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hey Zack...some thoughts
Posted by bushrat on Apr 09 2005
Hey Zack, I'd just like to expound or have you elaborate on the one statement that you'll not take a bio's word for much due the the experience of the few you've met. I went into this thing several months ago having had very little contact with bios over the last 25 years. Like people, biologists vary in personality, politics etc. I've found those I like, those I don't, those I agree with, those I don't. But I respect them all.
I'd say I've spoken with ten different biologists within ADFG now in the last few months, and many retired biologists, and all of them, to a tee, were highly knowledgable about the animals they study (or studied), very professional in their dialogue, and most had over 20 years working for ADFG, with numerous field studies under their belt etc. They are confined now within a system whereby they aren't in control of anything...and sometimes their own advice and recommendations go unheeded. Sometimes their advice on game management isn't what I like to hear, or what I would call "sound" management practices, but as they are quick to point out, by God they have a mandate to supply big game to hunters. They can either tow the current party line or lose their jobs.
Recently, a biologist and I were discussing unit 20A in the Tanana Flats, and the upcoming anterless hunt again this fall. He lamented that it's a pain to have to keep trying to convince the Fbks Advisory Committee and then the BOG to authorize these (much needed) antlerless hunts because there are simply too many moose now in 20A and they need to cut the population back. It's a highly interesting area, and how they've managed to "farm" the moose for so many years. Anyway, at one meeting the bio spoke to the AC and said there are simply too many moose...etc...etc...and gave reasons why they (again) needed to continue the antlerless hunts, at which point a hunter spoke out and said something to the effect, "Isn't too many moose like too much money in the bank? I don't see how that is a bad thing." Everyone laughed...it made sense to all the hunters present. And THAT is a crying shame and what the biggest problem is today with hunting and hunters in general: They know squat about ecosystems and biology and the animals they hunt and the areas they hunt. A moose is just a big brown thing (a mammal, maybe?) that needs absence of wolves and bears to survive, right?.
My point here is that hunters, even long-time hunters and even many on the various advisory committees, really aren't even aware of how biology works, what a nutrient regime is, what happens to ungulates near carrying capacity, why too many moose is an undesirable thing, unlike having too much money in the bank. Alaska is not Sweden. I can only imagine what it must be like for bios to continually have to deal with Joe Hunters. Or with people like me who whine and complain about Intensive Management law that is our current backdoor into guaranteed predator control in every single Intensive Management area that isn't meeting the ridiculous population and harvest objectives.
I guess what I'm saying is that I've come to a conclusion that biologists are hard-working, fore-thinking men and women genuinely concerned and incredibly knowledgable about our wildlife populations, who are simply stuck in an incredibly complex system the makes them the arm of a political body over which they have no control. I can't find any easy answers. Any middle ground. David Johnson, our moderator, himself a retired biologist, was intially quick to point this out to me, this absence of a middle ground over decades and decades inre: predator control. How can you and I change this? What can we do to find this middle ground and move our State BOG and political parties to find it? What can we do to better educate "bubba" hunters and the non-hunting public? If you as a biologist are required to supply X amount of moose to hunters every year, and the only way to do so is to kill large amounts of wolves and bears...what the heck do you do? Quit?
One thing I know in my heart and head for certain: We need to get rid of this intensive management law within our state, and the amendments to it. It forces biologists to practice game farming to a degree that is utterly unacceptable to the non-hunting public, and to many hunters like me, and to many biologists. It makes "hunting" on the whole look bad. As hunters, maybe we can find some middle ground...some ethical ground we have in common. It's all about extremes and shifts. Right now we have a major right-wing shift which seems to please most hunters on this and other forums as hunters generally tend to be republicans and vote republican. But beware, a left-wing shift will come, and as extremism breeds extremism it won't be pretty. Wildlife management CANNOT be about short-term goals, major shifts in politically-driven management strategy, and ridiculous objectives that have no basis in reality.
Best, Mark
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