Today, August 29, the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge announced a temporary closure for the sport hunting of brown bears on the refuge effective September 1, 2014, until May 31, 2015.
After the Wednesday, August 27, meeting on the proposal, Refuge Manager Andy Loranger said that they consider all of the public testimony along with biological implications from hunting.
Loranger: “And you know again as presented by Dr. Morton, we believe that this is resulting in a population decline and what we have to do is measure that in considerate against why the refuge was established and what our legal mandates are in terms of conserving wildlife in their natural diversity.
The sport hunt for a species that we believe warrants a conservative approach to management of Kenai brown bear population for many many reason that were talked about this evening. We believe that meeting our mandates requires a conservative approach on the refuge.”
Wednesday night’s meeting was met with an array of opinions however a majority of them disapproved of the proposal.
