Game Board Meets in Bethel November 9-12

The Alaska Board of Game is meeting November 9-12, 2007 at the Yup’iit Piciryarait Cultural Center in Bethel. The Board will be looking at more than 50 proposals dealing with hunting and trapping regulations in the Arctic and Western regions of the Alaska.

The deadline for written comments on the regulation proposals was October 26. Oral testimony will be taken beginning Friday, November 9.

See the ADF&G press release for complete details.

AOC Backs Nonsubsistence Area Extension, Advisory Committee Participation

The Alaska Outdoor Council is highlighting two issues that will come before the state's Joint Boards of Fisheries and Game on October 5. One would make much of GMU 13 non subsistence.

From an AOC email alert from Rod Arno:

Connect the Anchorage-Matsu-Kenai Nonsubsistence Area with the Fairbanks Nonsubsistence Area

In 1992 the Alaska Legislature passed the state subsistence law which gives the Joint Board of Fisheries and Game the authority to create Nonsubsistence Areas. A Nonsubsistence Area is an area or community where subsistence is not the principal characteristic of the economy, culture, and way of life.

New data gathered in the 2000 U.S. Census and by ADF&G Subsistence Division illustrates significant socio-economic and cultural change in the Nelchina Basin area of GMU 13.

The Mat-Valley F&G Advisory Committee has submitted Proposal #38 (proposal text, proposal map, PDF) in an effort to update the characteristics determining the Nonsubsistence designation in GMU 13.

Over 60% of Tier II applicants each year apply for Nelchina caribou. Competition for these permits has resulted in the Board of Game deliberating on scores of proposals over the years in addition to numerous court challenges. Tier II scoring for Nelchina caribou subsistence permits has become the single most contentious issue before the Board of Game.

The AOC believes that it is timely and appropriate for the Joint Board to review the criteria they have relied on to make their determination of non-subsistence in GMU 13 as proposed by the Mat Valley AC in Proposal 38.

Advisory Committee Participation During Board deliberations

Fish & Game Advisory Committee participation is embodied in state law. Fish & Game Advisory Committee members are elected from their communities to represent the views of area residents before the boards.

Boards often amend proposals, sometimes significantly. In the board process as currently constructed, public testimony – including input from the AC’s – is given before the board’s deliberations. As a result, local residents’ voice is never heard on the final version of the proposal – the one the Board actually votes on.

The AOC supports Proposal #34, submitted by the Fairbanks F&G Advisory Committee, to allow the chairman of the local AC to address the Board on an amended proposal, and urge public support for this initiative. Without public support I wouldn’t imagine the Joint Boards will give this concept much consideration.

All proposals can be seen on the ADFG/Boards website. Written comments are due 21 September. The Joint Boards meeting begins 5 October in Anchorage.

Bear Viewers Want to Push McNeil Boundaries Even Further

"While many are celebrating the recent decision by the Alaska Board of Game to not open hunting on state lands near one of the state's most popular bear-viewing spots, those who have led the fight to protect the bears say the battle is far from over," the Homer Tribune recently wrote.

The article describes how bear numbers at the McNeil falls are diminishing and some are blaming hunting....and want the closed area boundary to be placed even further out.

Read the entire story in the Homer Tribune >>>

Board of Game to Meet in Anchorage, March 2-12

From an ADFG news release >>>

The Alaska Board of Game will meet March 2-12, 2007, in Anchorage at the Coast International Inn to consider more than 200 proposals regarding hunting and trapping regulations in the Southcentral and Southwest regions, along with other topics.

Proposals have been submitted by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, state advisory committees, and the general public seeking adjustments to hunting and trapping regulations in the Southcentral and Southwest regions, including subsistence hunting, methods and means for hunting and trapping, intensive management programs, restricted areas, and miscellaneous statewide regulations. For more detailed information on the subject matter, members of the public are encouraged to read the meeting notice which can be viewed on-line.

The board will take oral public testimony beginning Friday, March 2nd. Anyone wishing to testify before the board must sign up at the meeting site before the announced deadline. Public testimony will continue until everyone who has signed up has been given the opportunity to be heard.

The deadline to ensure written comments on proposals are included in the Board of Game members’ meeting binders was February 16. Written comments on specific proposals that are received after that date will be accepted and distributed to members during the meeting up until they begin deliberation on the proposal. Written comments can be mailed to: Alaska Board of Game, Boards Support Section, P.O. Box 115526, Juneau, AK 99811-5526, or faxed to (907) 465-6094.

Deliberations on the proposals will begin following public testimony and continue through the remainder of the meeting. Copies of the proposals, the agenda, and the “roadmap” can be viewed online.