C.O.s = Conservation Officers. Yet another Oxymoron. Now that I got that off my chest... *******************************************************************************************************************************

Wolves now working for the Department of Environment (Whitehorse Star April 4/08)

Re: "Wolves taking on bison, C.O.s confirm" Whitehorse Star, April 2, 2008

The Department of Environment should get out the killing business. They have every program under the sun to find ways to kill the bison, and they
still can't succeed in killing as many as they want. (This is wonderful news).

They extended the hunting season, radio-collared and mapped the bison for the convenience of hunters, gave out more permits, had a "special hunting window" when bison were "crowding the Alaska highway," and still the bison have come out ahead.

At least now, the department has wolves on their side. Tom Jung (big game biologist) finds it "encouraging" that wolves are preying on bison.

For once, the wolves aren't being made scapegoats for a declining ungulate population. Instead, the department is happy to see the wolves killing bison, since the bison are so plentiful. Why did it take them until now (April) to tell the public that the wolves were killing bison last December? They have repeatedly said up until now that wolves hadn't figured out how to kill bison.

So does this mean the Alsek Renewable Resource Council's dream to be allowed to kill an unlimited number of wolves will not come true, since the wolves are now helping the Department of Environment's "technical team" kill bison?

I'm amazed at how one minute, wolves are viewedas competition for hunters, and therefore killed, and the next minute, it sounds like the Department of
Environment actually likes having wolves around.These wolves, like Yukon hunters, are now seen as a tool to help keep the bison "in check."

One of the bison killed by wolves last December was reportedly "an orphaned calf whose mother had been shot by hunters." Why are hunters permitted to shoot mothers, orphaning their calves? Is this only viewed as a good thing by the department, since it's a two-in-one deal, and they want to have fewer bison around?

The positive side of this story is that so many of the bison eluded hunters this year, despite all the technology used in an effort to kill them. Bison, like all animals, have proved once again that they don't need us to manage them. They are managing just fine on their own.

Mike Grieco
Whitehorse