Killing bears and wolves to increase moose and caribou in Alaska has won the approval of the state Supreme Court.

Justices on Friday handed down an opinion (PDF) ruling that two environmental organizations -- the Alaska Wildlife Alliance and Defenders of Wildlife -- are wrong in arguing that the state constitution ties the hands of the state in regards to aerial wolf hunts, bear snaring and other forms of intensive management.

Environmentalists were appealing a 2006 decision by a state Superior Court judge who concluded that while some might not like these sorts of efforts to create temporary, predator-free areas to improve moose and caribou survival, such activities are legal. Environmentalists argued that the idea of creating temporary geographic extinctions violated the "sustained yield" provision of the Alaska Constitution.

Not so, said a unanimous court. The Board of Game, it ruled, does have "a constitutional and statutory duty to apply principles of sustained yield when it establishes predatory control plans, but appellants did not meet their burden of demonstrating that the 2006 plans fail to comply with sustained yield principles."

State wildlife biologists have noted that while they might temporarily wipe wolves out in a small area with aerial hunts, the wolves quickly return once such hunting is stopped. Wolves, in particular, have proven themselves highly resilient in the last U.S. state with large expanses of undeveloped wilderness habitat. The federal government in the 1950s basically tried to wipe the species out and couldn't do it.

State efforts since, though sometimes significant, have never reached the level of the war on wolves fought by federal animal-control gunners, though some hunters in the state have advocated for another such war. The ruling was in part a victory for them in that it endorsed what the state calls "intensive management."

A plan enacted by the Alaska State Legislature, intensive management calls for the maximization of moose and caribou in some areas of the state for the benefit of hunters and wildlife watchers to the detriment of predators.

To boost moose and caribou numbers, state wildlife biologists contend, it is often necessary to either kill the wolves and bears that eat young moose and caribou, or capture and relocate those predators.

State programs have, however, leaned heavily toward the kill side because it is much cheaper and easier than capture-and-relocation operations.

Killing charismatic megafauna is hugely unpopular with animal protection groups and some environmentalists. And some biologists within the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have questioned whether the state might, in some cases, have gone too far in executing predators to save prey.

The court, however, noted that while this sort of manipulation of wildlife populations might be distasteful to some "the management of wildlife resources may include a preference between predatory and prey populations."

The reality of natural ecosystems is that they are extremely fluid, making it impossible to manage them for maximum numbers of all species of wildlife at all times.

Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com.