"Ban on Predator Hunting in Alaska Preserves Sparks Uproar"

"In the past decade, the National Park Service has objected to at least 50 proposals by Alaska wildlife officials to liberalize the killing of predators within national preserves, but to no avail.

"We've gotten nowhere," said John Quinley, the Park Service's Alaska spokesman.

Predator control, which aims to suppress numbers of bears, wolves and coyotes in order to boost prey species, including moose and caribou, is incompatible with the Park Service's mandate to preserve "natural ecosystems," including at its 20 million acres of national preserves in Alaska, NPS said.

So about a month ago, the agency dropped a regulatory hammer."

Phil Taylor reports for Greenwire October 6, 2014.