ANCHORAGE, Alaska—
The Alaska Board of Game met Friday to address how to manage one of the Nelchina caribou herd -- but a court says the board hasn't met state law in issuing permits. About 20,000 hunters apply for permits to hunt the Nelchina herd every year.
“It's got a long history of hunters being able to harvest from many different population centers, so all the small communities within the Copper River basin, as well as larger communities such as Delta and Fairbanks -- everywhere in between there and Anchorage,” said the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Rebecca Schwanke.
The Nelchina herd is one of the few roadside hunts in Alaska, accessible from parks, the Richardson and Glenn highways and the Tok cutoff. But it's also a hunt that attracts a lot of controversy.
“What our goal is, is to try to make it as fair as we can,” said Board of Game Chair Cliff Judkins. “We were required to protect the local peoples’ subsistence needs, but then we also want to provide as much of a opportunity of the public to hunt this herd.”
At Friday’s meeting, the state said 600 to 1,000 animals need to be set aside for subsistence hunters.
In the past, the board tried dividing the hunt between Tier I and Tier II permits. Tier 2 permits were awarded first, based on a subsistence score including factors like how long a person lived in the area, while the general public could receive Tier 1 permits for leftover capacity.
But in July, a Superior Court judge ruled that the Tier II system was flawed, and that a community hunt for eight Native villages qualified as rural preference -- which is against state law.
“Some of the old-timers, they want to keep it like it was,” Judkins said. “A lot of people who haven't hunted want the opportunity to hunt, and local people up there, Natives and other local people, want their piece of the pie. We're not going to be able to split the pie up equal, so somebody will be suing us.”
While the board scrambles to find a way to meet state law, state biologists say there may be more animals to hunt next year.
“Well, the Nelchina herd this summer had phenomenal activity, so it was a real nice boost to the population,” Schwanke said.
The herd stands at 40,000 animals, 15,000 of whih are calves. Heavy snow and wolves will likely cut down that number, but the state still plans on allowing 3,000 to 4,000 animals to be taken next year.
The Board of Game was also scheduled to consider legalizing black bear trapping, but Judkins says in order to allow more time for public debate, the decision will be delayed until at least next month.
Fish and Game says a growing number of black bears are eating too many caribou and moose, leaving too few for hunters. If approved, the state would legalize bear trapping for the first time.
But critics call the plan cruel. They say bears are lured into the traps with buckets of raw meat, and their paws are snared when they're inside.
The Board of Game is scheduled to meet next month in Ketchikan.
Contact Jackie Bartz at jbartz@ktuu.com
