Alaska troopers need help picking up road-killed moose

FAIRBANKS -- Alaska Wildlife Troopers in Fairbanks are taking applications from people willing to collect moose killed on area roads.

Volunteers are needed because there aren't enough nonprofit charities responding to calls to help dispose of road-killed moose, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

Lt. Lantz Dahlke, who heads the Fairbanks wildlife trooper detachment, said it sometimes takes more than two dozen calls to get someone or a group to respond. "We're having problems getting qualified groups to come out and pick up moose," he said.

A moose conservation group's plan to pick up road-killed moose and deliver them to charities in Fairbanks this winter fell through because of lack of funding.

That is the same reason the Alaska Moose Federation mothballed its salvage program in Anchorage this winter.

"Our trucks are parked with a foot of snow on them," AMF director Gary Olson in Anchorage said.

The nonprofit organization was hoping to begin picking up moose killed on Fairbanks-area roads this winter using flatbed trucks equipped with winches and emergency lights.

The AMF started a similar salvage program in the Anchorage bowl last winter and retrieved almost 50 dead moose from the roads in the course of five months.

But the cost of buying commercial auto insurance made it too expensive for the organization to continue the Anchorage program and impossible to expand it to Fairbanks, Olson said.

Troopers are responsible for dealing with moose killed on roadways because they are considered state property. Troopers maintain a list of nonprofit and charity organizations to call whenever a moose is killed in a collision with a vehicle.

The Fairbanks troopers began accepting applications from individuals to pick up road kills about two years ago, Dahlke said.

"It's a once-a-year deal," he said. "You come in and fill out an application for a road kill and your name gets put on the list. We'll call you and if you fail to respond to the road kill you're off the list until next year and you have to apply again."

Troopers keep a list of area-specific names of individuals to call for moose killed in areas outside Fairbanks because it's often hard to get charities to drive that far to salvage a moose, Dahlke said.

Troopers began taking applications from Fairbanks-area residents after some people came in asking about the salvage program and requested to be put on the charity list.

"The reason why we did that is we were having so many problems with the (charity) organizations," he said. "There are times when people don't want to drive 50 miles out of town, butcher a moose until 3 o'clock in the morning and come back to town and give it to everybody."

The salvage program for road-killed moose in Alaska started in 1978. Prior to that, Dahlke said troopers would often get stuck with the job of butchering road kills and ensuring the meat was distributed to deserving recipients, usually a church or rescue mission.