The state's brochure to "educate" voters about predator control declares wild animals are "important food sources for Alaskans." The brochure claims that "the Intensive Management Law" -- a loony notion that nature can be legislatively mandated to pump out enough moose and caribou to feed all Alaskans -- "directs ADF&G to undertake predator control."

But not even Bush Alaskans can "live off the land" anymore ("Fuel costs spur migration from Bush," Gregg Erickson, Aug. 10). It's all about the money being made by the recreational, motorized, wildlife-killing industries. Alaska's dwindling wildlife is a political subsidy that mostly feeds recreational hunting fantasies.

The state claims to respond appropriately if "hunting pressure" causes wildlife declines. Yet hunting and trapping continue unabated in the hunted-out, trapped-out wildlife death zones of Hatcher Pass. State biologists always claimed there were "too many moose ... too many cows ... too many moose per square mile." Now there is hardly any wildlife at all.

In Alaska, wild animals are "hunted" and "managed" the same way -- with guns and motors. The "ADF&G biologists" who approved killing all the moose now approve killing wolves from aircraft. Thousands of gallons of aviation fuel are being burned to blast wolves from the air so potbellied guys can be hauled into the wilderness like sacks of Mat-Valley potatoes, play pioneer-subsistence hunters, and then motor back to their comfy, Lower 48 lifestyles.

-- Rudy Wittshirk, Willow