Lawsuit Challenges Alaska's Aerial Bear Hunting

Conservationists launched a legal challenge against Alaska’s policy, which permits the aerial culling of brown and black bears to boost the population of a caribou herd that once thrived in the region. They argue that this scheme is both scientifically unfounded and unconstitutional.

According to the lawsuit, filed in a state court, the initiative, approved by the Alaska Board of Game in July, does not mandate the Department of Fish and Game to oversee the bear population to ensure it remains sustainable. Moreover, it allows officials to conduct airborne hunts without setting a cap on bear casualties across an area comparable to Indiana in size.

The legal complaint was submitted by Trustees for Alaska for the Alaska Wildlife Alliance and the Center for Biological Diversity, listing the state, board, and the Department of Fish and Game alongside its commissioner as defendants. The Alaska Department of Law, which typically handles state litigation, did not immediately comment.

This lawsuit forms part of a broader legal struggle concerning a Fish and Game undertaking aimed at reviving the Mulchatna caribou herd. Once numbering around 190,000 in the late 1990s, the herd was a vital nutritional resource for numerous communities, but its numbers plummeted to approximately 13,000 by 2019, leading to a hunting ban effective from 2021.

The department identifies diverse influences like disease, hunting pressures, food supply, and predators impacting caribou survival, labeling predation as an addressable factor. The board aims to restore the caribou’s status as a crucial food source for local people by responding to regional requests.

Recent reports from the department highlight bears and wolves as significant threats to caribou calves, citing an aerial survey which noted a positive increase in calf survival rates due to predator management efforts in the caribou's western subgroup.

The lawsuit indicates that in 2023, the agency pursued all brown and black bears found within a designated 1,200-square-mile zone around the Mulchatna calving grounds and eliminated a total of 180 bears, primarily brown ones, between 2023 and 2024.

The Alaska Wildlife Alliance had contested the program before, with a March ruling finding procedural flaws and insufficient bear sustainability data, yet the board pushed forward with emergency rules leading to the taking of 11 bears—a decision later rescinded by another judge.

Despite the legal setbacks, the department continued its plans to renew the program, implementing aspects struck down in court. The ongoing effort is slated to extend until 2028.

Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang emphasizes the department's strategy to enhance the caribou herd without compromising the bear population, asserting that predation, not disease or nutrition, is the bottleneck to caribou recovery.

The Alaska Wildlife Alliance's Nicole Schmitt criticized the program for threatening bears traversing extensive public lands, mentioning proximity to natural preserves as a significant concern.

Michelle Sinnott from Trustees for Alaska branded the program unconstitutional, accusing the Board of Game of disregarding legal and scientific standards in its aggressive predator control measures.