Lawsuit: Killing Bears to Boost Caribou Is Unconstitutional
Two brown bears look for salmon at Brooks Falls in Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve on July 4, 2013. (AP file photo/Mark Thiessen, file)
Conservation groups have filed a lawsuit this week challenging an Alaska state program that allows the killing of brown and black bears in an effort to boost the population of a once-thriving caribou herd in the state’s southwest. The groups argue the program is unconstitutional and lacks a scientific foundation, according to the AP.
The lawsuit, filed in state court, contends that the Alaska Board of Game’s July-approved program does not require the Department of Fish and Game to monitor bear populations to ensure sustainability. It also alleges that the program—which permits department employees to shoot bears from helicopters—places no limits on the number of bears that can be killed within an area roughly the size of Indiana.
The suit, brought by Trustees for Alaska on behalf of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance and the Center for Biological Diversity, names the state, the Board of Game, the Department of Fish and Game, and the department’s commissioner as defendants. Monday’s filing is the latest chapter in an ongoing legal dispute over Fish and Game’s efforts to rebuild the Mulchatna caribou herd.
The Mulchatna herd, named for its traditional calving grounds, reached around 190,000 in the late 1990s and was an important food source for subsistence hunters in dozens of communities. But by 2019, the herd had dropped to roughly 13,000, and hunting has been prohibited since 2021.
State officials say factors such as disease, hunting, food availability, and predation affect caribou survival, and in this case, the Board of Game determined that reducing predation could help the herd recover. The agency said it was responding to requests to restore the caribou as a regional food source.
According to the lawsuit, in May 2023 the agency killed “every single brown and black bear it found within the 1,200-square-mile focus area,” with a total of 180 bears killed across 2023 and 2024.
Nicole Schmitt, executive director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, said the program “threatens bears who move across vast stretches of public lands,” noting that some kill zones are near Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, roughly 30 miles from Katmai National Park and Preserve, and close to other wildlife refuges. Michelle Sinnott, an attorney with Trustees for Alaska, called the program unconstitutional, saying it “hands Fish and Game a blank check to destroy bears across an entire region with impunity,” and criticized the Board of Game for ignoring prior court rulings in what she described as an “unscientific and relentless war on predator animals.”
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