Alaska Plans Rescue Effort as Harsh Winter Kills Moose

Moose are starving in snow so deep that they have trouble walking and finding food, and the state of Alaska will attempt to save the animals, wildlife officials said Friday.

More than 1,300 of the large mammals have died so far this winter and many more are facing death, the officials said.

Moose make their way onto roads or railroad tracks, which are plowed and provide easier walking, but they are often struck and killed. Others die while searching for something to eat as they struggle through the deep snow.

“The moose population of south-central Alaska has taken a big hit and is going to take a bigger hit in the next six to eight weeks,” said Lew Pamplin, director of the state Division of Wildlife Conservation, which began the save-the-moose effort for the state Department of Fish and Game.

About 250 tons of hay will be scattered around the Susitna Valley north of Anchorage, where the deepest snows in decades are making life perilous for the moose.

Feeding wildlife normally is discouraged, but this winter’s relentless snowstorms and the suffering they have brought to the moose have led state officials to alter their normal policies.

The Department of Fish and Game has been joined by the Alaska Railroad, the state Department of Transportation, the state Division of Forestry, the Army, the National Guard and a private group called Save the Moose.

The government agencies intend to start clearing areas on either side of the railroad tracks and roads where moose are being killed, giving them somewhere else to walk. Trails leading away from tracks and roads will be created, using bulldozers and snowmobiles.

So far this winter, 570 moose have been killed by the state-run Alaska Railroad trains--more than twice the average winter railroad kill, with the spring snow melt still two months away.

More than 300 moose have been killed by cars on the roads around Anchorage this winter. An additional 275 moose have died on the roads of the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage.

Sixty moose have been killed by people defending themselves and their property as the desperate animals invade cities, subdivisions and yards, authorities said.

The save-the-moose plan is being supported by Alaska Gov. Steve Cowper, and a $750,000 rescue appropriation is being considered by the state Legislature.