Since Alaska's wild resources are being managed as recreational hunter welfare, and as economic subsidies for vehicle dealers, wolves are essentially being killed to "feed" Sen. Ralph Seekins. He claims a "subsistence heritage," but "subsists" as a high-volume vehicle dealer.

Consumptive priority keeps the "needy" subsistence rabble from interfering with his recreational, fly-in hunts.

Precise, uniform meanings of basic terms are fundamental to "scientific" game management. However, game managers (and hunters) bombard the public with an emotionally-charged lingo of interchangeable, culinary references. "Sustenance," "depend on," "food on the table," "livestock," "feeding Alaskans" and "consumption" are fancy words for "eating." If hunters can afford fleets of expensive vehicles, then "eating" is not a "priority."

When bridges fall, engineers are blamed. When wildlife populations fall, it's "wolves of mass destruction." Public wildlife initiatives -- such as "no same-day vehicle-borne hunting," or "no hunting within a mile of road or vehicle" -- will eliminate phony subsistence and restore hunted-out wildlife populations better than yet more misleading game management mumbo-jumbo framed into law.

-- Rudy Wittshirk / Willow