Lawsuit: Killing Bears to Boost Caribou Is Unconstitutional

Conservation groups sued this week over a state program in Alaska that authorizes killing brown bears and black bears as a way to increase the size of a once-significant caribou herd in the southwest part of the state. The groups allege the program lacks a scientific basis and is unconstitutional, per the AP. The lawsuit filed in state court says the program adopted by the Alaska Board of Game in July doesn't require the state's Department of Fish and Game to monitor bear populations to ensure their numbers remain sustainable. It also says the program—carried out by department employees and allowing them to shoot from helicopters—sets no limits on how many bears can be killed in an area that's roughly the size of Indiana.

Filed by Trustees for Alaska on behalf of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance and the Center for Biological Diversity, the lawsuit lists as defendants the state, the board, the Department of Fish and Game, and the department's commissioner. Monday's complaint is the latest in an ongoing legal fight over what Fish and Game has cast as an effort to restore the Mulchatna caribou herd. The herd, named for its traditional calving ground, peaked in number at around 190,000 in the late 1990s and had provided an important source of food for subsistence hunters from dozens of communities. But the herd's numbers began falling, down to about 13,000 caribou by 2019, and hunting hasn't been allowed since 2021, per the department.

The department has said that factors such as disease, hunting, food availability and quality, and predation can affect caribou survival, and in this case, the board determined it could address predation. It said it's responding to requests to help rebuild the herd and restore the caribou as a food source for the region. Per the lawsuit, in May 2023 the agency killed "every single brown and black bear it found within the 1,200-square-mile focus area." Altogether, in 2023 and 2024, 180 bears were killed, the lawsuit says.

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Nicole Schmitt, executive director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, said the program "threatens bears who move across vast stretches of public lands." Schmitt said sections of the area in which bears can be killed are near Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, about 30 miles from Katmai National Park and Preserve and near wildlife refuges. Michelle Sinnott, a Trustees for Alaska attorney, called the program unconstitutional. She said it "hands Fish and Game a blank check to destroy bears across an entire region with impunity. The Board of Game has once again shirked its constitutional obligations and ignored prior court decisions in its unscientific and relentless war on predator animals."