Hunters are a minority in Alaska, but their allies are in the majority in the state Legislature. The Legislature passes laws that demand the state manage its wildlife to produce the maximum number of moose and caribou. No, they do it so that hunters will have the maximum number of targets. The Legislature also does its level best to make sure the state Board of Game, which is responsible for game management policy, remains a group that represents only hunters. So what we've seen over the past 20 years is a political struggle over wolves that pits the wishes of the majority against the desires of a powerful minority.
Science has nothing to do with it.
Science doesn't even really have much to do with attempts to keep the number of animal targets high. Lots of things affect moose and caribou populations. But for two decades, supporters of state wolf killing have argued that scientific wildlife management equals killing wolves. No group has argued that position more strongly that the state Board of Game, long a captive of the hunting lobby. But while hunters' ideas about animals have not changed, the ideas of the larger population have.