JUNEAU, Alaska — Wildlife officials in Alaska have received court approval to continue their controversial bear elimination program, which includes shooting bears from helicopters, as part of efforts to help a declining caribou population recover, a judge decided Wednesday.
Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman denied a request from two environmental organizations — the Alaska Wildlife Alliance and Center for Biological Diversity — to temporarily suspend the program while their legal challenge proceeds. The judge determined that the conservation groups couldn’t demonstrate that state officials lacked reasonable justification for implementing the plan.
The court’s decision comes at a crucial time, as the Mulchatna caribou population in southwestern Alaska is approaching calving season. Newborn caribou are especially vulnerable to predation by bears and wolves during this period.
Alaska officials view the bear elimination effort as essential for restoring the caribou population, which historically supplied subsistence hunters from numerous communities with approximately 4,770 caribou annually. The herd reached its peak at roughly 190,000 animals.
However, the caribou numbers started dropping in the late 1990s and early 2000s, falling to about 13,000 by 2019. State Department of Fish and Game estimates put last year’s population at around 16,280. Hunting restrictions have been in place since 2021.
Between 2023 and 2024, state agents eliminated 180 bears, primarily brown bears, along with an additional 11 last year, according to court documents filed by the environmental groups. The organizations contend that the Alaska Board of Game reauthorized the program last year without crucial information about bear population data and long-term viability.
Cooper Freeman, Alaska director at the Center for Biological Diversity, expressed the groups’ position in a statement, saying they support caribou recovery efforts, “but the state simply hasn’t shown that the unrestrained killing of bears is going to help us get there.”
“We need to stop this disgraceful waste of the state’s limited resources and work based on science to protect all our wildlife,” Freeman said.
Government lawyers have maintained that officials conducted a thorough examination of bear population factors when implementing the plan.
“The herd has persisted at low numbers but started showing a positive response since 2023, when bear removal during calving seasons began,” they stated in legal filings.
The state Department of Law, representing both the board and Department of Fish and Game, didn’t respond immediately to requests for comment Wednesday. Legal representatives from Trustees for Alaska, who represent the conservation organizations, are examining the decision and “will consider all available options,” spokesperson Madison Grosvenor said via email.
This program has faced continuous legal challenges. Last year, a different judge found problems with the adoption process in a previous case brought by the Alaska Wildlife Alliance and determined the state lacked adequate bear sustainability data.
Emergency regulations put in place by the state were subsequently overturned. Officials later announced a new public review process for reauthorizing the program, which the board approved last July.
