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 Alaska
Moose Federation E-News
Seward Phoenix LOG, Thursday,
November 3, 2005
“Whether you are a tourist
who wants to see a moose or a
local who doesn’t want to hit a
moose, moose free corridors are
important.” -- Gary Olson,
founder of Alaska Moose
Federation
Moose worthy of right-of-way
Alaska Moose Federation proposes
measures to keep moose off
driver’s bumpers
By
Russell Freeman Stigall
Seward Phoenix LOG
During the winter of 2003, 1,322
moose were hit by Alaska
drivers, according to Alaska
Moose Federation’s chairman and
founder Gary Olson.
At an average of $15,000 in
automobile damage per collision,
moose/car accidents cost
Alaskans over $18 million a
year, said Olson.
Added to the financial harm done
to Alaska’s drivers, physical
harm is also dealt. A quarter of
all moose collisions result in
human injury or death, Olson
said. Armed with numbers like
this and an arsenal of
mitigation measures to reduce
moose on highways, Olson’s
three-year-old non-profit
federation has the government’s
ear.
One Seward official Olson has
caught the attention of is Vice
Mayor Willard Dunham. Dunham
says he likes to have moose
around Seward and in his yard
and he “also likes them for
dinner on occasion.”
With the upcoming Mile 0-8 road
construction project, Olson and
Dunham believe there are
economical ways to reduce the
number of moose killed on the
Seward highway. Public safety
earmarks make up 10 percent of
transportation road improvement
dollars and these funds could
finance wildlife migration
throughways, Olson said.
Dunham, who laments the fate of
a so many local moose to road
kill, will attend a Moose
Federation meeting in Kenai this
month. He is interested in a
state Department of
Transportation/Public Facilities
project on the Sterling Highway
that alerts motorists to the
presence of moose on the road.
If DOT is looking into
protecting Kenai from moose
collisions, “why not Seward?” he
questioned.
Once he gets the ball rolling,
the vice mayor would like to see
Seward’s Fish & Game advisory
board get involved. “Seems like
the thing to do,” he said.
No one thinks about a moose as
an economic engine, said Dunham.
People come up to Alaska and go
crazy to see the moose.
continued
2
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