Presence alone helps enforcement

Outdoors in Alaska, by Howard Delo

I must be getting old. I wish someone would explain the reasons for the current happenings in wildlife law enforcement to me. I'm serious, if someone can explain the logic in the thought process leading to this situation, I would love to hear from them. Just saying "cut the budget" is not an explanation here.

What am I talking about? A recent article in the Anchorage Daily News (Officers can't patrol all of Kenai River, state ranger says) relates that, "Bill Berkhahn (a state parks ranger) told the Kenai-Soldotna Fish and Game Advisory Committee that because of cuts to the Department of Natural Resources, the number of enforcement officers on the river has dropped even as use of the state's most popular sport fishery has steadily increased."

The article talks about how the number of rangers on the river has dropped from six to three since 1984. While other agencies have a law enforcement presence on the Kenai River, the state parks rangers are the only enforcement officers on the river every day during the summer, doing wildlife and boating safety enforcement. Because of this continued decline in staff numbers, the rangers now must pick which area of the river to check each day, leaving large sections of the river with no enforcement presence.

State government has only a few functions I would identify as mandates from the citizens of the state. Normally, those functions are spelled out in the state constitution. One of those mandates is public safety.

A bill is moving through the Legislature to provide 20 more troopers to the Department of Public Safety. I think that is a much needed addition to the ranks of the Alaska State Troopers, but I don't think the bill goes far enough.

This state has chronically underfunded and understaffed the State Troopers since statehood. This shorthanded approach to public safety has contributed to the current situation within the department where the wildlife troopers are now doing a bunch of criminal enforcement work in addition to their primary mission of wildlife enforcement.

A friend recently commented about this to me. He said that a trooper driving down the road in his vehicle is enforcing the traffic laws just by being out on the highway.

We've probably all seen that on the Glenn Highway during rush hour.

The same is true for the wildlife troopers or the state parks rangers -- just by being out patrolling the rivers, these officers are enforcing the applicable laws, whether they write a citation or not. But the enforcement officers need to actually be present and visible to the public for this approach to work. That's hard to do when either the personnel numbers are cut or the officers are not out because of other assigned duties.

Enforcement of criminal laws will always trump wildlife enforcement concerns when budgets are extremely tight or staffing is too low. However, sacrificing our fish and game resources for the cost of a few state parks rangers or wildlife troopers is "penny wish and pound foolish." I have noticed that the "honor system" for obeying laws tends to function best when the trooper vehicle is within sight.

Switching gears, a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned various "animal rights" groups were feuding with each other. I received an e-mail from Paul Watson, the president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. He informed me that my statement about this group trying to take over the Sierra Club was incorrect.

Watson said he and another director from the Sea Shepherd Society also are directors of the Sierra Club, holding two of the 15 director seats the Sierra Club has. Watson was honest enough to state that he represents an anti-hunting position on the Sierra Club board.

He states, "To sum up, I can assure you that there is no credibility in any reports of an 'animal rights' take-over of the Sierra Club and no credibility of a 'Sea Shepherd" takeover." I stand corrected.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biolgist. To leave him a message, call 352-2268 or e-mail editor@frontiersman.com.