Living with Wildlife in Anchorage:
A Cooperative Planning Effort

April 24, 2000

Dear Reader:

This plan captures the results of a pioneering effort, led by the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, to help Anchorage residents and visitors co-exist with the multitude of wildlife living in and around the nation's seventieth-largest city. No other city of its size boasts the number and diversity of wild animals found throughout the Municipality of Anchorage, a point of pride to most residents and a major factor in their quality of life.

Managing wildlife in an urban setting is extremely complicated and challenging, however. There are numerous competing interests to consider, as well as serious safety concerns. The public and a wide array of local, state, military and federal organizations worked together to develop this Plan, at considerable cost of time and effort over the past three years. It is an accomplishment of which every participant, including the members of the public who generously shared their time and thoughts, can be proud.

The plan is referenced in Anchorage 2020: The Anchorage Bowl Comprehensive Plan, an action strongly supported by all of the contributing organizations. Adding a wildlife component to the master plan that will guide Anchorage's development over the next several decades helps to ensure that wildlife remains an integral part of life in Alaska's largest city. And, because the comprehensive plan is revised and updated on a regular basis, it provides the incentive and flexibility for similar revisions regarding wildlife.

Given the unique nature of this planning effort, I think you will agree with me that this first edition of Living with Wildlife in Anchorage: A Cooperative Planning Effort represents a bold first step in assuring the conservation of wildlife in Anchorage for the benefit of its residents.