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Pot and Kettle....Speaking of something you know nothing about....
Neither bears nor wolves are becoming overpopulated or moving into "human inhabited areas". The issue IS a VERY big deal to Alaskans. There isn't some massive surge of human deaths due to bears and wolves, never has been. Its an attempt by the state to shift the proportional balance between predator and big game species. Humans want to shoot more of the game, not let the predators have it. That's all.
How about trophy hunting?
Is it playing role here too?
Of course the federal government has a say in this. Federal agencies manage about 60% of the land in Alaska. Why? Because that land is designated as national forest, national park, national wildlife refuge, national monument, and national recreation area. Ever heard of the big iconic parks such as Denali, Wrangell St Elias, Gates of the Arctic, the big forests including the Tongass? They are all federally managed for YOUR benefit. Why wouldn't a federal agency which has the responsibility to manage the land responsibly be given the authority to manage it? USDA Forest Service, the National Park Service, BLM, US Fish and Wildlife Service, care for the places for YOU, not just for state residents.
The state of Alaska has management jurisdiction over state land as is proper. The problem here is that the state wants authority to permit predator culling on federally managed land as well as state land. Why did this even get to the level of the WH? Because the state of Alaska has always fought with federal agencies over management of federal land, has always resented the public laws that gave management control over these places to national level agencies, and pushed it there.
Do you really think that predators and game animals stay happily inside the boundaries of some local state or federal management unit? Are you serious? They don't. Should one agency trump the authority of another within its own boundaries? Do you really believe these federal lands aren't managed by knowledgeable local agency staffs? Many of the management issues there are unique in the US and require unique understanding and experience. At the ground/field level the managers making resource decisions work directly with state agencies, not against them. Do you really think that locally placed biologists and decision makers are less informed about their own districts than some elected representative in Congress? Where it gets contentious is in the upper directorial levels of state and federal agencies and elected representatives. You can bet your last dollar that those people don't particularly care about bears or wolves. They care about influence, about victories, about scratching each other's backs, about winning terms of office.
I'm afraid that short-fingered vulgarians don't comprehend these concepts.
"Federal agencies manage about 60% of the land in Alaska."
There in lies the problem.
When a territory is granted statehood and its border are set, ALL the land within those borders SHOULD be OWNED by the state NOT the fed gov't.
"The problem here is"
you call it a problem.
I call it fed govt overreach into a states borders and jurisdiction.
Is the land within the borders of Alaska?
And Alaska is within the borders of what country?
Let me cue you in ( just in case) - the country is called the United States of America, and Alaska is PART of it.
But if I'll follow YOUR logic, I'd say don't stop on some meager wild life issues.
How about Iran?
Don't you think the State of Alaska knows better how to deal with dem Iranians than some bureaucrats in Wash. D.C. ?
"What the U.S. House of Representatives did today – actually a very narrow majority of the House – was shameful. Cruel. Callous. Venal.
The vote in favor of H.J. Resolution 69, authored by Alaska’s Rep. Don Young, was 225 to 193. Those 225 members voted to overturn a federal rule – years in the works, and crafted by professional wildlife managers at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – to stop some of the most appalling practices ever imagined in the contemporary era of wildlife management. Denning of wolf pups, killing hibernating bears, spotting grizzly bears from aircraft and then shooting them after landing, and trapping grizzly bears and black bears with steel-jawed leghold traps and snares. The stuff of wildlife snuff films."
So I'm listening to this congressman from Alaska who is going on and on about how "illegal" it was to protect the animals on the Federal reserve, thus "depriving people of Alaska of their rights." Supposedly.
Can anyone explain to me, how killing animals in their dens ( their young including) is a good thing?
What purpose does it serve, that the Congress has voted for this measure?
Am I missing something here?
I'm glad you are not preoccupied with McDonald's cheeseburgers in this thread)))
Don't tell me they're shooting defenseless cheeseburgers too. For god sake they have no legs and no arms to defend themselves or run away! oh the humanity
Don't tell me they're shooting defenseless cheeseburgers too. For god sake they have no legs and no arms to defend themselves or run away! oh the humanity
Yes they do, all while cheeseburgers are hibernating on a shelf, peacefully wrapped in their blankets)))
I cant believe hunters would in good faith start killing defenseless pups and cubs and hibernating mothers,this isnt hunting but a blood thirsty obsession with the need to kill. disgusting.
I don't condone certain hunting practices by any means, but the federal government having less power and say so in Alaska is a good thing. I'm also not a don young fan but even a broken clock is right twice a day.
For anyone out there thinking the sky is falling, Alaska has very strict hunting rules and regulations and takes any illegal hunting activities very seriously. It's not a bear/wolf cub free for all killing spree.
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