A state judge has extended a restraining order that bars the Alaska Department of Fish and Game from killing bears in a controversial predator-control program.
Superior Court Judge Christina Rankin, in an order issued May 19, said the department’s decision to shoot bears earlier this month in violation of a previous court ruling justified her decision to keep the temporary restraining order (TRO) in place beyond the 10 days that is standard in Alaska law.
The department will be prohibited from conducting its planned bear cull in the Mulchatna caribou herd range until it corrects the legal flaws identified in a March 14 ruling issued by a different judge, Rankin said.
Rankin rejected the state’s request to lift the restraining order and its argument that the prohibition was no longer needed.
“Despite the State’s stated intention of discontinuing its bear predator control measures this season, due to its prior position that it would continue bear abatement unless specifically enjoined, this Court thinks it is prudent to specifically state that the TRO will not expire after ten days and extends the TRO until further order of the Court or until the State obtains proper legal authority, consistent with the March 14 Order, and the May 7, 2025 Order,” she said in her order.
It is the latest development in a lawsuit filed in 2023 by the Alaska Wildlife Alliance that challenged the predator control program.
State officials say the program is needed to boost Mulchatna caribou herd numbers, and it must be conducted in spring and early summer, when newborn caribou calves are vulnerable to bear predation. But the Alaska Wildlife Alliance and other critics say the program lacks scientific validity and was put into place without proper public input.
Superior Court Judge Andrew Guidi ruled on March 14 that the department and the Alaska Board of Game had violated state constitutional requirements when approving and starting the program. He agreed with the Alaska Wildlife Alliance’s argument that public notice and opportunity for public input was inadequate. He also found that state officials violated the constitution’s mandate that replenishable resources be maintained for sustained yield, by failing to properly analyze the program’s impact on bear populations.
After Guidi’s ruling, and after Rankin ruled on May 7 that an Alaska Board of Game emergency regulation allowing the program to resume was legally void, the department restarted the bear culls on May 10 anyway.
Eleven brown bears and one wolf were killed that weekend, the department said. That toll added to the 175 brown bears, five black bears, and 19 wolves that the state said were killed during 2023 and 2024.
That weekend action led to Rankin’s determination that the state had acted in “bad faith” and her decision to impose the temporary restraining order.
The Alaska Wildlife Alliance has also served notice that it may ask for the department to be held in civil contempt for its bear kills earlier in the month.
The Mulchatna caribou herd numbers about 15,000 animals, after hitting a peak size of about 200,000 in the 1990s, according to the department. The department’s goal is to have the herd expand to between 30,000 and 80,000 animals, big enough to support a hunt. Hunting of that caribou herd was closed in 2021.
