Judicial Ruling Finds State’s Kenai Peninsula Wolf Eradication Program Unconstitutional

From the Anchorage Daily News, a judicial ruling determined that the state’s controversial predator eradication program on the Kenai Peninsula is unconstitutional. Here are some details:

A judge has ordered the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to pay $115,220 in attorney’s fees to a retired Anchorage lawyer and wildlife advocate who successfully sued the state over a wolf-killing policy on the southern Kenai Peninsula.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Una Gandbhir found the state violated the Alaska Constitution when it reauthorized a predator control policy first approved over a decade ago without considering new scientific population estimates for animals in the area. The order is the latest in a series of Alaska court rulings challenging state rule-making procedures over predator control programs designed to boost populations of moose or caribou by eliminating wolves and bears from game units.

The order was handed down in October and reaffirmed in December.