Walk for the Wild 2023.

Floating to the Hunt on National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska

This meeting was held on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, 5-6 pm AKDT
The recording of this event can be found below:

Presented by Barry Whitehill
Yukon Flats Deputy Refuge Manager (Retired)

Ivishak River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

From the mountains to the lowlands, rivers can take you to wilderness hunting. Floating has been Barry Whitehill’s primary vehicle for accessing national wildlife refuges in Alaska in order to hunt moose, sheep, and caribou. He also just loves rivers. Barry’s love of rivers was honed through a career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which enabled him to traverse remote Alaskan rivers for work. His retirement in 2009 as the Deputy Refuge Manager at the 8.6 million acre Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge in central Alaska gave him the time and opportunity to undertake extended personal float trips. He has floated over 1000 miles of Alaska’s rivers in one summer! Barry knows Alaska rivers.

Feast or famine is often the dynamics of Alaska’s ecosystems. As a hunter in that setting, the difference between success and failure can be the ability to tap into the natural rhythm of the land. Barry considers floating to the hunt a great way to match the pace and terms of the Alaska landscape. Barry will share with us lessons learned in over thirty years of floating to these Alaska hunts. He will talk about some of his favorite rivers primarily on the Arctic, Kanuti and Yukon Flats refuges all accessed out of Fairbanks. He will also share tips for planning a float, logistics and gear.

Barry Whitehill’s biography in his own words:

I grew up in eastern Washington and considered myself fortunate to have public lands close at hand. Starting with my first elk at age 14, it became obvious to me that dropping into deep, dark holes and undertaking challenging floats on public lands consistently brought success as a hunter. Also, rivers and wild places rejuvenate my soul. Later, I found this true when living in Idaho, northern Nevada, and, since 1992, in Fairbanks, Alaska. I am a Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges member and on the Board of the Alaska Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. Both organizations do much to support our national wildlife refuges and our opportunities to float and hunt and enjoy these public lands.

Kanuti River on the Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge.

Background on Hunting on Refuges

Some of you may be surprised to learn that hunting is one of the “Big Six” priority wildlife dependent recreational uses of national wildlife refuges along with wildlife viewing, wildlife photography, interpretation, education and fishing. These were established as priority recreational uses in the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997. Some lower 48 refuges are closed to hunting to protect species where the populations are not large enough to support hunting or where hunting would conflict with other priority uses. All national wildlife refuges in Alaska are open to hunting except for very small areas adjacent to visitor facilities and the Skilak Loop Road on the Kenai Refuge where wildlife viewing, wildlife photography and small game specialty hunts (youth, bow, and falconry) are the priority uses. Protection of species is accomplished through game regulations usually set by the state. Many Alaskan households utilize wild meat as a big part of their diet.

Subsistence hunting for rural residents is also one of the purposes of all national wildlife refuges in Alaska as established by Congress in the Alaska National Interests Lands Act (ANILCA) of 1980.

Riverside camp on the Ivishak River, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Friends partnered for this program with the Alaska Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, a group dedicated to “ensuring North America’s outdoor heritage of hunting and fishing in a natural setting, through education and work on behalf of wild public lands, waters, and wildlife.” They have been advocates for refuges, wilderness and wildlife including taking positions opposing the Ambler Road and defending the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge during the 2016 takeover and occupation by the Bundys.

Chickaloon Flats: A Hidden Gem on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge

By John Morton, (retired Kenai Refuge Supervisory Biologist) Within sight of almost half of all Alaskans lies a little-known tidal estuary. Perched along Turnagain Arm on the northwestern Kenai Peninsula, the 27,000-acre Chickaloon Flats is the only part of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge that touches marine waters. It represents 7% of the total estuarine area in Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound, the two water bodies that form the peninsula. As such, it’s a small but important part of the Pacific Flyway for migratory shorebirds and waterfowl.

Yellowlegs and other shorebirds foraging in a tidal pool on Chickaloon Flats.

But how important? Sadie Ulman, before becoming a biologist at Arctic Refuge, did her graduate research on shorebird use of Chickaloon Flats in 2009-2010. The last part of her thesis, which addressed that question, was published recently in the journal Waterbirds. Sadie documented that 23 of 37 common shorebird species breeding in Alaska use Chickaloon Flats during migration. With peak daily shorebird population estimates of 23,000 in the spring and 95,000 in the fall, this stopover site hosts a lot of birds for short periods of time. But Sadie took it another step, using stable isotope analysis of feathers to determine where six of those shorebird species spend their winter. Feathers maintain an isotopic signature of what was eaten during the relatively short period of feather growth. This allows individual shorebirds to be sampled during breeding to estimate the geographic origin of their feather growth during the previous nonbreeding season. A combination of values from three stable isotopes (d2H, d13C, and d15N) are used to infer feather molt origin on a broad geographic scale because predictable spatial patterns of d2H occur in precipitation on a continental scale, and d13C and d15N are then used to further distinguish if the feather was grown in a terrestrial versus marine environment. Sadie used drop nets and decoys to catch (and band) migrating shorebirds that stopped over on Chickaloon Flats, from which she pulled feathers. What did she find? Greater Yellowlegs using Chickaloon Flats likely molted in southwest Alaska, and Short-billed Dowitchers in southcentral Alaska. Lesser Yellowlegs likely molted in western Alaska and a latitudinal band across Canada, and wintered throughout the Lower 48. Least Sandpipers wintered from Oregon and south in North America but showed an isotopically similar possibility in Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela. Long-billed Dowitchers molted primaries across the western U.S. and Canada. Pectoral Sandpipers using Chickaloon Flats likely molted near the Rio de La Plata in southeastern South America!

Sadie Ulman looking for shorebirds on the Chickaloon Flats. Amazingly, this tidal wetland, hidden in plain sight from Anchorage (15 miles from Potters Marsh), has significant value as a stopover for many shorebird species breeding in Alaska. Belugas and brown bears also forage for silver salmon in the Chickaloon River and other parts of the estuary are used as haulouts by harbor seals. The good news is that Chickaloon Flats is conserved within the Kenai Refuge. The bad news is that it’s not protected from natural disasters. During the 1964 Great Alaskan Earthquake, the entire estuary dropped in elevation and was inundated by mud. Even today, Chickaloon Flats really does tilt downward to the east and south. However, as Sadie showed in a 2019 article in Northwest Science, the marsh is slowly recovering.

My Spring Volunteering with the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge

By Barbara Ryan
Pompano Beach Florida Friends Member

It certainly was my pleasure to serve as a volunteer this spring at the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center. Their summer seasonal employees had not yet started work and the Refuge asked Friends for help with this shoulder season. I started off helping with the spring break Bear Awareness Program for families, which provided educational hands-on kids stations to teach children bear awareness through age-appropriate scavenger hunts, collage making, coloring events, and face painting. Over seventy-five participated.

Bear awareness is an important subject on an island which is home to 3500 Kodiak bears, the largest subspecies of brown bears. Helping with this was my first task.

Providing visitor information was a big part of my job and included information on the gray whale migration around Kodiak Island, where to go tide pooling, how to find beach glass, assisting with hunting and fishing regulations, explaining the road and river systems and abundant hiking trails, birds and species reference lists and where to find them on the road system. I also registered participants for the Kodiak Refuge Science and Salmon Camp Program which continues to be hugely popular year after year.

Kodiak Refuge Visitor Center is a vibrant resource providing meeting space for trainings such as an Alaska Oil Spill Response Conference and community events such as an Alutiiq sponsored Native bead bracelet making workshop. The refuge visitor center is centrally located amidst several museums, the town of Kodiak Visitor Center, the Alaska Marine Ferry Terminal and cruise ship docks, all within walking distance.

The Visitor Center store on a busy cruise ship day.

Because the spring season is not as busy as summer, I had time to experience the history and fascinating culture from Kodiak archaeology to the cultural heritage of the Alutiiq/Sugpiaq people, and provide a memorable tour of the visitor center to visitors.

The staff was a delight to work with and I have made some new friends from this Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges experience.

Pioneering Alaska Pilot/Biologist Jim King Takes his Last Flight.

by Patricia Heglund, Homer Friend and retired USFWS Biologist

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.- Margaret Mead

Jim King was one of those people who changed the world. Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuges lost a staunch advocate and conservation leader with his death in March at home in Juneau at the age of 97. Jim was such a gift to me when I was starting my graduate work and throughout the remainder of my life. Jim’s remarkable life and many awards and achievements are documented in a touching memorial from his family and a Fish and Wildlife tribute . I’d like to focus on one place and a couple of stories to help Friends better understand the significance of Jim’s work.

I met Jim King in 1984 when I was a graduate student planning to conduct research on the new, Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge. Jim had a special knowledge of and affection for the Yukon Flats. He and his wife Mary Lou honeymooned at Fort Yukon while Jim flew aerial surveys and banded waterfowl. The work was for an environmental study of the potential effects of building a hydroelectric dam on the Yukon River at Rampart Canyon. As proposed, the dam would have flooded nine Alaska Native villages and tens of thousands of wetlands that were breeding grounds for 1 – 2 million ducks, geese and swans. The dam would have created a lake about the size of Lake Erie. Waterfowl that Jim and others banded at big lakes on the Yukon Flats, like Ohtig and Canvasback, were harvested in 46 states and over half of the Canadian Provinces. Based in part on Jim’s work, the US Fish and Wildlife Service strongly opposed dam construction and in 1967, Morris Udall, Secretary of the Interior, voiced his opposition to the dam. The project was canceled in 1971 eliminating the immediate threat to the people and waterfowl of the Flats and allowing for a different future for the land as a National Wildlife Refuge.

Jim King piloting N754 on a waterfowl survey. I was so inspired by flying with Jim that I got my pilot’s license.

Jim once told me a story of how he, and maybe others, photographed several areas of Alaska from his plane using a simple point and shoot camera. He created a picture book of recommended refuges, adding descriptions of the locations and details on the use of the area by breeding waterfowl. Jim took his book to Washington DC to the Secretary of the Interior. In 1980, several of the areas he documented were added to the National Wildlife Refuge System by President Jimmy Carter. I remember being amazed at how accessible someone like the Secretary of the Interior was to a flyway biologist back in the 1970’s.

Jim King (right) and Bruce Conant taking a lunch break on the wing of N754, a deHavilland Beaver modified specifically for low level (less than 500 feet) wildlife surveys by the Fish & Wildlife Service. This legendary plane, well-known all-over bush Alaska for over 35 years, now hangs in the Anchorage airport.

Jim’s and my friendship continued over the years. Jim hosted me at his house on Sunny Point and introduced me to his dear wife, Mary Lou, and their menagerie of waterfowl. In more recent years, Jim and I sat on a panel reviewing the biological program at Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge. Jim always sent me copies of his latest publications, including his last book, Attending Alaska’s Birds, fascinating reading for anyone who appreciates the history of Alaska. I last saw him at his home in 2019 when on his urging I finally brought my family to meet him. Jim was developing dementia and I don’t think he really knew who I was. But nevertheless, Jim and Mary Lou welcomed us graciously. It’s hard to think of Jim as gone. When I think of him, I see him in a western-style shirt, scrimshawed bolo tie around his neck, smiling, relentless in his pursuit of conservation. I am grateful to have known him.

Get Out on a Refuge, Do Some Good, Volunteer!

by Poppy Benson, Friends Vice President for Outreach Want to get to the Pribilofs or Izembek? Discover Tetlin? Get your hands on a duck? Share your love for Alaska Refuges with friendly people? Our Alaska National Wildlife Refuges are looking for our help as they are dealing with short staffs and small budgets. Here’s a sampler of volunteer opportunities. See all the projects (some are new since the last newsletter) on our volunteer web page here.

Share your knowledge of Alaska at Tetlin’s Interagency Visitor Center
Band ducks on the Tetlin Refuge.
Real science: aging black brant at Izembek.
Or come on down to Homer May 8 – 12 for the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival co-sponsored by Friends and the Alaska Maritime Refuge. Sign up for Friends outreach here and for festival events here.
Spring clean a refuge – Kenai April 26-27, Alaska Maritime Homer April 20
Spread the good word about refuges at Outreach Booths at events in Seward, Soldotna, and Homer.

Some volunteer jobs are just a few hours commitment and others offer a chance to spend a month on a refuge. Take some time this summer to experience a refuge through helping. For more information go to the web page or contact us at volunteer@alaskarefugefriends.org. Volunteer applications are online. It’s a lively job working the Friends Outreach Table at the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival and we need 15 – 20 people to cover all the shifts. Sign up here. Friends Rosa Meehan of Anchorage and Board President Marilyn Sigman of Homer working the booth at the 2023 Festival.

Conserving the Whole Lifecycle of Salmon: Gravel to Gravel in Alaska

Tuesday, April 16, 5-6 pm AKDT
Presented by Boyd Blihovde: Senior Advisor for Conservation, USFWS Alaska
This presentation was recorded. Watch below:

Salmon have been in trouble in western Alaska and for a long time. The people of the rivers who depend on salmon for much of their food resources and cultural identity are hurting. Boyd Blihovde, head of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s new Gravel to Gravel Initiative, will share with us this situation and his hopes for what this new approach will bring. Boyd, then manager of the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, was in the thick of it in 2022 when salmon conservation discussions reached a peak in the villages of Western Alaska and beyond. Protecting Pacific Salmon’s entire lifecycle (from the spawning grounds to the ocean, and back to the spawning grounds) was not a new concept.

Yukon River smokehouse. Putting up salmon for the winter. pc S. Zuray

However, during several hearings and listening sessions with villages and tribes, it became clear that rebuilding salmon runs across Alaska was critical for indigenous people and other rural subsistence users. Leadership from the Department of Interior heard this message from the Tribes and responded with Gravel to Gravel. It is one of nine “Keystone Initiatives” in the United States that are being prioritized by the Department of Interior to focus agency attention and resources on priority conservation issues. The primary goal of Gravel to Gravel is, through tribal engagement and participation, to restore salmon streams and ensure food security to subsistence users within the lower-Arctic, Yukon, and Kuskokwim region of Alaska and into Canada. However, Boyd added that “we hope our efforts just bring back salmon numbers for everyone and all users.” Our vision is: “With Tribes centered, we unite to care for salmon, from gravel to gravel.

Fish drying racks and fishing boats are a key part of life in the salmon dependent villages of western Alaska pc USFWS

Bio: Boyd Blihovde is the Senior Advisor for Conservation at the USFWS Regional Office in Anchorage. He was the Refuge Manager at the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge based in Bethel, Alaska, from 2020 to August 2023. Prior to moving to Alaska, Boyd was the Refuge Manager at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, located in Los Fresnos, Texas. He began his Service experience in 1989 as a GS-3, Youth Conservation Corp member at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge eventually moving on to the University of Central Florida, receiving a bachelor’s and master’s degree in biology. Boyd studied and researched sea turtles on Archie Carr Refuge Canaveral National Seashore, and Puerto Rico and conducted research and wrote his thesis on the terrestrial behavior and site fidelity of gopher frogs.

More recently, Boyd and his wife Gisela have focused more attention on their twins (Ava and Taylor). Boyd writes “The kids have been a lot of fun and have changed our focus from work and self to family and fun.”

April Advocacy Report

The mission of Friends is to support the 16 national wildlife refuges, which of course includes advocating for the wildlife that make these refuges their home. We are extremely concerned by the current predator control actions of the State of Alaska on state lands, which directly impacts adjacent federal lands and the animals that live on and migrate through wildlife refuges.

Last year, the Alaska Board of Game expanded a plan for predator control in game units adjacent to Togiak and Yukon Delta national wildlife refuges to include wolves and both brown and black bears. The Mulchatna Intensive Management Operational Plan was developed in response to a very real problem: the collapse of the Mulchatna caribou herd. It should be noted that the decline of the Mulchatna herd has continued despite the killing of over 450 wolves for predator control. Biologists are clear that the cause of the caribou population collapse is much more complex than the predator-prey dynamic and in fact, studies suggest a stronger link to forage quality and quantity resulting in lower pregnancy rates and higher caribou calf mortality. These issues are compounded by higher incidence of brucellosis, causing higher abortions and stillbirth rates. Despite these facts, an expanded predator control plan was implemented in 2023 with a plan to kill an estimated 15-20 brown bears.

Sadly, in just the first year of the plan, 94 brown bears, including several year-old cubs and 11 younger still-nursing cubs, were killed. This represents an estimated 74% of the brown bear population in the plan area, and significantly more than the planned take of 15-20 bears. In addition, five black bears and five wolves were killed. While the control program may not have taken place on the refuges proper, bears don’t know boundaries and roam widely so it’s very likely that bears of Togiak and possibly Yukon Delta refuges were killed during this 17-day killing spree.

In an opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News on August `14, 2023, 34 retired Alaska wildlife managers and scientists including several of our members said they did not believe the Mulchatna predator control decision was underpinned by the best available science, nor was it adequately vetted with the public prior to implementation.

This expanded predator control plan is scheduled to continue through 2028. The wildlife of Alaska is its most precious resource and this indiscriminate killing can’t be allowed to continue.

We urgently ask our members who are Alaska residents to contact your state representatives and express your outrage

that the implementation of the Intensive Management plan for Caribou Units 9B, 17, 18, 19A and 19B has resulted in the deaths of nearly 4 times the projected number of bears in the plan and that the Board of Game should scale back the plan accordingly and:
that Legislators ensure new members better represent the diverse interests of Alaskans and wildlife as the current Board of Game (BOG) is heavily weighted to hunting and trapping interests (the Governor appoints and Legislators approve all BOG members).

You can read the profiles of the Board of Game members here. There are no working biologists on the Board of Game. The opportunity to remedy this situation could lie with the two members of the BOG whose terms are up this June. You can also express your concerns to Fish and Game Commissioner Douglas Vincent-Lang or ADFG Director of Wildlife Conservation Ryan Scott regarding the problems with this specific Intensive Management plan.

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