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Why didn't Alaska seek cheaper answer for moose road-kill salvage?Alaska News & FeaturesSuddenly it is good news that a volunteer program that has removed dead moose from the sides of Alaska roads and highways for decades is being replaced by a $700,000, state-funded program. Why is this good news? Because that's the spin the Alaska Moose Federation has put on its carcass recovery, and the lapdog Alaska press is happy to swallow such things whole: "Get the press release. Rewrite the press release. Don't think about the press release.'' The volunteer program of old, according to the Mat-Su Frontiersman, created "dangerous situations for charity volunteers who often had to butcher the animals on the side of busy roads." Fair enough. Traveling on, or walking along, an Alaska highway is a "dangerous situation.'' Is cleaning up a road-kill moose any more dangerous? Has anyone been injured or killed while doing this? Better yet, did any reporter think to ask? Of course not. "Alaska allows nonprofit organizations to butcher road-kill moose and use the meat for their programs. But having the organizations do the salvage work is often inefficient,'' reported the Anchorage Daily News. OK, so it's about efficiency, not safety. "Gary Olson, executive director of the AMF, said the group has two trucks on call in Anchorage and just added five in Mat-Su,'' the Daily News added. "They plan to have two trucks going in the Fairbanks area and another five going to the Kenai Peninsula. Olson said the $700,000 grant is being used to buy the 14 ¾-ton Ford flatbeds." Great, and the reason the state didn't put this moose-retrieval program out to bid is? There are flatbed trucks used for picking up dead cars all over the state. It is every bit as easy -- in fact easier -- to wrap a strap around the head of a dead moose; drag it onto that flatbed; haul the carcass to a nice, big, safe parking lot; and call the charity to come butcher it there. In Anchorage, there is a nice, big parking lot next to the offices of the Alaska State Troopers off Tudor Road. Could you get a safer parking lot than one next to trooper headquarters to clean up all these dead moose? "In the Mat-Su Borough an average of 270 moose/vehicle collisions happen a year. In every collision an average of $35,000 worth of damage happens, according to AMF,'' reported KTVA News. What exactly picking up the carcasses of dead moose has to do with the costs of damages in collisions is unclear. So let's get back to the government-funded costs that are clear, the costs of retrieving dead moose. About 600 moose per year are killed on roadways in Alaska. But given that this is a really bad year for moose -- deep snow is forcing more of them onto the roadways where the walking is easier -- let's say bad or inattentive drivers kill 1,000 moose just around the connected urban areas -- Anchorage, Palmer-Wasilla, Kenai-Soldotna and Fairbanks. There are fair number of towing companies with flatbed trucks in all of these communities. Let's say the state puts moose retrieval out to bid, and some companies bid to pick up the carcasses for $300 each. Anyone who's had a cold-killed car or truck picked up in Anchorage lately knows that's a high figure, but let's use it for the sake of argument.
This is a case of reinventing the wheel. Like many, I'd like to know exactly how many Trooper man-hours are really spent guarding the moose carcass until the charitable organization arrives and how many folks have been injured harvesting moose along the road? Let's crunch the numbers and see if it really is worth 700k. If the current system works, why change it? Is it just for the convenience of the Troopers and a "possible" safety risk? At a time when all government agencies are having to tighten their belts, why are we spending money on this, when the current system works? Then what happens next year? Another 700k? Mr Medred, It is about safety, efficiency, and trooper time. Having someone (AMF)respond to and remove a roadkilled moose from the yellow line in traffic in under an hour, instead of 4-6-8-10 hours or longer, is not only much more efficient, but it is a safety issue that keeps folks out of traffic, and allows the troopers to get back to other matters instead of standing watch half the night. I don't know all the details about the grant, but can say that it isn't a state program. So, that's probably why it wasn't put out for bid. A member of the public designed a program that apparently appealed to the legislature. So, they funded it. On the idea of putting it out to bid and a potential savings, that could be a possibility for certain. However, it wasn't happening. Maybe in the future. But, I think you should give some credit to the AMF (even if the program is expensive) for designing a program that provides a service to the public, speeds roadway cleanup, and eases trooper work load. The next step of course is to criminalize, if it isn't already, a charity paying a private tow company to retrieve roadkill for them; or a private person or company volunteering their time and equipment to do the retrieval for a charity in "competition" (for tax write-offs) with AMF. Monopolies -cannot- exist without government collusion. Anything you give government power to regulate, often in the name of an amorphous "public good", some private group or person will attempt to use regulatory capture to turn into a monopoly. Rent seeking is the name of the game in business: don't blame the business, blame voters for allowing government the power to make the kind of market-limiting regulations that inevitably lead to such situations. Being from a moose-less and mostly roadless part of the state , this story and the comments have been very interesting. Yes, it is being expanded to both the Kenai Peninsula and Fairbanks areas. The ADN article has a better description of the program being funded. You have to consider that most areas don't have enough Troopers to cover their area, especially if one is stuck in one location for an extended time dealing with a situation. As you say, frequently, they try to get it moved to the shoulder as best they can and don't hang around. Now, you have general public, working right next to a roadway, usually in the dark and in adverse weather (after all, that's when most moose are hit in the first place). Whether this has resulted in people getting hit or not, it is easy to see the danger in that activity. Heck, cars pulled off the road get hit frequently enough by themselves on clear days in broad daylight. I definitely don't think that we should be paying $700,000 for a program like this, but I do believe that finding a good, reliable way to quickly move the roadkill animals to a safe, off the road location, is something that needs to be done. I drive 50-100 miles a day in the valley, and have seen a lot of roadkill this winter and a staggering number of live moose. I haven't seen any troopers waiting several hours for someone to show up to a roadkill. Earlier this winter I saw two back to back roadkills on the Parks, one near Church road, and the other near Vine. Drove back an hour later and they were both gone. Would be interested what the Troopers that respond to the roadkills think about this. I'd also like to know what the people on the road kill list think. I bet they are hoppin mad. Some parts of Alaska might need some alternative solution, but I don't see how the valley needs five trucks on call, or even the much less insane tow truck idea. But thanks for calling out the Frontiersman. We need real local news in the Valley. I wish you guys would sponsor a high school journalism class. And a reminder to all you Valley drivers, stop tailgating! There are a ton of moose out there! I can't blame the moose for jumping out in front of my truck, I can and will blame you for following me at a unsafe distance. I don't want to hit a moose, but I really don't want to miss the moose and get creamed by your SUV. If you don't tailgate, tell your family not to either. The expenditure to remove moose roadkill is really unnecessary in my opinion. The situation was explained to me here in Fairbanks. Volunteer organizations, mostly churches were being called from a list whenever there was a moose that needed to be removed from the roadway. Thus, the meat would go to a good cause. Once the non-profit collects the moose, the organization's name is put at the bottom of the list. When many of the organizations would be called, they started asking what "size" the moose was and "how damaged" the moose was, or what "location" was the moose. If they didn't like the situation they would deny the offer. Beggars became choosers instead of taking what they could get. The Alaska State Troopers (AST) were having a hard time finding people to come get the moose on the roadways. AST then allowed anybody to put their name on the list to see if the process would work more efficiently. I'm assuming the system is working better now. This administrations suport of the AMF is one of the good things that has come from its handeling of the whole moose/predetor issuepeople should talk to Mr. olson before forming an opinion about what he is doing,i have, this young man is fallowing his passion and respect for our wildlife and doing what he can to help,unfortunastly a lot of times volentier help is worth what it casts $700,000. I wonder what that works out to per pound for the salvaged meat. Lets say there is 350 pounds of salvageable meat per road-killed moose (much is too damaged for human consumption). If 200 moose were salvaged, the cost works out to $10 per pound. If 100 moose are salvaged it works out to $20 per pound. 50 moose = $40 per pound and so on. This seems like an expensive way to provide meat to those in need. The thing you have to consider, however, is that these costs would be the same even if the meat was not going to be salvaged. Actually, it might be higher since you would have to pay a disposal fee to "dump" the roadkill if it wasn't being salvaged. The costs for this program are not for the butchering of the meat at all, they are just for recovering it from the road and depositing it at the charity. The charity still needs to do the butchering/packaging etc... I am not saying it shouldn't have gone to bid, but I am not sure I would want to eat a moose that just got drug up on a dirty, greasy tow truck that could have just hauled a vehicle from an accident dripping all sorts of fluids all over the deck. Kind of like taking your nice clean game meat to the local auto repair shop to have it butchered and packed. I think most folks would like to have it taken care of with a vehicle used for that purpose only. I see what you are saying, but unless the moose is really torn up in the initial hit, the meat is protected by a nice, thick hide from anything that might be on the bed of a tow truck or other transport vehicle. If any meat is exposed from the hit, most likely that portion is not going to be salvagable for eating anyway. Most hunters utilize the hide for just that, protecting the meat from whatever is on the ground, be it gravel, sand, dirt, grass, etc... Either way, that problem could be easily solved by just laying out a tarp over the bed of the vehicle to separte the moose from anything already on the surface. Seven hundred thousand dollars ... this is how much it costs government to give away something of high value. Medred has got it right this time. It would have been so easy to let tow truck drivers bid on the jobs. And the solution offered by "anchskier" is even better -- only allow on the list those with the ability to get to the site quickly and remove the hazard quickly. Now, what are we going to do about all the kills on the Alaska Railroad? I have wondered about this same situation. I like how the AMF is set up to move the animals quickly, but, as you stated, this could be done a lot cheaper. Either the low bid idea you mentioned or even just requiring that the charities/individuals who get on the "roadkill list" demonstrate that they have a plan and the means to remove the animal from the roadway to a safe location within 30-45 minutes to be elegible to get on the list. Maybe the individual charity can have a contract with a tow company to do as you mentioned. Maybe they have an old truck they outfitted with a ramp and a winch to drag it into the bed. To get on the list, they would have to explain their plan. Simple as that. Interesting opinion piece Craig. The questions you raise have me hoping that you'll do a follow up report that gets to some of the answers. I'm especially interested as to why the state did not put it out for public bid (as you mention in this piece.), especially in light of all the hullabaloo going on with ADF&G. Why are you such a hater, man? Your Nature's Way pack must really be salavating right now, especially after your freshest kill and from your recent televised celebration you are obviously hungry for more. It must be something to wake up every morning thinking up ways to destroy those who are trying to repair the mess Nature's Way has forced on Alaska. Please tell your audience why your Nature's Way or this Psuedo Best Science, is the only way for Alaska. Why must it be forced onto every square inch of Alaska? Nature's Way has had its way for 25 years in Alaska protecting predators at all costs, including the cost of the loss of tens of thousands of game animals needed for food by Rural and Urban Alaskans, including the cost of forcing thousands of Rural Alaskans to leave their villages for the cities to feed their families, and lest one forget, including the cost of the life of one young teacher. How much more must Alaska sacrifice to Nature's Way? Are you really blind to how much wildlife Alaska has lost in the last 25 years and what it is costing Alaskans every single year? Is there really so little wildlife left out there that you are now forced to lower your standards to write an article objecting to someone picking up dead moose off the highway? Really? What is the true reason you are attacking someone who is trying to make the highways safer? Is there nothing you won't do in the name of Nature's Way? Maybe one should interview the troopers who sometimes spend several hours at a time waiting around for some lucky volunteer to jump out of bed at 230 in the morning to claim a moose or better yet schedule an interview the the Alaska Moose Federation before putting pen to paper critizing the program? I think you'll find a better answer to your $700,000 dollar question there rather than trolling for answers with a two page op-ed piece. Maybe someone should re-read the article. I don't always agree with Craig, actually I usually don't, but I do on this issue. I don't see what you are getting at regarding the Troopers waiting around for hours for someone to get out of bed to salvage it? That just supports what Craig is suggesting. Call out a tow truck to move the moose to a safe location (like a pullout or nearby parking lot) quickly so the Trooper would not have to wait around for hours for the volunteer to show up and then hours for them to butcher it. It gets the moose off the road quickly, improving the safety for the traveling public (no vehicles/moose/people in the road in the middle of the night). It saves the city/state money because an officer is not needed to keep watch over it the whole time. In many cases the tow truck is already responding to the scene to deal with the vehicle which hit the moose. It is not at all uncommon for the tow truck to grab a leg of the moose and drag it off the road so as to clear the traffic lane. In rural areas, Troopers are usually too busy to hang around the scene; so as soon as the tow truck arrives on the scene,the Trooper leaves. They rarely wait around while the moose is being handled. Another consideration is whether it is a good idea or not to leave the gut pile and sometimes the hide and/or head behind for the ravens as is often done in rural areas. In urban areas, it might be a good idea to remove the entire carcass in a truck. How is the meat distributed by this federation? I hope they aren't using it for their bear baiting stations. |
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