Wolf Shootings in Alaska

[shiay]

LEAD: Hard economic times have ended a state program long opposed by animal protection groups: the shooting of Alaskan wolves from helicopters.

Hard economic times have ended a state program long opposed by animal protection groups: the shooting of Alaskan wolves from helicopters.

Because packs of wolves feed on moose, the state had intervened to make sure that enough moose survived for hunters. The program accounted for only a small fraction of the hundreds of wolves killed legally each year in Alaska. Most are taken by licensed trappers, state game officials said.

Dick Bishop, a spokesman for the Alaska Division of Game, said the department estimated that 4,500 to 6,800 wolves roamed the Alaska wilderness. Could Get By Without

Gov. Steve Cowper recently halted the ''aerial wolf control'' program to save $30,000, said David Ramseur, Mr. Cowper's press secretary. Mr. Cowper and the Legislature are wrestling with a budget deficit estimated at $875 million, caused by plunging oil prices, and are cutting or eliminating funds for scores of state programs.

The Governor also does not plan to ask the Legislature to continue the program next year, Mr. Ramseur said. Mr. Cowper, a Democrat, is not opposed to predator control programs but felt the state could get by without aerial wolf control, Mr. Ramseur said.

Governor Cowper's action pleased the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, which has lobbied against program for several years. Particularly Objectionable

''We're not necessarily optimistic that the practice is over for good. said Ginny DeVries, a spokeswoman for the alliance. ''We're going to be watching it closely,''

The alliance and Greenpeace U.S.A., a conservation group, generally frown on the killing of wolves but consider the state aerial program particularly objectionable. They argue that killing wolves from the air is unethical and that the state should not permit a practice opposed by many Alaskans while of value to one special interest group, moose hunters.

Last year the state spent $44,000 in aerial wolf control in an area west of Fairbanks in the interior of Alaska, Mr. Bishop said. In the past two winters, hunters from helicopter have killed 58 wolves in the area, he said.

He said cancellation of the state program would delay his department's goal of increasing the number of moose in the area, now estimated at 2,800, to about 4,000 by 1993. ''Wolves taken by the aerial control program don't add up to much when you consider the number taken by trappers,'' said Herb Melchior, a state game biologist involved in the regulation of the state's trapping industry.

The state permits about 5,000 licensed trappers to trap or snare wolves, he said, adding that a wolf pelt was worth $250 to $300. Mr. Melchior estimated that trappers killed 600 wolves last winter and 1,000 the winter before. 'Land and Shoot'

The state also allows licensed trappers who use small airplanes to sight wolves from the air to land and shoot them. Mr. Melchior said he had no figures on how many wolves died this way, but he estimated that only ''a few dozen'' trappers used the method. ''It costs a lot to own and operate a plane,'' he said. ''Mostly, these people are people like doctors, dentists and lawyers who do this in their spare time.''

The ''land and shoot'' method is being challenged in court by Greenpeace and the alliance.

The groups recently appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court after Judge Justin Ripley of the Anchorage Superior Court issued a summary judgment permitting the practice to continue without new controls.

''We want this method at least classified as what it is: predator control,'' Ms. DeVries said. ''Then, it can be better monitored and regulated.''

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*sigh* haven't they learned anything with Yosemite incident like this?

Poor wolves

[mutoman]

*pats Shiay's back*

Hunting for the hunters... *sniffle*