Political Quotes

“I come to the floor to oppose this effort by my good colleague from Alaska and by congressional Republicans to, in my view, turn back the clock 100 years on the management of our native wildlife on our national wildlife refuges in Alaska. Since 2002, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has embraced what some have called a politically driven and even unscientific regime of intensive predator control. I think it is helpful to look at the views of a former Governor of Alaska, Tony Knowles, who recently commented in High Country News: The most disappointing thing is that the balance of the views on the Board of Game has disappeared. I tried to work with a balanced board that reflected subsistence hunters, sport hunters, guides and conservationists, but now the board is made up of people who want to make hunting ungulates the priority for wildlife management. There's been a focused effort to dramatically reduce populations of wolves, coyotes, and bears, and the methods and means they've used are both unscientific and unethical. That is not my quote, but that of former Governor Tony Knowles of Alaska. In addition, in the past decade, the Alaska Board of Game and the department have turned their back, I think, on a long history of not only working together between Federal and State agencies but embracing ethics as central to wildlife management--not just to maintain the viability of that management but to maintain the support of the public for that management.…”