Board seeks moose boost — Few solutions seen to declining browse habitat

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. A Kenai Peninsula hunter testifies Friday to the Alaska Board of Game during its Southcentral Region meeting held Friday through Tuesday in Kenai.

The Alaska Board of Game worked its way through the Kenai Peninsula portion of its agenda Tuesday, liberalizing hunting and trapping opportunities on moose, wolves and bears.

The following are measures regarding moose adopted at Tuesday’s meeting:

• Proposal 143 — Modify the bag limit for moose to one bull per year with an antler spread of 50 inches or greater, or a spike or four brow tines on one side in Game Management Units 7 and 15. The season will stay the same — Aug. 10 to 17 for bow hunting and Aug. 20 to Sept. 20 for the general hunt. The requirement that antlers be sealed by a department representative within 10 days also is retained, except in the Placer River/Placer Creek permit hunt, which is open to retention of any bulls. The proposal also adds a definition of a spike as “antlers of a bull moose with only one tine on at least one side; male calves are not spike bulls.”
• Proposal 147 was adopted, lowering the intensive management population objective for moose in Unit 15A from a range of 3,000 to 3,500 to a range of 2,000 to 2,900, and lowering the intensive management harvest objective for moose in 15A from a range of 180 to 350 to a range of 120 to 290. The proposal retains Fish and Game’s ability to conduct aerial shooting of wolves in Units 15A and 15C as a measure of predator control to benefit moose populations, although this has not been implemented since the board first OK’d aerial wolf kills at its meeting in 2011. This proposal also approves allowing Fish and Game to employ or contract with trappers to target wolves and increase their harvest within the established wolf-trapping season and related regulations, as another measure of predator control.
• Proposal 148 reauthorizes the antlerless moose season in a portion of Unit 15C — the roughly 100-square-mile bench area around Homer.
• Proposal 150 failed. It would have allowed the use of motorized vehicles to retrieve harvested moose meat during certain hours — 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and during the “dark of night” — in the Lower Kenai Controlled Use Area.
• Proposal 151 failed. It would have reinstituted a closure of the Palmer Creek/Lower Resurrection Creek areas in Unit 7 to moose hunting. The area, near Hope, will remain open to moose hunting.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

Thirty years ago, moose on the Kenai Peninsula were legendary for their size and abundance. Now, however, it appears increasingly likely that those historic days are, indeed, history, as land and wildlife managers wrestle with measures to boost the dwindled ungulate population.

In the halcyon days, the peninsula’s moose population was estimated at around 4,000. Nowadays, it’s far less than that. A recent census, conducted just a few weeks ago by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, estimates 1,600 moose in Game Management Unit 15A, covering 1,300 square miles of the northwestern Kenai Peninsula. That’s down from about 2,000 in 2008, and that, in turn, is about 40 percent less than census estimates in the 1990s. Just four moose were harvested by hunters in 15A last year, and just four the previous year, down from the once-typical 350 to 360 a year. That’s in part due to the smaller population, and in part due to decreased hunter participation after the Alaska Board of Game enacted stepped-up hunting restrictions in 2011 to protect the population.

The Board of Game met in Kenai from Friday through Tuesday to consider proposals covering Game Management Units in Southeast, Cordova, Kodiak, the Anchorage area and the Kenai Peninsula. Nine proposals were submitted regarding moose on the peninsula, aimed at finding a balance between bolstering the population with the hope of increasing hunter opportunity.

The proposed changes are largely incremental — measured tweaks to conditions and regulations, which, if results come as intended, would effect incremental changes to the population. But the biggest contributing factor to the decline in moose population is far more substantial, than incremental, in scale.

Moose are not werewolves, yet there is believed to be a silver-bullet solution to the most significant problem of their decline. What’s needed, say land and wildlife managers, is fire, but not just any fire. This would be the Goldilocks of wildland fire — hot enough to burn down to mineral soil but not too hot so as to burn out of control, widespread enough to regenerate tens of thousands of acres of forest that has matured beyond the point of providing good moose browse, yet not so big that it poses too big a threat to human health, habitation, development and transportation, and occurring under just the right conditions and timing so as to not overtax available firefighting resources.

That solution is proving to be as mythical as werewolves.

“The Kenai has had harvest well in excess of 1,200 moose alone, historically, and you’re going to hear from a lot of folks who have been here a long time and remember the good old days and want those days back,” said Ted Spraker, chair of the Board of Game and retired Kenai-area Fish and Game wildlife biologist, in starting off the meeting Friday.

Number of reasons for caution — Volunteers warn drivers with moose-vehicle collision signs

By Jenny Neyman

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Tom Netschert updates a moose warning sign along Kalifornsky Beach Road in front of the Soldotna Sports Center on Saturday, with the assistance of Laurie and Terry Speakman.

Redoubt Reporter

Any motorists able to peel their eyes away from the icy, slushy mess area roads degenerated into during the weekend rainstorm might have noticed new numbers posted on the yellow “Moose on Road” caution signs Saturday. As of Jan. 1, 84 moose have been hit on roadways in Alaska.

The signs are placed at areas of high moose-crossing activity to warn drivers to be extra alert for the difficult-to-see hulks that might meander out in front of a vehicle. The central Kenai Peninsula annually contributes a sizable chunk to the statewide moose-vehicle collision statistics, and as such warrants nine signs at particularly dangerous spots:

Kalifornsky Beach Road in front of United Rentals and the Soldotna Sports Center.

• K-Beach at the Cook Inlet Aquaculture building.
• K-Beach a half-mile west of the intersection with Bridge Access Road.
• K-Beach at Mile 12 near the Marathon gas field.
• Sterling Highway at Tustumena Elementary School in Kasilof.
• Sterling Highway at Mile 113 at Blue Ribbon Estates.
• Sterling Highway near the Central Peninsula Landfill.
• Sterling Highway between Fred Meyer and St. Elias Brewing Co.
• Sterling Highway at Kenai Keys Road in Sterling.

For many drivers, the large, yellow, “Give Moose a Break” signs listing the current number of collisions are a good general reminder to increase attentiveness. For Laurie Speakman, with the Alaska Moose Federation, the numbers call to mind much more specific instances of the dangers posed by moose on roads.

As of Saturday, 17 moose had been killed on the central Kenai Peninsula, Speakman said. In Alaska, when a moose is hit and killed as a result of a vehicle collision, the meat is available for salvage by individuals, families and nonprofit organizations registering with the Alaska State Troopers. That used to mean a come-get-your-moose call could come anytime — day, night or weekend, summer afternoon or minus 30 winter night — to whomever was next on the road-kill salvage list.

The recipient would have to go butcher and remove the carcass then and there, wherever the moose was hit. At times this created safety hazards for the salvagers and drivers, especially at night and in poor visibility and driving conditions, sometimes requiring troopers to stay on the scene after dealing with the collision.

All’s fair view in love, war — Kasilof neighbors get up-close show of bull moose skirmish

By Jenny Neyman

Photos courtesy of Chelsea Ann Woolcock, http://www.chelseasconfidentcreations.com. Bull moose compete for the attention of a nearby cow in a neighborhood off of North Cohoe Loop Road in Kasilof on Sunday. The moose sparred for a half hour to 45 minutes in easy view of homes and the road.

Redoubt Reporter

Living in a high moose traffic area off North Cohoe Loop Road in Kasilof for the last two and a half years — and in Alaska for 17 — the thrill of seeing moose up close has lost a little of its excitement for Chelsea Ann Woolcock.

That’s bound to happen eventually, when most times she opens her deck door to let her dog out at night there’s a moose within 5 feet of her house.

“This last spring I think the same cow and baby (that are in the neighborhood this year) were in the road and I had to drive slowly while they were running right in front of me. It’s cute and cool but you get so used to it it’s like, ‘Really? I’ve got to get to town. Run in the woods, already,’” Woolcock said.

But Sunday, moose in her neighborhood gave her a renewed sense of awe as she witnessed two bulls spar with each other for a half hour to 45 minutes.

“It was really cool. I was really excited. I couldn’t hardly sleep last night, I kept thinking about it. I didn’t want to come home but I finally left them alone to do their thing,” she said.

Woolcock runs her own graphic design business, Chelsea’s Confident Creations, from home on Fairway off of Cohoe Loop. She was driving home about 6 p.m. Sunday when she saw two bulls, about 4 years old, she estimated, in a neighbor’s yard, slamming their antlers into each other. She figures they were competing for a cow in the area.

Eventually the jousting match broke up, one bull stopped for a snack, while the other headed into the woods in the direction the cow had gone, Woolcock said.

“We see a lot of moose around here, but you don’t get to see stuff like that a lot,” she said.

Bully into record books — Giant moose bound to go down in history

By Joseph Robertia

Photos courtesy of Bob Condon. Bob Condon, of Soldotna, poses with the 1,500-pound bull moose he shot in the Brooks Range in September.

Redoubt Reporter

Hunters who take to the woods in pursuit of moose harbor some sort of hope for success — whether it’s a modest desire to fill a freezer with meat or daydreams of a record-setting specimen. The moose Bob Condon, of Soldotna, bagged last month exceeded even his wildest wildlife daydreams.

Weighing more than 1,500 pounds with an antler spread of more than 73 inches, beams measuring roughly 10 inches in circumference at the base, and palms large enough to hammock a grown man, Condon’s bull was nothing short of a behemoth. In fact, it may end up being the second largest ever taken down.

“I knew he was a real shooter, but I didn’t know the true caliber of animal he was until I got up on him. I’ve hunted and guided nearly all my life and never gotten one over 950 (pounds), so getting one weighing 1,500 was a real treat, and it’ll be in the all-time books for sure,” Condon said.

The moose is surely awe-inspiring, though Condon himself is worthy of some amazement, as well.

At 73, an age when many might retire from the difficulty and discomfort of a hunt, Condon keeps doing what he

Bob Condon puts his moose’s antler spread — more than 73 inches — in perspective.

loves doing, even in spite of health setbacks. He’s had five bypass surgeries in the last few years and just had a heart attack in March.

“My doctors told me not to hunt, so this was a real blessing,” he said.

While pursuing moose, Condon has also been at the receiving end of bull’s antlers. Two years ago after he dropped a bull with a 56-inch antler spread, he made a mistake of setting his rifle down a little too far away when he went in to ensure the beast was dead. It was not.

“It was a stupid mistake, and I paid for it,” he said. “He picked me up by the antlers and flung me around three or four times, gored me, tore my boots.”

Bull binds — Fish and Game fields several calls of moose tangles

By Joseph Robertia

Photo courtesy of Larry Lewis, Alaska Department or Fish and Game. A bull moose tangled in a homemade swing in Soldotna had to be freed by Alaska Department of Fish and Game personnel last week. Fish and Game has received several calls lately of bulls with their antlers caught in swings, a hose and other debris.

Redoubt Reporter

As summer gives way to fall and the golden leaves begin to flutter down from the trees, male moose grow impressive palmed and pointed antlers which they use to spar with other males in an effort to determine who will lay claim to the cow moose of their particular area. However, the spiked racks of a few bulls on the Kenai Peninsula have recently ensnared them in more than a battle to breed.

“It’s not that unusual for a male moose to get tangled up in things, but we’ve had a few calls this year,” said Jeff Selinger, area wildlife manager with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Soldotna.

The first call came a few weeks ago as motorists and residents in the Kasilof area began seeing a medium-sized bull moose with what appeared to be a plastic swing set wrapped around its antlers.

“It was generating a lot of calls,” Selinger said. “We’re not sure how it got on there, if it was sparring with a swing set or if it just walked through and got snarled up, but we went out and looked for it a few times, and about a week later Larry (Lewis, a wildlife technician with Fish and Game) was able to catch up to it off of Pollard Loop.”

Lewis sedated the animal and was able to remove the swing, the seat of which was dangling like a chandelier under the tangle wrapped around the antler itself. The seat may have been interfering with the bull’s field of vision, which could have caused problems for the animal when looking out for predators or possibly even when crossing the road.

“If it’s not inhibiting their movement, vision, ability to eat or their health, then we’ll typically leave them alone, because whatever’s tangled on there will just drop off when the antlers drop, but this one was affecting its ability to see and the swing was banging off his head,” Selinger said.

Salvage special delivery — Moose Federation takes over grisly delivery duties

By Jenny Neyman

Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Laurie Speakman, of the Kalifornsky Beach Road area, is a volunteer driver for the Alaska Moose Federation. When a moose is hit and killed on a central Kenai Peninsula roadway, Speakman gets the call to go collect the animal and deliver it to a recipient in the moose salvage program.

Redoubt Reporter

When the phone rings in the middle of the night, the reason for the call often is as jarring a disturbance as the shrill sound of the ringer. Especially when the voice on the other end is a dispatcher from the Alaska State Troopers, and they’re calling because a death has occurred.

That scene plays out for 600 or more Alaskans a year — a couple hundred on the Kenai Peninsula, alone. In the best cases of that scenario, no people are injured and the only death involved is that of a moose, killed as a result of a collision with a motor vehicle.

When an unfortunate ungulate meets its end from shattering windshields and crumpling metal on a road in Alaska, the moose salvage program exists as a lemons-to-lemonade way to keep that meat from going to waste. Troopers maintain a list of applied-and-approved recipients — food banks, churches, families with limited financial means, etc. — who are called to harvest the animal when a moose is killed on the road. But even though salvaging meat that otherwise would go to waste is a sweet dose of lemonade, the process of getting the moose meat to a freezer can be a sour one.

Most collisions occur in the dark, so the call can come in the middle of the night or during the cold, extended darkness of winter. The recipient must get to the scene immediately, then butcher and/or haul off the moose themselves, even if it’s 2 a.m., 20 below and alongside a dark stretch of icy highway.

Starting this year, though, the road-kill harvest process in Anchorage, the Matanuska-Susitna area, Fairbanks and, most recently, the Kenai Peninsula, has gotten sweeter for recipients, thanks to a partnership with the Alaska Moose Federation. Now when the call about a moose road-kill comes, it isn’t saying, “Come get your moose,” it’s asking, “Where do you want your moose?” as federation volunteers now pick up and drop off the moose for recipients.

Think pizza delivery, Alaska style. True, it’s not neatly boxed up and ready to eat, but instead of just one meal delivered to the door, it’s an entire winter’s worth of meals, no payment involved.

“What they’re telling me is they appreciate the fact that they can almost stay in their jammies. They like the fact that I’m bringing the moose to them because if they’ve got things to do to get ready for it, at least they know that moose is coming in. It gives them that extra time to prepare for when I arrive, then it’s onto a tarp or winched into an overhang or wherever they want it,” said Laurie Speakman, who lives off Kalifornsky Beach Road near Soldotna, a volunteer for the federation’s moose salvage delivery program on the peninsula.

To catch a calf — Sterling neighbors pitch in to help orphan moose

By Jenny Neyman

Photo courtesy of John Menz. A cow moose and its young calf browse on cut-down trees in the yard of John Menz and Judy Warren, of Sterling. The cow died Thursday night, leaving Menz and neighbor, Tim Mankee, hoping to capture the calf for relocation by the Alaska Moose Federation.

Redoubt Reporter

Becoming an orphaned moose calf in June in a busy bear corridor near the Kenai River a block away from the Sterling Highway — ramping up to the peak of summer traffic, no less — is not the luckiest start to life. But for one young bull moose calf, finding itself in the Sterling yard of animal lovers Joe Menz and Judy Warren may have been about the luckiest place to face that situation, as Menz and neighbor, Tim Mankee, attempted to capture the calf so it could be taken to the protective pens of the Alaska Moose Federation.

The calf and its mother have been hanging around Menz and Warren’s home on Barbara Street, in between Suzie’s Diner and the Sterling Senior Center, for the last two weeks, Menz said. The calf was born not far from the house — through the trees on a neighboring lot with an abandoned trailer. Cow and calf have been browsing through the gravel-road, forested neighborhood this spring, seeming to prefer Menz and Warren’s yellow house as a home base.

“He’s been here so long all he knows is the house. For two weeks I’d see him turn around, stare at the house. He’d go across the street, turn around, stare at the house,” Menz said.

He and Warren kept their two dogs under house arrest out of respect for the moose, but even

Photo courtesy of John Menz. The moose cow and calf have been regular visitors around Menz’s home in Sterling for the last two weeks.

when the dogs would go out they and the moose seemed to grow used to each other, to the point where ever their younger dog, a female basenji named Sammie, didn’t feel the need to indulge any of her hunting-breed tendencies.

“She just wanted to play chase. But she knew that the moose was in trouble, she didn’t try to go after it. She was more curious than anything,” Menz said.

The cow seemed to be in poor health. She was small, only about 2 to 3 years old herself, making this calf likely her first. Menz said that she was eating fine, but didn’t seem to get much energy from her browsing, so he worried she was ill.

Menz and Menkee, a friend in the neighborhood, started “feeding” the moose, by cutting down branches and saplings of trees moose prefer to eat. It’s illegal to purposefully feed wildlife, and even negligent feeding — such as leaving food unsecured — can net a fine. But Menz and Menkee asked Fish and Game what they could and couldn’t do for the moose. Providing alfalfa or other non-natural browse is not allowed, but cutting down trees on their own property so the cow and calf could reach them is fine. So that’s what they started doing last week, with the moose chomping right through anything they cut.

“Her eyes and everything looked OK, but she wasn’t moving much — always just grazing, lying down, grazing, lying down. She’d be lying there and she’d be panting so hard, like she was ready to give labor,” Menz said. “The last day before she died she ran around here in circles, snorting and growling, like she was just trying to get her lungs to breathe. It scared me — I didn’t know what was going on — and the little calf just sat there watching her — didn’t know what was going on, either. You could see his front legs shaking.”

Moose shot after dog attack — Incident under investigation

By Naomi Klouda

Photo courtesy of Homer Tribune. Reports of moose in distress are becoming increasingly common as winter drags on.

Homer Tribune

A moose was shot Thursday after being severely injured after being run down by a pack of dogs on Ternview Place, in Homer, resulting in citations for the dogs’ owner and an investigation.

At about 7:30 p.m. March 23, Homer Police received a call reporting the moose had been shot to put it out of its misery after the dogs attacked it. The dogs, owned by Joseph Patten, were reported to Homer Animal Control for their aggressive behavior, said Police Chief Mark Robl. Patten was issued three citations, one for each dog.

It is not automatically OK for a resident to shoot a moose, either in defense of life and property or as a mercy killing, Robl said. The matter has been referred to the Alaska State Troopers for investigation.

It was one of four moose shot in Homer in recent months.

“One of the three dogs had severely injured the moose,” Robl said. “The neighbor and gentleman with the dogs decided they needed to put it out of its misery, so the neighbor shot the moose. The dogs had been reported as aggressive in the past. A report was made to the animal control officer, who issued three citations for having dogs at large.”

Feeding into sympathies — Some moose ‘help’ does more harm than good

By Jenny Neyman

Photo courtesy of Brandi Ivy. Fish and Game was called to attend to a cow moose in Kenai on Feb. 22 that had gotten patio chairs stuck on her head.

Redoubt Reporter

Alaska Department of Fish and Game personnel have many tools and techniques available to deal with wildlife problems, but bridging the human-animal conversation barrier isn’t one of them. That’s proving particularly unfortunate in recent weeks on the central Kenai Peninsula, as deep snows and scant available browse are putting hungry moose increasingly in contact with people.

“Sometimes you wish you could do the ‘Dr. Doolittle’ thing and just explain things to them,” said Larry Lewis, wildlife technician for Fish and Game. “These animals, moose, are nothing to trifle with. It just floors me whenever I see a picture of somebody hand-feeding one, or getting to close to them. They need to be respected for the size and capabilities they have.”

If he could, Lewis would explain to moose being fed by well-meaning people that they shouldn’t associate humans with free meals. Or when he has to go deal with the repercussions of those associations, that he could just tell the moose he’s called out to disentangle, haze off or worse, that he’s doing it for their own good. Instead, he does what situations warrant with the moose, and attempts explanations with the people.

“It’s clearly, by regulation, illegal to intentionally feed a moose or to negligently feed a moose. You have to take that in the context of the meaning behind the regulation, which was for the purposes of public safety and the health of that animal,” Lewis said.

Outgrowth of concern — Club launches effort to create moose munchies

By Jenny Neyman

Photo by Clark Fair, Redoubt Reporter. A cow moose munches on a branch earlier this winter. Heavy-snow winters pose challenges for the ungulates, which need to consume 2 percent of their body weight a day to stay healthy.

Redoubt Reporter

As if moose on the Kenai Peninsula don’t have it tough enough.

Population numbers have declined over the past four decades, especially on the northwestern peninsula, with poor habitat conditions owing to a forest that has matured beyond optimal browse production. Hundreds are hit and killed each year by cars. Come fall, they are sought by human hunters. In spring, moose calves are preferred prey for bears and wolves.

And now, with a deep-snow winter dragging on into a crusty-snow spring, they face starvation.

The difficulty for moose in a harsh, snow-laden winter is two-fold: For one thing, it’s tough to get around. Deep snow can drive moose to take advantage of roads, parking lots and other human conveniences, which puts them at greater risk of being hit by cars, snapped at by pets, snarled in everything from fencing to Christmas lights, and whatever other consequences may befall wildlife interacting with civilization.

Plus, high-stepping through deep drifts or having to punch through the icy crust that forms on top of freeze-thawed snow just makes moose expend even more energy. And that means they need to eat more. Thus is the other challenge of a tough winter — available food options are slim, and suitable browse becomes increasingly scarce as the winter drags on. Anywhere birch, willow or aspen sprouted new saplings last spring now stand gnarled, peeled, clubbed little stumps, chewed by hungry moose into Alaska’s version of a cactus.

But as much as people may hate the thought of moose facing starvation, or aren’t fond of the increased interest the ungulates take in gardens and landscaping when their preferred natural browse is unavailable, there isn’t much John Q. Public can directly do to help, since it’s illegal and unwise to feed moose. Much of what people might think to offer moose isn’t good for them, and habituating wildlife to expect easy meals from humans rarely comes without negative consequences.

A large-scale way to address the situation would be habitat enhancement projects, such as using fire to encourage forest regrowth. But again — talk about illegal and unwise — that’s definitely not a strategy available to the public.

However, it is not illegal to help the available natural habitat feed moose, and the Kenai Peninsula chapter of the Safari Club International has started a clubwide effort to do just that.

Board OKs aerial wolf kills — Peninsula packs will be targeted to boost moose

By Jenny Neyman

Photo courtesy of Brad Josephs. Wolves on the Kenai Peninsula, such as this one seen in the Homer area, will be targeted for aerial kills as soon as this spring on lands outside the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. The Board of Game passed predator control proposals Monday for Game Management Units 15A and 15C on the western Kenai Peninsula.

Redoubt Reporter

Starting as early as March of this year, wolves on the Kenai Peninsula will be subject to extermination from above, as the Alaska Board of Game on Monday voted unanimously to approve predator control measures authorizing the aerial killing of wolves in Game Management Units 15A and 15C.

The measures are presented to help boost declining numbers, low bull-to-cow ratios and calf survivability rates in a moose population that has seen better days.

“To me, this is a very clear-cut case. We can either sit, wait and hope, or we can be proactive and try to do something for our moose population,” said Ted Spraker, vice chair of the Board of Game and a retired Kenai-area wildlife biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

On Monday, Gino Del Frate, Fish and Game management coordinator for Region 2, gave a presentation to the board outlining the proposals and the department’s reasons for recommending their passage — a change in position for Fish and Game, which didn’t used to support aerial wolf control on the peninsula.

Evidence of a struggling moose population has been predicted and noted for decades, particularly in 15A where the population is estimated at about half what it was 30 years ago. The board enacted intensive management plans for both 15A and 15C in 2000. Since then, 15A hasn’t once met the population target, and only one year met the harvest target.

The main problem in 15A has been identified as a lack of quality habitat for moose. Nutritious moose browse is most effectively produced by fire, and 15A hasn’t seen a big wildfire in 40 years. The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, which covers about 80 percent of the land in 15A, hasn’t conducted any large-scale controlled burns. Doing so is challenging, what with oil and gas development, a busy airspace, expanding human development and a lack of a defensible firebreak between civilization and wilderness.

To add another wrinkle, the refuge has said it does not support aerial wolf control and will not allow it on the refuge, leaving Fish and Game only a small chunk of state- and privately owned land in 15A to possibly conduct an aerial wolf-control program on, if private landowners give their approval now that the board has.

With the limitation of available land on which to conduct aerial wolf kills, and

Photo courtesy of Brad Josephs. Wolves congregate in a pack near Homer.

the evidence that poor habitat is the biggest hindrance to a robust moose population in 15A, Fish and Game has been reluctant to pursue wolf predator control in the past. But declining moose harvest numbers has prompted the department to proceed, with the idea that killing wolves will free up moose for human hunters.

“In the past we have elected not to go ahead with an intensive management program up until about four years ago, and four years ago we started saying, ‘Well, let’s put it on the books, let’s talk about habitat, let’s talk about intensive management. That’s kind of where we are today. Successful wolf control alone is not going to increase the moose populations to objective levels. There’s going to need to be some habitat enhancement, and we are hopeful that that will happen,” Del Frate said. “However, wolf removal may allow for the reallocation of some moose to harvest by humans.”

Kenai moose: Boost or bust — Board of Game to consider predator control

By Jenny Neyman

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter

Redoubt Reporter

Salmon may be king of the waterways of the Kenai Peninsula, but on land, the much larger, leggier moose reigns in importance. Prized as a food source by both human hunters and animal predators, dodged (not always successfully) by motorists, dreaded by gardeners, photographed to the point of cliché — it’s as hard to miss moose as it is to miss the value of moose. And yet, they are not nearly as ubiquitous as they once were.

The halcyon, high moose-density days of 30 years ago may be gone, but moose certainly aren’t forgotten. As the Board of Game meets in Anchorage this weekend, it will likely hear considerable concerned testimony about moose on the peninsula, including predator control proposals that would authorize aerial wolf kills in Game Management Units 15A and 15C.

No matter how disparate the points of view that will be expressed, they will share one aim: Addressing the declined moose population on the peninsula.

But what should be done, where, when and how, are much more difficult targets.