No refuge in Alaska?

The 16 national wildlife refuges in Alaska span the state from the remote Arctic on the northern edge to the volcanic Aleutian islands southwest of Anchorage. Across the refuges’ nearly 77 million acres, animal diversity abounds — ice worms and seabirds, black bears and grizzly bears, predators and prey. There is one guiding principle behind the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s management of these refuges: Conserve the natural diversity of wildlife as it is. In essence, let them be, and let humans enjoy the spectacle of nature there.

But at these particular enclaves, that also means letting humans hunt — within limits. Although the national wildlife refuge system started out as a refuge from hunters too, many of the refuges have been opened up to regulated hunting over the last 25 years.

And herein lies the problem. The state of Alaska shares the responsibility for managing the refuges’ wildlife, and it has its own goal: Making sure there are plenty of animals to hunt. In an effort to maximize the number of moose, caribou and deer, the state authorized in some areas more efficient but brutal methods to kill the wolves and bears that prey upon those popular hunting targets.

Concerned that the state’s predator control campaign could disrupt the refuges’ ecosystems, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a rule for the refuges that forbids killing wolves and their pups in their dens, killing bear cubs or sows with cubs, baiting brown bears, shooting bears from aircraft, or capturing bears with traps and snares. The rule took effect in September.

Alarmingly, Alaska’s congressional delegation is pushing hard to get rid of these ecologically sound and humane restrictions. A joint resolution revoking the rule has passed the House and is expected to come up for a vote in the Senate this week. It is misguided and should be hunted down and killed.

Let’s be clear on a few things. The federal rule prohibits only these gruesome methods of hunting on national wildlife refuges. It does not apply to state-owned wilderness or to rural Alaskan residents who hunt for subsistence. And according to a group of scientists who weighed in on the new federal rule, it’s doubtful that killing huge numbers of wolves and bears would automatically drive up the number of moose and caribou.

Nor is this a case of states’ rights being usurped by the federal government. If anything, the congressional measures would subvert the federal government’s decadeslong statutory authority over federal lands in Alaska. The national refuges are not Alaska’s private game reserve. That wilderness belongs to all of us. The Senate should stop this bill from going any further. .