WHEREAS, the Territory of Alaska is blessed with unusual and valuable wildlife resources which can continue to benefit the residents of the area only if managed so as to foster perpetual conservation and use; and
WHEREAS, these resources also have incalculable scientific, recreational, and esthetic values to visitors and to scientists throughout the world; and
WHEREAS, the impending change from a Territorial to a State form of government offers a unique and challenging opportunity to establish a program of wildlife management calculated to assure these benefits for all time; and
WHEREAS, certain recent Territorial legislation pertaining to the administration of Alaska's natural resources has been of a highly controversial nature;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the American Society of Mammalogists, in annual session at Tucson, Arizona, urges all parties concerned with the proposed change of government to recognize fully the need for incorporating in the State government a natural resource administrative body empowered to carry out the most advanced methods of managing such resources in a manner to ensure their maximum benefits to mankind in perpetuity. It is further recommended that, in organizing such a body, consideration be given to the advice of a qualified and impartial group of consultants selected from persons most familiar with conservation problems and wildlife management problems in Alaska.