The borough assembly has issued a unanimous statement of opposition to a petition by conservation groups to list the Alexander Archipelago wolf as an endangered species.
Earlier last month, the assembly considered signing a petition against listing the wolf but decided not to, opting instead to draft its own statement, which it approved Feb. 28.
The opposition petition, which was drafted by the Klawock Fish and Game Advisory Council and has been circulating through Southeast communities, argues that an endangered listing likely would lead to additional hunting and trapping restrictions, imposing an economic burden on small communities in the region and hurting the subsistence lifestyle that is central to Alaska Native culture.
Though assemblymembers supported the petition’s message, they opposed details in its wording and questioned whether signing petitions was the proper use of their governmental authority. “I’m against the borough government signing petitions and just adding their name on and saying, ‘me too,” said Bob Dalrymple after the Feb. 14 assembly meeting.
He also opposed the assumption in the conservation groups’ petition that the wolves on Prince of Wales Island are a unique subspecies that is genetically distinct from the gray wolf and in need of further protections.
Categorizing the Alexander Archipelago wolf as a subspecies is “not based on hard scientific fact, including actual population estimates,” Dalrymple said. “I disagree with that. There’s too much dispersal of wolves in Southeast Alaska outside the islands.”
The statement approved by the assembly, which Dalrymple and Borough Manager Jeff Good drafted, outlines the borough’s official stance: “(The) Alexander Archipelago wolf is mischaracterized as a distinct population or subspecies,” it reads. “Wolves are mobile and easily transit between the mainland and the islands in Southeast Alaska.”
Larry Edwards, of the Alaska Rainforest Defenders, said the borough’s statement is founded on a misunderstanding of his organization’s petition for an endangered listing. The Southeast population of Alexander Archipelago wolves were once recognized as a distinct subspecies, but new genetic information suggests that they are actually a “distinct population segment” — a group that is geographically, not genetically, unique, he wrote in an email.
“The 2020 petition, now under review, asks the FWS (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) to determine that the Southeast population of (Alexander Archipelago) wolves is a distinct population segment of the broader subspecies or a significant portion of its range, and to list that segment as threatened,” Edwards wrote.
The assembly’s statement also cited the potential economic impacts that a listing could have on Wrangell and neighboring communities. “The Wrangell borough provides a corridor for wolves and deer to travel between the mainland and the islands within the borough and the adjacent Prince of Wales Island. Wrangell and the small rural communities on Prince of Wales will suffer from (increased) regulations that further restrict economic opportunities and growth.”
Edwards responded that if the segment is listed as threatened, the Fish and Wildlife Service would work with local communities to identify their concerns, then develop a “recovery plan” to protect the wolf. That plan may involve designating critical habitat.
Species’ eligibility for federal protections is determined by five factors: habitat destruction, disease or predation, inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms and manmade or natural factors that threaten the animals’ survival. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “economic impacts are not considered in making species listing determinations and are prohibited under the ESA (Endangered Species Act).”
Reader Comments(0)