Volume 2, number 4, April 2000 Hero in the Line of Public Fire Lori Quakenbush is my hero. This makes her my first designated hero of this year, or maybe (if you hold with the public standard) this millennium. Her heroism is nothing simple, like taking out a nest of snipers, or vipers, with a sudden brainless charge: she holds the line. She doesn’t blink under fire—sustained fire. Lori Quakenbush is chairman of the Alaska Board of Game. That makes her a target for the wrath of everyone who knows better, from the governor to some bushrat who’s never bought a hunting license and by god never will. That is, just about every Alaskan can and does disagree with her. Even I do. Nowadays, "public service" might as well describe the main course at a cannibal feast. We the public do not feel well served. But public service can be miserable duty, and knowing you have only the illusion of real power to produce change can make it even less desirable. I mulled over such thoughts during the recent memorial event for Charlie Parr. (I disagreed with him, too). A lot of public servants and former public servants were there, not a one widely liked nor thanked. But the wretched truth is, we the public desperately need serving. The confounded world is too complicated for us to take charge of everything that impinges upon what we do and how we live, but no one can possibly do exactly what we would do, and how we would do it, if we were doing it for ourselves. Ingratitude is a guaranteed fringe benefit of public service. Ms. Quakenbush is smart enough to know that, believe me, and to understand that the power she seems to wield has the substance of a soap bubble—but even so, she can make a difference. And so she is. Last time I encountered her, at a convocation of scientists interested in the Arctic, I said, Wolves? (Unless you’ve been in the far South Pacific for the past year, I bet you’ve heard about the recent war over wolves in Alaska; the game board, no surprise, has been on the front lines.) She said, Oh wow yeah. What it is, you either think people are a part of and belong in the ecosystem, or you don’t. Middle ground is hard to come by.... Anyhow, if you think it’s okay to eat moose, you likely think it’s okay to kill wolves when they’re taking too many moose. Which they are, for the good of the moose population overall, in some places in the state. It’s a big state. No wonder people can’t put up with her. That much common sense is never popular, especially when it accompanies that much proof of information thoroughly considered. Well, I said. I sure can see opening wolf season more widely, and letting people shoot them from snow machines—Which brought a protest from the other person standing with us: Celia Hunter. As I said, Lori is one gutsy soccer mom—but I’d really rather not see them gunned down from airplanes by state-paid game officers. After all, we’ve been able to reduce their numbers before. Wolves recover, she said. Bears don’t. We can wipe out bears if we’re not really careful. We reduced wolves before by using poison. Can’t do that now. They get smart about snow machines, go where snowmobiles can’t. And as for trapping—trappers can’t make costs nowadays. When snow’s deep, wolves don’t just take the old and the weak. They can take any moose, eat part of the carcass, give up on it when it freezes hard, go kill more fresh meat. No, if you want moose, you have to kill wolves—sometimes. Some places. Then her young son came by, tugging at her elbow for some motherly attention, and a biologist came up to ask her another question, so I wandered off. I’d had my five-minute lecture from my friend, the public servant. I was more informed if no happier, and I’d been reminded that I owe her, and a lot of people with whom I disagree, a lot of gratitude. So: Listen up, you disagreeable sorts coping with Ester’s park, the roads, the fire department, the mines and waters. Thank you. And Lori—stand tall. Don’t let the hot seat burn your butt. All of you, please keep on coping. And remind me I said Thanks next time I start cussing you out for your obviously wrong-headed opinions... | ||
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