Strange, isn't it? The Board of Game theoretically manages Alaska's wildlife for all Alaskans.

Constitutionally, we each have an equal say in the disposition of this resource, an equal ownership. Whatever our interest, no one Alaskan is granted more ownership in this area than another.

Then why is it the perspective most common to all the game board members is a lethal, exploitative one in which the wildlife winds up dead? All are hunters. Some are also trappers. A couple are also guides. Whatever their interest, it inevitably involves killing

There is not a single avowed conservationist amongst them. It's not a word you see them use often when describing themselves. None earn a living photographing wildlife or guiding folks simply to view it. When they go out for a moose or caribou their intent is to have it dead and gutted by the end of the trip. In their careful lexicon hunters "harvest" while wolves kill.

Thus their method of wildlife management is to kill wolves so they'll have more moose and caribou for themselves to kill. As to the remaining 75 percent of Alaskans whose interests are nonlethal, our views just don't matter. I guess you could say they don't manage wildlife; they only manage wild death.

Art Greenwalt / Fairbanks