Proposed Alberta wolf cull misguided: critics

A proposal to kill wolf pups and sterilize their parents to bolster elk numbers inthe Rocky Mountain House area is not the answer, the Alberta director of the Sierra Club of Canada says.

Instead, more should be done to reduce the loss of the elk's habitat,increasingly threatened byroads, pipelines and backcountry vehicle use,Dianne Pachal told CBC News on Thursday.

"You have less habitat, they have less food. Less food means less calves, less elk make it through the winter," she said.

The proposed wolf cull is the next phase ofa research project by the University of Alberta.

The goal is to find out if killing wolves will result in more elk, said lead researcher Evelyn Merrill.

The findings could alsohelp manage otherspecies at risksuch as caribou, she said.

"I'm following up on research that's been going on in the Yukon where we have found that if you can reduce the pack size, you can reduce predation."

Four wolf packs in the Rocky Mountain area arecurrently being monitored, with plans to conduct the cull next year.

Alberta's department of sustainable resources has provided support for the first phase of the project,including equipment.

But it has not yet officially approved the wolf kill portion of the project. It is not expected to make that decision until 2009.