Latest news with #AnchorageSuperiorCourt
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska Officials Push to Continue Culling Grizzly Bears to Save Caribou
Wildlife officials in Alaska are pushing back on a state supreme court decision to halt an aerial predator-control program they say is necessary to help reverse caribou declines. Less than two weeks after a court order halted the program, officials petitioned the state Board of Game for an emergency authorization Friday to continue killing bears and wolves in Western Alaska. The predator control there is part of the agency's efforts to the critically declining Mulchatna caribou herd. Since 2012, the ADFG has been using aerial methods to remove wolves from the herd's range. In 2023, the agency expanded its predator-removal efforts to include brown and black bears. A total of 19 wolves and nearly 200 bears have been removed. Then, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Andrew Guidi deemed the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's predator-culling management plan unconstitutional in a 10-page decision filed on March 14. Guidi found the Board of Game's approval of bear kills in the Mulchatna range violated constitutional mandates for sustainable management by failing to consider the program's impact on the bear population. He also found that the Board's action violated constitutional standards for public notice and comment. Including 'a bear removal program on state lands substantially changed the subject matter of the proposal,' Guidi wrote in his decision. 'These changes went far beyond varying, clarifying, or altering the specific matter of the proposal addressed in the original notice. As a result, the BOG failed to adhere to mandatory due process standards.' In response, ADFG filed its petition to the State Board of Game on March 21 seeking an emergency regulation to begin its third year of 'intensive management' in the struggling Mulchatna herd's range. Officials say that bear and wolf removal are 'critical' for the herd's continued recovery and don't negatively impact the bear and wolf populations in Western Alaska. They also argue the predator-culling program needs to continue to realize the effects of past removals. 'To be effective the MCH IM program was designed to manage large predator populations in a small, defined area at a low density for a period of time long enough to allow caribou calves to be recruited into the population and to reproduce, which is a minimum of three years,' ADFG wrote in the petition. 'The department is asking the board to find an emergency and make emergency regulations to aid in achieving the IM objectives and to provide a harvestable surplus. Not being able to remove predators from the calving grounds in the spring of 2025 further threatens the recovery of the MCH, which will also preclude subsistence hunters from being able to harvest caribou for an unknown number of years to come. 'Department-led efforts have resulted in positive growth in herd abundance and improved calf [to] cow ratios,' the peition continues. 'Not being able to conduct control efforts in the third year is detrimental to the program and will result in a loss of the improvements in calf recruitment and survival that have been realized since the department treatment began in 2023.' Western Alaska's Mulchatna caribou herd consisted of nearly 200,000 animals in 1997 when the herd provided more than 4,700 caribou for the subsistence needs of 48 local communities. At that time the herd also provided hunting opportunities for Alaskan and non-resident hunters. The herd has since dwindled to 13,000 caribou, despite hunting being closed since 2021. Although the Mulchatna caribou herd's declining numbers are indisputable, the cause of the population drop is up for debate. Critics of the ADFG's wolf- and bear-culling program say climate change is a key factor in falling caribou numbers. They contend that warming temperature trends have caused a dramatic habitat change, allowing woody bushes and trees to expand into tundra territory. Since caribou rely on lichen and moss to survive, the spread of woody plants across their traditional habitat has made it less suitable for supporting a thriving herd. Critics also say diseases such as brucellosis have contributed to the decline of the Mulchatna herd — not apex predators. Read Next: I Just Wanted to Go Caribou Hunting. I Didn't Expect to Tag the World-Record The ADFG aims to restore the Mulchatna herd to between 30,000 and 80,000 caribou, which it says would sustain annual hunts of 2,400 to 8,000 animals. According to the Alaska Beacon, the emergency authorization petition is being considered by the state Board of Game during its eight-day meeting.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Anchorage judge dismisses lawsuit challenging trans-Alaska gas pipeline on climate grounds
Nesbett Courthouse in downtown Anchorage on Oct. 7, 2024. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) An Anchorage Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the proposed trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline as incompatible with the state constitution. The suit, filed last year, alleges that the founding laws of the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. are incompatible with the Alaska Constitution's guarantee of equal access to natural resources because the liquefied natural gas pipeline would result in so much climate change that it would destroy access to fish and wildlife. The state had moved to dismiss the lawsuit, and the plaintiffs made a countermotion, leading Judge Dani Crosby to rule on summary judgment. In her ruling Tuesday, Crosby sided with the state of Alaska, whose attorneys had argued that the lawsuit is substantially similar to previous cases decided by the Alaska Supreme Court. In a written statement, the law firm Our Children's Trust — which has been representing the plaintiffs — said it would appeal Crosby's decision to the Alaska Supreme Court. When the lawsuit was filed, the eight plaintiffs ranged in age from 11 to 22. 'Today's ruling is a clear miscarriage of justice with enormous implications. Alaska's Constitution expressly guarantees equal access to and sustainable yield of the critical natural resources Alaska's youth need to sustain their lives, health, and cultures,' wrote attorney Andrew Welle for the plaintiffs. 'Today's decision eviscerates these protections by placing not only the Alaska LNG Project but all natural resource management decisions beyond review by Alaska's Courts, upending decades of precedent.' The AKLNG project envisions a pipeline running from the North Slope to Cook Inlet, with industrial-scale facilities at either end to handle the natural gas. As yet, construction work on the pipeline has yet to commence due to a lack of funding. The Alaska Department of Law, which represents the state in the case, did not have an immediate comment on the ruling. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska school districts named in lawsuit over public funds used for private schools
An empty courtroom in the Boney Courthouse in Anchorage. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon) Four Alaska school districts have been sued by a group of parents and teachers as part of a legal case alleging public school funding for correspondence programs is being used illegally for private school tuition. In a court filing Thursday, the plaintiffs named the Anchorage, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Denali Borough and Galena City school districts as defendants in the case, along with the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development. The filing is the latest in a years-long court battle over how Alaska distributes payments for correspondence school programs — which most homeschool students attend — and whether they can be used for private schooling. Last year, an Anchorage Superior Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and said that use of public school funds for private schools is unconstitutional. The state appealed the decision to the Alaska Supreme Court, who reversed the ruling and reverted the case back to the lower court. The court issued a summary order citing some constitutionally permissible uses of correspondence program payments, and said that in order to proceed with the lawsuit, the plaintiffs must name specific school districts whose correspondence programs they argue are unconstitutional. The court has not released their full opinion on the judgment to date. Families can receive up to $4,500 per student per school year from school districts under current law. There were more than 23,000 students enrolled in correspondent programs last year – about 18% of all Alaska students. The public funding allocated to correspondence schools in 2024 amounted to over $119 million, according to court documents. Scott Kendall, the plaintiffs' Anchorage-based attorney, said his clients brought the lawsuit after learning about the growing trend of families enrolling in correspondence programs to use the funds for private schools — some schools even advertised for it. 'So for example, we have a parent handbook for Galena (City School District), which runs the IDEA homeschool program,' he said. 'That parent handbook specifically says, enroll your kid in private school full time, and you can get the maximum amount of your allotment for reimbursement. … 'So keep in mind, the more private school classes you enroll in, the bigger a check you can get.'' The lawsuit argues spending on private school tuition is unconstitutional, and Kendall emphasized it's a misappropriation of public funds and the true cost is largely unknown. 'We don't know if this is a $20 million problem or $100 million problem, because to date, the Department of Education has been completely opaque on how many kids are doing this,' he said. 'All we know is that it's happening and that it's growing.' Kendall said school districts are required to track reimbursements, and so the true amount will be revealed in court. 'Homeschooling is a right. Every parent has the right to do that. The problem is, some parents have been engaged in a bit of a farce,' he said, and they argue that those dollars take away from the public school system. 'These funds are actually counted as public school funds,' he said. 'Even though the money is going, in many cases, directly to a private school. And that, to me, is really problematic.' The state has emphasized that the correspondence programs are public school programs for public school students. The state and parents who use state money to send their children to private school last year asked the Alaska Supreme Court to decide whether it is constitutional for families to spend the homeschool allotment on full-time private school tuition. The court declined to do that when it overruled the judge. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The Department of Law did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Friday. Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, and chair of the Senate Education Committee, said Friday that last year they had heard public testimony from families about their use of homeschooling funds, and some practices she believes are unconstitutional and inappropriate. 'They saved it up year after year after year so that they could pay for their child's flight lessons or take trips to Hawaii for cultural experience and exposure. And there were several folks who said that they also used their allotments to offset their tuition to private schools. And for my reading, my plain reading of our constitution, it indicates that those are not necessarily constitutional uses,' she said. 'And so I am looking forward to hearing the cases that are made on both sides, and I'll be following it closely to see if there is a need for us to revise legislation going forward.' Sen. Shelley Hughes, R-Wasilla, has been a vocal supporter of families' choices for educational options, and the governor's efforts to expand correspondence school programs. 'I'm glad it's being addressed, because we need to know what the courts decide one way or the other,' she told Alaska Public Media in an interview on Friday, shared with the Alaska Beacon. Hughes argued that public education funding is already going to private vocational programs, higher education programs, and preschools. 'So if we allow it for before K-12 and after pre-K-12, there's an equal protection element there with K-12,' she said. 'So I think we need to figure it out and get it right.' 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