CONTACT: Dan Ferguson UA Press at 907/474-2776 or e-mail:
dan.ferguson [at] uaf.edu or Katrina Woolford, Marketing/Publicity at UA
Press 907/474-5345 or email: fnkrw [at] uaf.edu
Fairbanks, Alaska - The University of Alaska Press has published,
"Changing Tracks: Predators and Politics in Mt. McKinley National Park"
by Timothy Rawson, faculty member with Alaska Pacific University.
The book describes the first attempt from the National Park Service to
preserve wolf populations in the 1930s. The new ideas of ecology clashed
with attitudes toward predators and the existing notion of parks as game
refuges. When the park service attempted to apply this new policy, in
what was then known as Mt. McKinley National Park, it met fervent
opposition from Alaskans and the nation's sportsmen and from many within
the park service.
The book chronicles the evolving views of both the role of wolves in
natural ecosystems and the purpose of the parks. Over the years, the
debate has engaged federal administrators, game managers,
conservationists, tourists, and trappers. It also involved scientists,
notably Adolph Murie, the first to systematically study wolves to find
out if they were to blame for the demise of the favored Dall sheep.
"Rawson has told an essential Alaska story, but the issues are of
national importance in conservation history, national park philosophy
and attitudes toward wolves," said UAF biologist David Klein. "The book
is a timeless and valuable reference."
Wolf management remains a controversial subject in Alaska and the lower
48. Rawson's work offers an examination of the history of animal
domestication and predator control, from the ancient age through the
Alaska gold rush and into the 20th century, and the establishment of Mt.
McKinley National Park where a dramatic change in policy became the
cornerstone for the modern wolf controversy.
CONTACT: Dan Ferguson UA Press at 907/474-2776 or e-mail:
dan.ferguson [at] uaf.edu or Katrina Woolford, Marketing/Publicity at UA
Press 907/474-5345 or email: fnkrw [at] uaf.edu