By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
A pair of proposals that aimed to limit non-rural deer harvest in Game Management Unit 4 were discussed but not adopted at the recent meeting of the state Board of Game in Ketchikan.
However, the board did approve an amended version of one proposal that limits hunters who come from outside Alaska to hunt in Unit 4 to two bucks per year. The deer hunting bag limit for Alaska residents remains at six animals of either sex.
As originally worded, proposals 10 and 11 in the board packet suggested returning the Unit 4 bag limit to the historically common level of four deer, but the board dismissed the idea.
Game Unit 4 includes Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof islands, an area somewhat larger than the state of Connecticut. Residents of communities in the unit – including Sitka – will not be directly affected by the change.
Board member Lynn Keogh, of Wasilla, saw no need for reducing deer harvest in the unit.
“It appears that the non-qualified hunters are already kind of self limiting,” she said. “They’re taking what they feel they need. We got a very small percentage of the people that take five deer, and then even a smaller percentage take six. So I don’t support this proposal as written… The guides were willing to reduce the non-residents to two deer, but to be honest, with the population, I don’t even see where it’s really necessary to restrict that.”
James Cooney, a board member from Eagle River, agreed.
“It doesn’t appear like there is a conflict as stated in the proposal, which is the reason for the proposal. So I’m not really seeing what the concern is,” he said.
Were action to be taken to reduce harvest, board chairman Jerry Burnett added, reductions should not be aimed at Alaskans.
“We look at resident take, and since this area has the same bag limits and seasons for residents and non-residents, I think that’s something that we really need to consider and discuss before we take action on this,” he said.
Juneau Fish and Game Advisory Committee chairman Kevin Maier, who wrote Proposal 10, said people from rural parts of Southeast are advocating broad closures of hunting areas in Unit 4 to those who are not federally-qualified subsistence users.
“In the latest round of the Federal Subsistence Board process, federally qualified hunters have cited conflicts with non-federally qualified hunters, asking for broad closures of federal land to non-federally qualified hunters,” Maier wrote. “To help avoid such drastic closures, advisory committees, advocacy groups, and individual Juneau hunters have volunteered to work with federally qualified hunters as well as the Federal Subsistence Board to reduce these conflicts and find compromises – this proposal represents part of that effort.”
In testimony to the board, he described himself as “neutral on my proposal, but I think that there’s some value in contemplating it.”
Maier was glad the board passed the measure, amended or not.
“I’m pretty happy that anything got through,” he told the newspaper today. “I think it’s a creative solution that came out from the Alaska Professional Guides organization. And I’m happy that they ran that forward... It really won’t impact that many people either way... Out of the (Regional Advisory Council) meanings, it’s clear that there is some conflict between federally qualified users and non-federally qualified users. We don’t have a way of knowing exactly where or with whom the conflict has arisen, but that it’s important... to acknowledge that there is conflict and also to acknowledge that we’re willing to find a compromise here.”
In the future, Maier said he would prefer to sort out hunting-related issues on a community level.
“I would rather that when we have conflict in Southeast Alaska, we get together as people who live in the same communities and have a shared interest and solve problems,” he said.
Proposal 11 was comparable to Maier’s suggestion.
The Department of Fish and Game opposed both proposals, citing a lack of need.
ADF&G wildlife biologist Steve Bethune testified:
“Our deer population is currently robust, very healthy, very high densities… We are opposed because there’s no biological concern. Unit 4 deer populations can be sustainably managed under the current or proposed regulations. However, the department supports providing opportunities to hunt when harvestable surpluses exist that provide for food security and generational passage of hunting traditions… We are generally very stable in our deer population with about 5,700 deer taken every year,”
As originally written, the proposals would largely have impacted residents of Juneau, who don’t enjoy rural status under U.S. Department of the Interior guidelines. Ketchikan is the only other non-rural community in the region. But as amended, the rule lowered the bag limit and instituted a bucks-only rule will apply only to hunters coming from outside Alaska.
The bag limit for all hunters in Unit 4 has been six deer since 2019. In total, non-Alaskan hunters shoot about two percent of the deer taken annually in the unit, Bethune added.
After the board voted down Proposal 10 unanimously and didn’t take any action on Proposal 11, the group revisited the topic on January 23 and enacted the limit on deer harvest by out-of-state hunters. Hunters who did not live in Alaska previously operated under the standard Unit 4 bag limit of six deer in any combination of male or female, but will now be limited to two deer, both bucks.
Board chairman Burnett said, “We don’t have a problem with how many deer are in this unit, but I think we do have a problem with, maybe, overcrowding and I think this (amended proposal) would address that.”
Jake Fletcher, a board member from Talkeetna, seconded this.
“There’s not a ton of biological concern of over-harvest of this population, but I think that it’s going to reduce user conflict,” said Fletcher. “I think that under certain weather conditions, certain bays get incredibly crowded, maybe, you know, non-residents coming into conflict with residents and I think that this really addresses that problem.”
As amended, the motion passed 7-0.
Following up with the Sentinel, Bethune said non-resident hunters take relatively few deer in Unit 4. Over the last decade, an average of 200 non-residents have taken 143 deer annually, he said, and only a handful kill more than two. Of these deer, only about 20 are does.
“So in reality there will be no real world effect,” he said, As he has previously, he said he sees no biological need for the measure.
While the Board of Game meeting is over, proposals that could alter deer hunting in Unit 4 remain on the table at the Federal Subsistence Board, which meets today through Friday in Anchorage.
The three changes proposed to the FSB in April included closing the western part of Admiralty Island to non-subsistence hunters between Sept. 15 and Nov. 30 (WP22-07), and reducing the bag limit for non-subsistence users in the Northeast Chichagof Controlled Use Area to two male deer (WP22-08). The third would reduce the non-federally qualified bag limit around Lisianski Inlet to four deer from the current total of six (WP22-10).
Details are posted on doi.gov/subsistence/archives.
Written by Kevin Maier, Proposal 10 sought to reduce any conflict between rural and non-rural users.
“Decreasing the bag limit would have minimal impact on most sport hunters while reestablishing a clearer priority for federally qualified subsistence hunters. Returning the bag limit to the historically more common four deer should reduce conflict between rural and urban hunters,” Maier stated in his proposal.
