Published 1:38 pm Saturday, June 14, 2025 By DAVID RAINER, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources David Rainer mug Although complaints about dog deer hunting have fallen dramatically in the past several years, dog deer hunting has continued to cause conflicts, particularly around the Talladega National Forest. The Alabama Conservation Advisory Board provided Conservation Enforcement Officers with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ (ADCNR) Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF) Division another tool to deal with dog deer hunters who cause problems. At the Board’s meeting last week in Montgomery, Board member Kevin Savoy of Abbeville proposed an amendment to the dog deer hunting regulations that passed unanimously. Email newsletter signup Sign up for our daily email newsletter The proposed amendment to the current Dog Deer Hunting Regulation adds the following: It shall be unlawful for any person owning, having the care of, or using any dog, to allow any dog or dogs for the purpose of deer hunting to enter onto, cross or remain upon the property of another without written permission of the landowner or lessee of the property. Written permission, which may be a paper copy, email, text or other electronic form, shall be in the possession of each person using such dog(s) on the property of another person and shall be presented upon the request of any Conservation Enforcement Officer. A first offense of the regulation would result in a written warning. Subsequent violations may result in written citations. The proposed amended regulation also states that without the permission of the owner it is unlawful to remove, tamper with or disable any GPS tracking collar or training correction collar on a dog used for the purpose of deer hunting. “For many years we’ve had people come from different parts of the state that had issues with dogs getting on their property, primarily around the Talladega National Forest, where we’ve seen most of the issues as of late,” Conservation Commissioner Chris Blankenship said. “As I mentioned yesterday in a meeting with the dog deer hunters, I’ve been coming to Advisory Board meetings for close to 30 years. The Board meetings used to last from early in the morning until late in the afternoon because of all the complaints and problems with dog deer hunting around the state. “Most of those have been addressed. It’s in a much different place now than where it was 30 years ago. A lot of that has to do with the responsibility of the hunters and the technology improvements. We have so many less issues that we’ve had in the past. But we are still receiving complaints in certain areas, and, after hearing from the public for several years and talking with Board members, I hate not to address those problem issues that remain. For several years, landowners around the Talladega National Forest continue to have problems with certain folks. So our options are three – one is to do nothing at all and let those people continue to have problems and have their hunts impacted because of a handful of dog hunters not doing it correctly; two is to put more areas on the permit system or do a statewide permit system, which, I think, is not really fair to the dog deer hunters who are doing it correctly; and third is to allow our officers a tool to address the issue with folks who are not doing it correctly and letting their dogs get off on other people’s property. I think this a tool for our officers to be able to handle the remaining problems.” Board member Raymond Jones of Huntsville echoed Commissioner Blankenship’s sentiment and said during the 32 years that he has attended or been a member of the Board that the dog deer hunting issues have changed significantly. “I know many of you who are in this room, you guys are doing it right,” Jones said. “I can’t tell you in the 32 years I’ve been around how much it’s improved. But we still have problems. I think this solution will greatly enhance the ability of you (dog deer hunters) to do what you love to do.” Board member Grady Hartzog of Eufaula said he has fielded fewer and fewer complaints about dog deer hunting over the past two years. “Kevin (Savoy) and I live in the district that generally got the most complaints over the years,” Hartzog said. “Things have gotten tremendously better. Any complaints I’ve gotten, I can call Lonnie (Miller) or Don (Knight) and get the problem handled almost immediately. We appreciate that. I think the dog hunters have come a long way in cleaning up their act.” Board Chair Joey Dobbs added, “It has been a long road with the dog deer hunters. Things are better. We don’t have violence. Fifteen years ago, there were incidents of violence in the field and in our meetings. I commend them for doing what they’re doing and the responsible action of the Alabama Dog Hunters Association. “We’re here to work with everybody, but the resource is our number one goal.” Commissioner Blankenship said the seasons and bag limits proposed by WFF has one change. Because of the legislation passed this year concerning deer breeders, the section that deals with deer breeders in the CWD (chronic wasting disease) zones has been removed. The Board approved the Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF) Division proposed bag limits and season dates. One change was made to the deer season framework that deals with the unantlered deer daily bag limit in most of the state. The unantlered deer bag limit was increased to two per day in all zones for the entire season with the exception of Zone C in the north central portion of the state. The antlered deer season limit will remain at three. Marine Resources Director Scott Bannon appreciated the board’s approval of several changes, including the removal of the exception for anglers to keep one redfish larger than 26 inches in total length to protect the brood stock of the species, a reduction in the bag limit for sheepshead from 10 fish to eight because of increased fishing pressure, and an increase in the daily harvest limit for commercial gill net anglers who target flounder from 40 fish per day to 80 fish per day. A bag and size limit for common snook, which is expanding its range into Alabama coastal waters, was established with the limit on snook of one per day per angler with a 28-inch minimum size total length. Another change allows commercial shark anglers to have 2,400 feet of line with a maximum of 50 hooks at least 15/0 in size. The line would be required to be anchored and marked with an identification number, and squid would be outlawed as bait because it can attract sea turtles. Also, the captain and crew of Alabama Commercial Party Boats shall not retain bag limits of fish harvested in state waters. Commissioner Blankenship took the opportunity to share a compilation of accomplishments of the ADCNR staff regarding outdoor recreation with a brochure that will be submitted for the Southern Legislative Conference in Birmingham in July. “When you look at all the types of work we’re doing Department-wide for outdoor recreation, it’s more than $406 million of work that is taking place, and that includes $228 million in State Parks, $56 million in boating access projects, $76 million in beach renourishment and beach access, $10 million for State Lakes, $20 million in shooting sports facilities and $12 million for trail enhancements,” Commissioner Blankenship said. “You put it all together, and that’s a lot of work that our staff is doing statewide. I’m very impressed with the work that has taken place. When you see anyone from our staff, please thank them for the work they are doing, because it’s making a generational difference for our state in outdoor recreation. It’s something we can all be proud of.” Commissioner Blankenship shared that he and his family were able to participate in the opening weekend of the red snapper season for private recreational anglers. “More people fished this opening weekend compared to last year when the weather wasn’t as good,” he said. “It was a great weekend. I got to go with my dad on Opening Day, my son on Memorial Day and with my wife on Saturday. It was nice to get out several days and enjoy the resource with my family.” David Rainer is author of Outdoor Alabama Weekly, a column on hunting/fishing/outdoors in Alabama.

Read more at: https://enewscourier.com/2025/06/14/column-conservation-advisory-board-amends-regulations-on-dog-deer-hunting/

By Zachariah Hughes

Published: June 12, 2025

The state of Alaska is once again asking the Board of Game to allow wildlife managers to shoot bears from helicopters in a rural part of Southwest Alaska in the interest of increasing caribou numbers.

The board is scheduled to hold a special meeting on July 14 in Anchorage to consider the revised proposal to expand its predator control program east of the Wood-Tikchik State Park from just wolves to include all bears.

The move follows a ping-ponging series of court decisions based less on the program’s merits than on the way it was steered through the public rules-making process back in 2022. Critics, and eventually an Anchorage Superior Court judge, said the management practice was adopted with insufficient public input in a way that denied Alaskans their right to weigh in.

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If the Board of Game approves the state proposal, aerial gunning for bears would resume next May and last until early June.

In 2023 and 2024, when the intensive management program around the Mulchatna caribou herd ran its full course, the Department of Fish and Game reported killing 180 bears, almost all of them brown bears.

This March, a judge ruled the program was unlawful.

Fish and Game then quickly went back to the Board of Game and requested an emergency version of the same authorization, which was granted. Weeks later, a different Superior Court judge, Christina Rankin, initially declined to halt to the program, largely on technical grounds, but said it was still not a legal management strategy. Shortly afterwards, the state shot 11 bears in the course of three days.

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That led Rankin to issue a restraining order sought by the environmental group that had sued the state to halt the bear program.

The Department of Fish and Game has stood behind its approach, and the current proposal is an attempt to cure the program’s legal deficiencies but otherwise replicate what it carried out in recent seasons.

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“Our intent is to do it very efficiently and effectively and, frankly humanely‚” said Ryan Scott, head of the ADF&G’s Division of Wildlife Conservation.

Scott said that while some criticism of the program on scientific and conservation grounds has merit, the division is tasked under Alaska law with managing ungulate populations in ways that maximize their numbers, and emphasized that rural subsistence hunters have had no opportunity to take Mulchatna caribou since 2021.

Though the state does not have reliable recent data on the number of bears in the area, which sits about midway between Bethel and Dillingham, he said the overall environmental impact from the predator control effort is minimal.

“While it’s true we don’t know the densities in that small piece of real estate, there are bears all over the place,” Scott said in a brief interview Thursday. “We are trying to do this very surgically … in a very small amount of time.”

Nicole Schmitt is the executive director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, which sued the state to block the bear killing after it came to light in 2023 and is still opposed to the program.

“We’re happy to see that The Board of Game is finally following its own rules by having a meeting with bare minimum public notice, but are disheartened that it took the advocacy of hundreds of Alaskans and two judges to get them to comply with their basic constitutional obligations,” Schmitt wrote in an email.

Schmitt’s group has persistently questioned the scientific basis and methods of the department’s bear program. In its latest proposal, the department does not set any limit on the number of bears it intends to take in the coming years, only that the target bear population is however many it takes to bring the caribou numbers up “to a level that results in increased calf survival and recruitment.”

“They have no way of knowing the impact this program has on bears. I’ve never seen the Board of Game open a no-limit season on moose or caribou because they heard there were a lot of moose and caribou around,” Schmitt wrote. “They’re literally shooting in the dark for a solution to the Mulchatna caribou herd decline, and wasting precious state funds to do it.”

Scott said that compared to 2022, when wildlife managers initially proposed expanding predator control to bears, there’s now a clearer link between bears and caribou calf survival.

“Given the data that we have, predation is limiting the growth of the herd,” Scott said.

The division plans to present additional evidence showing that its predator control efforts are having a positive effect on the Mulchatna herd at the special meeting next month.

If the measure is approved, Fish and Game could keep removing bears from the area through June 2028, although the program could be halted if Mulchatna herd numbers rise to the level where harvest can resume, which the state estimates at 30,000-80,000 animals. The herd is currently estimated at around 15,000.

Written comments on the proposal must be submitted to the Board of Game before 5:30 p.m. on July 14. The special meeting will be held that same day at the Coast Inn in Anchorage, with the potential for a second in-person meeting continuing on into Tuesday to accommodate more testimony.

Bobby Bascomb

13 Jun 2025Alaska

CommentsShare article https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/alaska-wolves-poisoned-by-mercury-after-switching-to-sea-otter-diet/

Some coastal wolves in Alaska, U.S., have toxic levels of mercury in their bodies after shifting from a terrestrial diet of deer and moose to a marine diet heavy with sea otters, new research finds.

Mercury is a naturally occurring heavy metal found in the Earth’s crust. However, human activities like burning coal and fossil fuels release mercury into the atmosphere, where it can travel hundreds of miles from its source. When mercury enters aquatic ecosystems, it’s converted into methylmercury, a potent neurotoxin that “moves efficiently through a food web,” Ben Barst, study co-author and assistant professor with the University of Calgary, Canada, told Mongabay in a video call.

Methylmercury “biomagnifies,” accumulating in larger amounts higher up the food chain, making it dangerous for predators like wolves and sea otters. Large sea otters (Enhydra lutris) daily eat roughly 11 kilograms (25 pounds) of invertebrates like mussels, clams and sea urchins, all known to accumulate methylmercury.

Gretchen Roffler, the study’s lead author and a research biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, first learned of mercury poisoning in wolves (Canis lupus) when she investigated the death of an emaciated collared wolf from another study. Roffler’s tests revealed “unprecedented” levels of mercury in the animal’s liver. So, she sent samples to Barst’s lab for further testing.

The mercury concentration in those samples were so high, “at first we thought the instrument was malfunctioning,” Barst said.

Once mercury levels were confirmed — on par with those observed in polar bears, an apex marine predator — the researchers wanted to know how widespread mercury poisoning is in wolves and where the mercury came from.

They examined archived tissue samples starting from the year 2000, along with samples from recently trapped wolves and hair and blood samples from collared wolves.

They looked at two different wolf packs: one on Pleasant Island in coastal Alaksa and another a mile away on mainland Gustavus Forelands. The island pack moved there in 2013 and within a few years wiped out the island deer population. Instead of swimming back to the mainland they stayed and “switched to a very marine-heavy diet dominated by sea otters; up to about 70% of their diet is sea otters,” Roffler told Mongabay in a video call.

The mainland Gustavus pack, despite having access to deer and moose, also began eating more sea otters around the same time.

Roffler said she believes both packs likely made the switch because sea otters, which are easier and safer to kill than a large moose, have recently become very abundant. Once decimated by the fur trade, sea otter populations have rebounded, thanks to conservation efforts including protection under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. They are now “super abundant wolf prey,” Roffler said.

“We expect this to be a broader geographic trend across the former range of sea otters as they recolonize,” she said.

Banner image: of a wolf, courtesy of U.S. National Park Service.