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Judge Allows State to Kill Southwest Alaska Bears in Bid to Protect Caribou This Spring
The ruling lets state crews keep removing bears from helicopter patrols as officials seek to boost calf survival in a herd that has been closed to hunting since 2021.
On Wednesday, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman ruled that Alaska wildlife agents can resume shooting bears from helicopters to help recover the Mulchatna caribou herd in Southwest Alaska.
State officials initiated the program because the Mulchatna caribou herd, which once provided about 4,770 caribou annually for Alaska Native subsistence hunters, dropped to around 16,280 animals last year from a peak of around 190,000.
Fish and Game has killed 191 bears in three seasons, almost all brown bears, while the Alaska Wildlife Alliance and Center for Biological Diversity continue challenging the program's legality through ongoing litigation.
Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said "we're happy that science prevails," and crews will begin operations soon as the Mulchatna herd is expected to start calving.