Anchorage moose salvage effort may expand statewide

The Alaska Moose Federation wants to expand a moose salvage program it began in Anchorage last winter to encompass Fairbanks, the Kenai Peninsula and the Mat-Su area, starting this winter. The federation uses flatbed trucks equipped with winches and lights similar to those on a tow truck to haul moose away in one piece.

"We just pick it up and deliver it to the charities so the charities don't have to come to the road surface," said AMF executive director Gary Olson.

The purpose of the salvage program is safety, he said. It takes volunteers 3-4 hours to butcher a moose in often-hazardous conditions, while the AMF can have the dead animal on the back of a truck in a matter of minutes.

"We're on scene for less than 20 minutes," Olson said. "We don't touch the moose. We deliver it whole so (charity volunteers) can process it safely away from the road."

The AMF's salvage effort has the endorsement of Alaska State Troopers director Col. Audie Holloway, who called it a "great program."

Troopers are the ones responsible for dealing with dead moose on roadways and calling charities on a designated list to pick them up.

In addition to addressing safety issues involved with butchering moose on the side of the road by getting the dead animal off the road quicker, the salvage program cuts the amount of time an officer must remain on scene waiting for volunteers from a charity to arrive, Holloway said.

"It's positive all around," he said.

VOLUNTEERS NOT ALWAYS QUALIFIED

While most charity organizations do an outstanding job of responding to roadkills and salvaging moose, that's not always the case, Olson and troopers said. Some charities don't have the equipment, manpower or knowledge necessary to butcher a moose in the middle of the night in the winter, Olson said.

There have been cases where the people who showed up to salvage a moose were drunk and cited for DUI and other cases where people had no idea what they were doing, Olson said. He cited the example of two elderly women who showed up to cut up a calf moose that had been hit in a blizzard at 2 a.m. on the Seward Highway in Anchorage.

"They showed up with kitchen knives and had never butchered a moose before," he said, adding that it took them nine hours to do so and troopers were on the scene much of that time.

The AMF started the salvage program in Anchorage in December and has picked up more than 40 moose in the past five months, Olson said.

Olson said that each time the AMF picks up a moose, it saves the Anchorage police 2 1/2 hours because they don't have to wait for charity volunteers to arrive.

Lt. Dave Parker, public information officer for the Anchorage Police Department, agreed that the program was an unqualified success this winter in Anchorage. "We couldn't ask for better service," Parker said. "They come out and scoop up the moose, and they do it within a half hour.

"It keeps our officers from being endangered, and it keeps volunteers from the charity safe because they're not trying to butcher a moose on the side of the road," he said.

Some charities in Anchorage initially expressed reservations about the program because they were worried some meat would disappear before it got to them, but that hasn't been the case, Parker said.

"None of the charities I know of have complained," he said. "The moose is whole when it leaves us, and it's whole when the charity gets it. Nobody is whacking backstraps off it."

In game management unit 20B, which covers most of the road system around Fairbanks from Salcha to Chena Hot Springs to Ester Dome to Cleary Summit, there is an average of about 150 reported roadkills each year, said assistant area biologist Tom Seaton with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks.

In December and January, the worst months for moose-vehicle collisions, there is a moose killed almost every other day, Seaton said.

Sgt. Scott Quist with the Alaska Wildlife Troopers in Fairbanks said he has had only cursory discussions with Olson regarding the expansion of the program to Fairbanks but said "it sounds like a good deal" and troopers are interested in pursuing the idea. Quist said troopers want to talk to local charities -- there are 31 on the list in Fairbanks -- to see what they think. He also said there are lots of details to be worked out, such as how far federation volunteers will go to pick up a downed moose.

Having someone to call who will respond promptly to pick up a dead moose definitely would save troopers some time, Quist said.

"There are times in the middle of winter when our dispatchers will spend an hour looking for a charity to get a moose," he said.

ON CALL 24 HOURS A DAY

In Anchorage, the AMF has two trucks on call 24 hours per day, Olson said. When a moose is hit, a troopers dispatcher notifies federation volunteers and the charity that is in line to get the moose.

Olson said it takes volunteers about 20 minutes to respond, less than 20 minutes to load the moose and 40 minutes to deliver it to the charity.

"We've backed up in garages and tipped them out on floor," Olson said. "People don't even have to start up their car."

The moose federation started the program in Anchorage with three trucks donated by Pruhs Corp. and used a highway safety office grant to equip them with lights and winches. The Alaska chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors donated 12 trucks that will allow the organization to expand statewide, Olson said. He hopes to have at least two trucks in Fairbanks by September and is looking for volunteer drivers.

If the federation has the trucks and volunteers ready to go, Holloway doesn't see that time frame as a problem.

"I think it can be done that quick," he said.

In addition to picking up moose and delivering them to charities, volunteers record information at the scene of the crash, such as where the collision occurred, whether it was in a known moose corridor, what kind of lighting was along the road and if there was moose browse along the road that attracts the animals.

Compiling that kind of information and keeping it on file could help reduce moose-vehicle collisions, Olson said.

"Hopefully with future mitigation, we can turn some of these trends around," he said.

Fairbanks-area wildlife biologist Don Young said the salvage program sounds like a good idea.

Removing dead moose from the road whole would eliminate one problem that results from road-killed moose what to do with the gut pile that is left behind.