My husband and I are wildlife photographers who lived in Alaska since 1981 and 1976, respectively, and bought a home in Montana in 2005. For the last two decades we have been actively involved in Alaska's bear and wolf management issues. http://akwildlife.com/Photographers.html

We have appeared on the CBS Evening News four times as a result of our efforts to protect the McNeil River bears and the Toklat wolves of Denali National Park. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1999/11/02/eveningnews/main68682.shtml

My husband, Leo, a lifelong hunter, was appointed to the Board of Game by former Governor Tony Knowles in 2000 and to the six-member McGrath Adaptive Management Team to study the need for predator control.

Please make no mistake, I am not against hunting. My husband is a hunter, and our freezer was often full of caribou, and occasionally, moose. However, my husband is careful to hunt only in areas that don't compete with local residents who depend on wild game to put food on their table. Over the years, I have come to understand the consequences of sport hunters that are not as considerate.

Alaska has been a hunter's dream and prized destination... for people around the world. However, our frigid northern climate, harsh winters, and worldwide sport hunting pressure has decimated moose and caribou populations in some areas. The radical leadership of a sport hunting group, The Alaska Outdoor Council (AOC), is blaming wolves and bears for bull moose shortages that hunters are responsible for. (See Let's Manage Hunters, Not Wolves) This has been documented by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in research done for the McGrath Adaptive Management Team, a group appointed by Governor Tony Knowles, of which my husband, Leo, was a member. Please see 'Conclusions,' the last paragraph of http://www.akwildlife.com/Page5.htm

Only one predator targets adult bull moose...man. According to ADF&G, a bull-cow ratio of 25-30 bulls per 100 cows is normal in a hunted population. The dangerously low bull-cow ratio in the area immediately surrounding McGrath (as low as 6 bulls per 100 cows) is proof positive that man is the cause of the lack of bull moose in the area.

The AOC, a local representative of the National Rifle Association, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying in Alaska to promote the interests of hunters to the detriment of all other users. Hunters and trappers monopolize the memberships of the Advisory Committees and the Alaska Board of Game by such wide margins that even token non-consumptive members have no representation nor voice.

For more information about our work, see:
http://www.akwildlife.com/Photographers.html