Though the wildfire season really hasn't started in the Rockies, Sierra Nevada, or Cascade ranges, it's been well under way in Alaska, where national park fire managers are reporting unusual fire behavior.

In moves designed to counter Alaska's current approach to wildlife management, National Park Service officials in that state are instituting hunting and trapping bans to protect wolves and bears in their parks and preserves.

In a joint release, officials for the National Park Service and the Alaska Fish and Game Department have publicly resolved their differences over the killings of radio-collared wolves that roamed in and out of Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve.

Helicopter-borne Alaskan predator control agents have killed an entire wolf pack from Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, prompting the National Parks Conservation Association to call for immediate suspension of the program near the national preserve.

Alaska wildlife officials, in a move certain to flare jurisdictional issues between the state and federal governments if OKed, are proposing that they be allowed to kill predators in national parks and preserves without prior approval from the National Park Service. The proposal has prompted a message from National Park Service officials that Alaska's wildlife management powers "are not absolute when we are dealing with Federal lands within the State."