Our View: Fish & Game and foul

That's a sentence that should make the late-night stand-up routines.

But it's no joke. Corey Rossi, first appointed to Fish and Game by then-Gov. Sarah Palin in 2009, is accused of lies in a big-game hunting report to cover for clients.

When Palin appointed Rossi to the newly created job of assistant commissioner for abundance management, critics complained he got the job for his ties to the Palin family and his wildlife politics.

In 2010, when Gov. Sean Parnell made him wildlife conservation director, 39 current and former Alaska Fish and Game professionals protested, arguing that Rossi was simply unqualified for the job.

If the troopers' charges prove true, Rossi has proved his critics right in a disgraceful manner.

Rossi's appointment and its continuation under Parnell have taken the Alaska Department of Fish and Game far afield from its international reputation for professional management, sound science and field work and success in enforcing the principle of sustained yield by protecting the resource.

Instead, current state policy aims at maximum harvest by any means necessary.

Further, having a guide work as the director of the Wildlife division is a textbook example of conflict of interest. Certainly, Alaska's guides should have a say in fish and game management, and they do, through the boards of Fish and Game and regional advisory councils. But run the division, which requires a far wider view? No.

Fish and Game professionals who protested Rossi's appointment tried to make clear that the personal and political shouldn't trump the discipline of scientific work. Alaska's success in managing fish and game populations for generations rests not on politics and pressure groups but on rigorous field work and a wise tendency toward the medical maxim of "first do no harm."

The job is a bear. Protect fish and game, make recommendations about who gets what share and do justice to relentless claims, with both livelihoods and the health of ecosystems at stake. It's a tremendous challenge for the straightest of arrows -- never mind anyone who comes to the job with a narrow agenda and a disregard for the law.

Fish and Game has suffered under the last two administrations. Rossi's alleged violations are the worst, but DUI and reckless driving arrests of then-Commissioner Denby Lloyd and department spokeswoman Jennifer Yuhas didn't help. Lloyd was a controversial appointment but at least was a seasoned, career professional. Yuhas came to the job from the Alaska Outdoor Council, a powerful partisan outfit and fierce proponent of predator control.

More important than these individual cases is the prevailing climate. Science that contradicts policy gets short shrift and state employees have been warned against comments at conferences that don't square with administration views.

To argue that politics and special interests won't affect fish and game decisions is naive. But our nonpolitical priorities come first -- sustain fish and game for the long haul and demand the hiring of qualified professionals of integrity.

Rossi's resignation drives that point home.

BOTTOM LINE: Fish and Game needs less politics, more science -- with honesty and competence.