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ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL
FEBRUARY 2024 | aksportingjournal.com
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ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL
FEBRUARY 2024 | aksportingjournal.com
Volume 13 • Issue 9 www.aksportingjournal.com PUBLISHER James R. Baker GENERAL MANAGER John Rusnak EXECUTIVE EDITOR Andy Walgamott EDITOR Chris Cocoles WRITERS C.D. Clarke, Bjorn Dihle, Scott Haugen, Tiffany Haugen SALES MANAGER Paul Yarnold ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Lucas Hoene, Tom St. Clair DESIGNER Lesley-Anne Slisko-Cooper PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Kelly Baker WEB DEVELOPMENT/INBOUND MARKETING Jon Hines ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Katie Aumann INFORMATION SERVICES MANAGER Lois Sanborn
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ADVERTISING INQUIRIES media@media-inc.com MEDIA INDEX PUBLISHING GROUP 941 Powell Ave SW, Suite 120 Renton, WA 98057 (206) 382-9220 • Fax (206) 382-9437 media@media-inc.com • www.media-inc.com ON THE COVER Utah resident Brooks Hansen scored this Northwest Alaska caribou bull north of Kotzebue on a drop hunt. Correspondent Scott Haugen talks about a memorable North Slope solo experience this month. See page 37 for details. (BROOKS HANSEN)
CORRESPONDENCE Twitter @AKSportJourn Facebook.com/alaskasportingjournal Email ccocoles@media-inc.com
CONTENTS
VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 9
FEATURES 23
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
SUPREME COURT SHUTS DOWN STATE’S PEBBLE MINE PLEA
Rack up another win for Bristol Bay sockeye and their advocates in the tribal, fishing and conservation worlds. Last month, the Supreme Court of the United States rejected a state of Alaska attempt to reverse the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to scuttle the Pebble Mine. We have reactions from Gov. Mike Dunleavy, the mining company and those protecting the salmon and their habitat.
37
AMID THE BULLS Caribou were a critical part of Scott Haugen and wife Tiffany’s diet during their years spent living a semi-subsistence life on Alaska’s remote North Slope. And while Scott has plenty of memorable stories about chasing bulls to fill their freezer, a close-up encounter with a big herd rubbing the velvet off their antlers in a riverside willow patch just might be one of his most amazing hunting experiences over the decades. Scott shares his incredible tale.
52
ART BUT MAKE IT SPORTING
15 17
21 45
Editor’s Note The Alaska Beat: News and notes from around the Last Frontier Outdoor calendar From Field to Fire: Improve your shooting accuracy, part II
“Born to paint, fish and hunt.” C.D. Clarke gets as excited about catching a big trout as he does creating a watercolor or oil painting depicting many of the angling and hunting adventures he’s experienced around the globe. Clarke’s new book displays his sporting art portfolio, which features many of his Alaska fishing trips. Find out what inspired an exciting career that has brought his passions together.
28 STANDING
UP FOR D-1 PROTECTIONS Bjorn Dihle’s first Dall sheep hunt was on the eastern side of the Alaska Range, a sportsman’s and -woman’s paradise. Like Dihle, generations of Alaskans have fished, hunted, hiked and camped on public ground. But now the Bureau of Land Management’s D-1 lands are at risk of losing protected status. Dihle details why it’s so critical to preserve these areas that include portions of Bristol Bay, the Alaska Range and Panhandle from mineral development.
(BJORN DIHLE)
Alaska Sporting Journal is published monthly. Call Media Inc. Publishing Group for a current rate card. Discounts for frequency advertising. All submitted materials become the property of Media Inc. Publishing Group and will not be returned. Annual subscriptions are $39.95 (12 issues) or $59.95 (24 issues). Send check or money order to Media Inc. Publishing Group, 941 Powell Ave SW, Suite 120, Renton, WA 98057 or call (206) 382-9220 with VISA or M/C. Back issues may be ordered at Media Inc. Publishing Group, subject to availability, at the cost of $5 plus shipping. Copyright © 2024 Media Inc. Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher. Printed in U.S.A. 12
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hen I was looking through the pages of artist/sportsman C.D. Clarke’s book chronicling his sporting artwork, I knew we’d hit it off, given the number of dog oil and watercolor paintings he’s crafted. Indeed, during our lengthy conversation for our profile of Clarke (page 52), I was moved by his lifelong passion for raising gun dogs. “I’ve had hunting dogs since I was 16, so they’ve always been a big part of my life. Because my whole career has been kind of painting what I know, dogs were kind of a natural part of that,” Clarke told me. “I haven’t really professionally done much other than little paintings of my own dogs; the dog portrait part of my career really didn’t take off until the last 10 or 15 years.” This has been an emotional time for me dog-wise, as in November I said goodbye to my precious Emma; she was diagnosed with a tumor in July as she approached 11 years old. I grudgingly decided against an operation and amputation of her left front leg. It was an agonizing decision, but I think it was the correct one. Emma bravely fought until finally struggling enough to warrant a peaceful crossing of the rainbow bridge the day before Thanksgiving. I was sad but at peace when I held her paw for the last time. Now almost 65, C.D. Clarke too has seen many cherished pets/hunting partners come and go over the years. It’s what we all sign up for when a new four-legged family member enters our weird worlds. “Most of the time when I travel, unless I’m flying, I’ve got my dogs with
.
The editor’s German shepherd mix Emma passed away in November after battling cancer. “I was sad but at peace when I held her paw for the last time,” he writes. (CHRIS COCOLES)
EDITOR’S NOTE
Artist C.D. Clarke painted his grouse hunting friend’s dog Bosco. “I really enjoy doing that because I love dogs so much,” he says of pup portraits. (C.D. CLARKE)
me. Honestly, I haven’t painted enough of them; I’m probably three dogs behind,” says Clarke, who’s named all of his Brittany breeds after shotguns (his beloved Winchester, whose portrait adorns the front hallway of Clark and wife Tracey’s home, Remington and current dog A.H. Fox). He really enjoys his newfound niche of painting pup portraits, whether they’re his own or friends’ dogs. And in terms of traveling with his dogs, he shared a crazy story of an outdoor adventure with them. Clarke was at a remote Canadian salmon camp painting various pools along the river for the camp’s owner. In his canoe were his painting tools and canvas, plus two dogs as passengers. Clarke was standing on a rock after just finishing a painting and stepped back into the canoe. “I don’t know whether the two dogs kind of shifted the canoe or what happened. But the next thing I know is the canoe kind of flipped out from under me,” he told me. “And I’m doing the (plunge) and lifting up trying to save the watercolor.
I should have been thinking about the big rocks that I could have hit my head on, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I landed in the water but managed to hold the watercolor up over my head like the Statue of Liberty.” With one crisis averted and his painting saved, he then noticed one dog safely swimming back to the other end of the bank. But where was his English pointer? She wasn’t a very good swimmer. “The canoe is upside down and floating down the river,” said Clarke, who managed to get downstream and reach the capsized canoe. “When it flipped over it formed an air bubble; she locked her paws over a thwart and was underneath there, with a crazed Scooby Doo look on her face.” As a dog owner, I can relate to the insanity these goofballs can put us through. I’m getting closer to rescuing another dog and can’t wait for the next round of chaos. “There’s a dog in every day of my life,” Clarke told me, and I am excited for another one to brighten my life soon too. –Chris Cocoles
aksportingjournal.com | FEBRUARY 2024
ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL
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ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL
FEBRUARY 2024 | aksportingjournal.com
WILD FISH CONSERVANCY SEEKING THREATENED STATUS FOR ALASKA KING SALMON
T
he tug-of-war battle between a Washington State-based environmental group and Alaska’s fishing industry is picking up again. The Wild Fish Conservancy triggered the conflict when its lawsuit claiming federal mismanagement of Southeast Alaska’s king salmon fishery was initially upheld by a US District Court judge and would have closed the commercial troll season. Last June, a last-minute federal appeals court ruling reinstated the fishery, but WFC recently followed through after warning it would seek an Endangered Species Act listing for Alaska kings in several of the state’s watersheds. “Most people are unaware that there are Chinook populations in Alaska in far worse condition than Chinook in other parts of the Pacific Northwest that already receive protection under the Endangered Species Act due to their severe condition,” said WFC biologist Conrad Gowell, who co-authored the petition. “Ironically, certifiers and the seafood industry are leading concerned consumers to believe Chinook from Alaska are sustainable, when in fact they are disappearing before our very eyes. No one wants to be eating the last wild Chinook from any river.” Pushback came from Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang, who called the petition “a targeted attack on Alaska.” “The state has taken aggressive management measures to conserve these stocks, which have been proving successful,” he added. “The (ESA) is the wrong tool to address a downturn in Chinook productivity, and this group is using it as a weapon to further their own interests.” Alaska-based conservation organization SalmonState has stood by the Southeast Alaska fishing community since the beginning, calling the troll fleet “a sustainable, small-boat, community-based hook-and-line fishery.” “The Wild Fish Conservancy is doubling down on its attempts to shut down fishing in Alaska without consulting with or speaking to the people they’re sledgehammering,” SalmonState said in a statement. It also noted WFC failed to address more critical threats to the state’s Chinook. “Alaskans and others concerned about wild salmon need to be working together to address threats from habitat degradation, to climate change, to hundreds of thousands of Bering Sea salmon bycaught and killed in Seattle-based trawl nets. Instead, the Wild Fish Conservancy is continuing to attack some of the people who care about wild salmon the most – salmon fishermen – and putting all of Alaska in a defensive position that will ultimately make problems worse instead of better.”
“The (Endangered Species Act) is the wrong tool to address a downturn in Chinook productivity, and this group is using it as a weapon to further their own interests,” Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang says about the Wild Fish Conservancy’s petition to list Alaska king salmon as threatened. (RYAN HAGERTY/USWFS)
ALASKA BEAT TWEET OF THE MONTH
Alaska has its share of miserable winter days, but in mid-January, Anchorage might as well have been Cabo San Lucas compared to most of America!
It’s a safe guess that no other US state has had a garbage truck driver fired for chasing a moose, but it happened in Alaska in January after a late December 2023 pursuit down a snow-covered Anchorage street was caught on video. (YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT)
aksportingjournal.com | FEBRUARY 2024
ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL
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“ 16 NOTABLE NUMBER
Age of Alaska dog musher Emily Robinson of Nenena, who outraced her older competitors – including the last two Iditarod champions, Brent Sass and Ryan Redington – and won the Knik 200 race with a winning margin of just over one minute.
THEY SAID IT ”I was born into the sport and I have grown up with sled dogs my entire life, but I want to be an advocate for the sport because it is very important and something that I really, really want to encourage other people to do. I go and talk to tourists in the summer and wintertime so to be able to educate those people about dogs and maybe change their mind about what dog mushing is, (and) that is something that I am really honored to be able to do as well.”
”
–Emily Robinson to Alaska’s News Source after her victory. She’s the defending Junior Iditarod champion but won’t be eligible to compete in the main Iditarod event until she turns 18.
FROM THE ASJ ARCHIVES – FEBRUARY 2020
A HUNTER’S REDEMPTION BULL MOOSE
U
sing the whites of your hands as “paddles” will usually trigger a rutting bull into a fight. They’ll sway their heads back and forth trying to show you their paddles in an intimidation game. It was still a bit early for this tactic to pay off for me, as the bull wasn’t very interested in going toe to toe. He slowly started to walk in the opposite direction from me. I waited for him to disappear down the trail and I high-tailed it toward him. I was hoping
to close the distance without scaring him off. This was a cat-and-mouse game that I was losing. Every time I did this, he would get further away. I decided to let out three long cow calls. I knew it was too early in the year to utilize cow calls to bring bulls in, but I hoped it would slow him down. It worked! The bull stopped in his tracks and allowed me to close the distance. I wish I could say I used some kind of amazing
tactic to get closer, but I literally walked straight at him. I let an arrow fly at 61 yards and hit him hard in the lungs. He let out a loud roar – almost like a bear. I listened as the moose thrashed around in the thick alders and then lay to rest. The bull ended up being only 50 yards off of the trail, making the pack out a lot easier. I was over a mile back, but the hike was all trail. I used my inReach to get a hold of my buddies and six of them came out to help pack. –Brian Watkins
Brian Watkins (second from left) solicited multiple pals to help him pack out a massive bull moose that capped off a 2019 Alaska hunting season that had otherwise been full of frustrations for him. (BRIAN WATKINS) 18
ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL
FEBRUARY 2024 | aksportingjournal.com
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FEBRUARY 2024 | aksportingjournal.com
OUTDOOR CALENDAR Feb. 3 March 2 March 15 March 15 March 15 March 15 March 16 March 23 March 31
Yukon Quest Alaska sled dog race starts, Fairbanks (yukonquestalaska.com) Scheduled ceremonial start of Iditarod sled dog race, downtown Anchorage (iditarod.com) Spring brown bear season opens in Game Management Unit 1 (Southeast Mainland) Resident spring brown bear hunting season opens in GMU 3 (Petersburg/Wrangell) Spring brown bear season opens in GMU 4 (Admiralty-Baranof-Chichagof Islands) Nonresident antlerless moose season ends in GMU 18 (Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta) Early resident caribou season opens in GMU 26A (Arctic Slope) 30th Annual Homer Winter King Salmon Tournament (homerwinterking.com) Wolf season ends in GMU 2 (Prince of Wales Island)
2024 SPORTSMEN’S SHOWS Jan. 31-Feb. 4 Washington Sportsmen’s Show, Washington State Fair Events Center, Puyallup, Washington (otshows.com) Feb. 14-18 Pacific Northwest Sportsmen’s Show, Expo Center, Portland, Oregon (otshows.com) Feb. 23-24 Alaska Safari Club Alaskan Hunting Expo & Sportsman’s Banquet, Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center, Anchorage (aksafariclub.org) April 5-7 Great Alaska Sportsman Show, Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center, Anchorage (greatalaskasportsmanshow.com) April 12-14 Mat-Su Outdoorsman Show, Menard Center, Wasilla (matsuoutdoorsmanshow.com) April 19-21 Fairbanks Outdoor Show, Carlson Center (fairbanksevents.com/fairbanksoutdoorshow.html)
For more information and season dates for Alaska hunts, go to adfg.alaska.gov/index .cfm?adfg=hunting.main.
The Alaska Governor’s Chugach Dall Sheep Hunt Raffle highlights this month’s Safari Club International Alaska Chapter’s Alaskan Hunting Expo & Sportsman’s Banquet at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage. Information for the Feb. 23-24 event can be found at aksafariclub.org. (ZAC RICHTER/ NATIONAL PARK SERVICE)
aksportingjournal.com | FEBRUARY 2024
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For Bristol Bay residents, the fishing industry and conservation organizations continuing to fight for the region’s sockeye and other salmon species against the Pebble Mine, the Supreme Court of the United States’ decision to not proceed with the state of Alaska’s pleas brought relief. (NATIONAL PARK SERVICE CLIMATE CHANGE RESPONSE)
A SUPREME REJECTION SCOTUS SHOOTS DOWN STATE’S PEBBLE MINE CASE
BY CHRIS COCOLES
A
laska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has been one of the state’s most prominent politicians in favor of the controversial Pebble Mine, despite large and vocal opposition inside and outside the state. Dunleavy led a state push to get the Supreme Court of the United States to reverse the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to block the Bristol Bay mining project via Clean Water Act mandates. The governor was countered
by an amicus brief from the Bristol Bay Native Corporation and United Tribes of Bristol Bay (Alaska Sporting Journal, December 2023). In a November press conference, representatives from those organizations expected the Supreme Court to consider Dunleavy’s pleas to take on Alaska’s challenge early in 2024. But the ninemember court, after analyzing Alaska’s argument, decided not to advance the case any further.
A disappointed Dunleavy posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, shortly after the court ruled against him and Alaska. “At a time when federal administrations are fast-tracking renewable energy development, the careful production of copper and other rare minerals, like those found in the Pebble area, is more important than ever,” read the governor’s post. “The Supreme Court’s decision to
aksportingjournal.com | FEBRUARY 2024
ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL
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couple years. “It is important to note that this decision is purely procedural and does NOT imply whether the Supreme Court agrees or disagrees with the merits of the case,” a Northern Dynasty press release stated. “Essentially, the case will argue that this was a political veto by this administration, which is inconsistent with the findings of the Final Environmental Impact Statement recorded on the Federal Registry in July 2020 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.” Company president and CEO Ron Thiessen also commented on this latest setback. “We continue to believe our arguments are very strong and look forward to finally getting our day in court,” Thiessen said. “Pebble is an important project for Alaska and the nation. It would create many jobs for Alaskans, provide a much-needed economic catalyst and wealth for the state and be a source of necessary critical minerals for the long-term safety and security of the United States.”
‘A MASSIVE WASTE OF TAXPAYER’S MONEY’
With an appeal to federal district court likely next, Delores Larson of United Tribes of Bristol Bay said Gov. Dunleavy’s effort “was – and will continue to be – a massive waste of taxpayer money that only represents the interests of the company behind the Pebble Mine.” (ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY)
not hear the state’s case directly is disappointing, but the state is confident that the lower courts will find that EPA violated the law with its prohibition and restrictions against any mining activity within the 309-square mile (sic) area surrounding the Pebble deposit. The State will continue to fight against this 24
ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL
flagrant overreach.” That will likely be by filing a motion through a federal district court. The embattled Pebble Partnership and parent mining company Northern Dynasty Minerals also showed their frustration to the series of defeats and public relation gaffes over the past
FEBRUARY 2024 | aksportingjournal.com
On the other end of the argument, there was relief that the highest court in the land decided to not take up Alaska’s request. The vibe seemed to be that despite the political makeup of the court, the state’s case didn’t hold a lot of water. “Our main argument is that Alaska is improperly attempting to invoke the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court,” Washington D.C. attorney David Frederick, representing the two Bristol Bay tribal groups involved in the lawsuit, said prior to the Supreme Court turning down the case. There was also a sense of annoyance that this case even was presented to the Supreme Court, given the EPA’s decision to veto the Pebble project. Delores Larsen of United Tribes of Bristol Bay went so far as to reference “Governor Dunleavy’s frivolous lawsuit.” “Governor Dunleavy’s lawsuit was – and will continue to be – a massive waste of taxpayer money that only represents the interests of the company behind the Pebble Mine,” said Larsen, UTBB’s deputy director. “The Tribes, fishermen, and local communities were just celebrating the EPA’s Clean Water Act protections for Bristol Bay, just to be thrown back into
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uncertainty less than a year later. We are tired of being ignored by our elected officials. Our leaders must listen to us and help protect this watershed forever.” Both United Tribes of Bristol Bay and Bristol Bay Native Corporation, as with so many other groups and individuals who have opposed the Pebble Mine, argue that Pebble threatens Bristol’s $2 billion fishing industry that supports 15,000 jobs. “EPA’s decision to protect Bristol Bay from the proposed Pebble Mine is grounded in decades of science, public support and legal authority,” said Jason Metrokin, Bristol Bay Native Corporation president and CEO. “Nevertheless, we know there is still uncertainty about the watershed’s future. Our elected officials should listen to the majority of Alaskans who want to see Bristol Bay protected and work on legislation for the region.” Joel Reynolds, Western director and senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, acknowledged the exhausting fight is likely to continue when the Pebble Partnership and state of Alaska return to file a motion in federal court. “This reckless zombie project, advanced by a Canadian company over the objections of Alaskans for decades, remains an imminent threat,” Reynolds said. “Without federal legislation put in place to provide permanent protections, Bristol Bay will inevitably continue to face merciless pressure for large-scale mining in its headwaters, despite all effort to preserve this national treasure.” ASJ Editor’s note: For more on United Tribes of Bristol Bay, go to utbb.org. Bristol Bay Native Corporation can be found at bbnc.net.
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WINTER STEELHEAD JANUARYMARCH SEPTEMBERNOVEMBER
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A LOT AT STAKE FOR SPORTSMEN, CRITTERS IN BLM D-1 DECISION
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PROTECTING
WILD ALASKA
BY BJORN DIHLE
M
y older brother whispered the yardage as the Dall sheep ram slowly climbed toward a bank
of fog. “Three hundred five; 310; 315,” he said, irritation growing in his voice. I watched the ram through my rifle scope and knew it was a matter of seconds until I no longer had a shot. Our younger brother was doing his best not to explode. It was my first sheep hunt, and I was nervous about pulling the trigger on a sublegal animal. Our low-quality spotting scope was underpowered, but even to my untrained eye the ram looked more than full curl. The ram stepped into the first swirl of fog and stood broadside. A few moments after my shot echoed across the mountain, the sheep crashed into rocks. My brothers shook their heads in disbelief. “We really thought you were going to blow it,” they said. We were hunting the eastern Alaska
Range, a mecca for outdoor adventure. Its mountains, tundra and taiga offer everything from quests for Dall sheep and moose, to the annual fall Denali Highway caribou pilgrimage, where families and friends enjoy time together trying to fill their freezers with the best meat out there. Much of the region is managed by the Bureau of Land Management as “D-1” lands. “D-1” sounds like technical jargon that doesn’t apply to the real world, but what it really means is “some of the best and wildest fishing and hunting grounds in Alaska.” These are places where visitors and locals have the opportunity to do things like hunt caribou and moose, and fish for all five species of salmon and a host of other freshwater fish. It’s big country, where you can wander and do, more or less, what you please. This sort of freedom is increasingly rare in places outside of Alaska. For many outdoor folks, the vast solitude that D-1 lands afford is the most special part of a fishing
or hunting trip. The future of 28 million acres worth of D-1 lands is currently under review by the BLM. Most are concentrated in Western Alaska, including important winter range for the Western Arctic Caribou Herd, one of Alaska’s largest. But the planning area contains prime hunting and fishing habitat in other renowned parts of the state too, including Bristol Bay – home to the world’s most productive sockeye salmon fishery – and the headwaters of the Chilkat River in Southeast Alaska, famous for its salmon runs and for hosting the biggest congregation of bald eagles in the world.
RARE OPPORTUNITY TO MAINTAIN PROTECTIONS ON PUBLIC LANDS Alaska’s D-1 lands were originally withdrawn from mining, mineral leasing and appropriation in the 1970s to ensure the uses of these lands were consistent with the public interest. They’ve effectively been safeguarded from
Caribou are among the critters whose habitat overlaps the 28 million acres of Alaska known as D-1 lands and which were withdrawn from potential mining decades ago. The Bureau of Land Management is in charge of this territory, which includes sections of Western and Southeast Alaska, and is taking public comment through midFebruary on a proposal that came out of the Trump Administration to revoke those protections. (BJORN DIHLE) aksportingjournal.com | FEBRUARY 2024
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PROTECTING
WILD ALASKA privatization and large-scale industrial development for approximately 50 years, which has helped maintain intact habitat and public access for hunters and anglers. Now, the BLM is taking a fresh look at how 28 million acres of D-1 lands should be managed for future generations. Later this year, the agency plans to issue a decision to fully retain, partially retain or revoke the withdrawals that have prevented mineral entry and conveyance to private interests for decades. If these safeguards are revoked, it is reasonable to expect that hunting and fishing quality and opportunity would be diminished on some of Alaska’s most spectacular public lands. These lands are home to approximately 100 rural communities. Many villagers in
the planning area live hundreds of miles from the nearest modern grocery store; they harvest wild foods like game, fish and berries to feed their families and to continue their cultural traditions. Nearly 80 Alaska tribes are calling on the BLM to maintain the existing D-1 safeguards that support the salmon, caribou, moose, and other species on which they depend. Alaska’s unique state and federal laws protect the customary and traditional uses of fish and game above all other consumptive uses. In order to maintain harvest opportunities for all users, it is essential that we maintain healthy populations of game and fish. The conservation of Alaska’s D-1 lands is an important strategy, especially for species experiencing statewide declines, such as caribou and Dall sheep. “The BLM’s review of these 28 million acres is one of the largest public lands conservation opportunities in America,”
Author Bjorn Dihle has roamed Alaska’s wildlands his whole life in the Last Frontier and understands the need to protect them. (BJORN DIHLE) 30
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said Jen Leahy, the Alaska program manager for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “Many hunting and fishing groups, including the TRCP, must often focus on restoring important habitat that was previously degraded, or developing new conservation programs to address an unmet need. This is a unique issue because we’re seeking to maintain a successful conservation tool that has worked well for hunters and anglers for decades.”
A LAND OF MEMORIES, AND FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF FUTURE GENERATIONS A lot of my memories are triggered when I look at a map of the 28 million acres the BLM is reviewing. There, on the lower Noatak River, is where that brown bear sow and cubs visited camp. There, in Bristol Bay, I took a break picking sockeye out of a net to study a volcano rising out of the tundra. There, in the upper Chilkat
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PROTECTING
WILD ALASKA
Where Lower 48 hunters, anglers and conservation organizations often have to focus on the expensive process of restoring critter habitats degraded by industrial development, not so in Alaska, where the D-1 mineral withdrawal has kept the land largely in its original pristine state. (BJORN DIHLE)
River Valley, I found a bitten-off wolf paw on an otherwise completely white, snow-covered alpine expanse. There, in the eastern Alaska Range, was where my family got that bull moose. There, on that mountain, was where a wolverine ran past three unconcerned bull caribou I was glassing. There, at the edge of that glacier, was where my buddy and I snuck by a caribou that had just been killed and cached by a grizzly. A few hours before that, we’d encountered a herd of more than 70 Dall sheep. I have only experienced a portion of D-1 lands, but what I’ve seen has been more than enough to know what’s at stake. Allowing all 28 million acres to be opened to industrialization and privatization would deprive future generations of our outdoor heritage. Hunters and anglers have an opportunity to help protect some of the best and wildest fishing and hunting grounds in Alaska. The BLM comment period on the D-1 draft environmental impact statement is open through February 14, 2024.
Some of the BLM’s D-1 lands are located in the eastern section of the Alaska Range. The designation has been “a successful conservation tool that has worked well for hunters and anglers for decades,” says Jen Leahy of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (BJORN DIHLE) 32
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D-1 lands can also be found in Bristol Bay, home to vast and productive sockeye salmon habitat, as well as the headwaters of the Chilkat River in Southeast Alaska. (BJORN DIHLE) Dihle (right, with his dad Nils) wants his sons to experience wild Alaska like other generations of his family. “I have only experienced a portion of D-1 lands, but what I’ve seen has been more than enough to know what’s at stake,” he writes. “Allowing all 28 million acres to be opened to industrialization and privatization would deprive future generations of our outdoor heritage.” (BJORN DIHLE)
If you believe like I do that hunting, fishing and clean water are our highest priorities for managing these public lands, please take one minute to sign the TRCP’s online petition (trcp.org/ action-alert) in support of maintaining the D-1 withdrawals. The public may also submit comments directly through the BLM’s site (blm.gov/eplanning-ui/ project/2018002/570). ASJ Editor’s notes: This article was sponsored by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (trcp.org). TRCP’s mission is to guarantee all Americans quality places to hunt and fish. Bjorn Dihle is a lifelong Alaskan and has been hunting, fishing and exploring his state since he was a kid. He lives with his wife and two young boys in Southeast Alaska, where he does a variety of wildlife and conservation work (trcp .org/2022/01/05/arena-bjorn-dihle).
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RIGHT AMONG THE BULLS
A HUNTER RECALLS A MEMORABLE CARIBOU ADVENTURE WHERE THE HARVEST WAS JUST A SMALL PART OF AN AMAZING CLOSE-UP WILDLIFE EXPERIENCE BY SCOTT HAUGEN
P
eeking over the willows lining the meandering creek, my breath was taken away at the sight of nearly 100 bull caribou fording the nearby Kokolik River. The hollow hairs of the caribou caused their bodies to ride high in the water, exposing most of their backs. Their oversized hooves that serve them so well on soggy tundra, splayed out, and used as paddles, propelled the ungulates
swiftly across the river. Hauling their wet bodies out of the stream, the caribou shook their drenched coats and quickly made their way to a gravel bar lined with 7-foot-high willows. I stood only 150 yards away from the herd and noticed a commotion in the brush behind where the caribou stood. The dense grove of willows were dancing to a beat of their own. The conditions were unseasonably
warm and windless, a rarity in my years of fall hunting in the Arctic. The wind was not blowing hard enough to cause such a ruckus within the willows. Through my binoculars, I watched in consternation as dozens of sets of caribou antlers were scraped and thrashed against the willows as the animals tried to rid their headgear of the itching, drying velvet. With a bit of stealth, I figured I could get in the middle of the herd without being noticed.
For most of the 1990s author Scott Haugen lived on the North Slope, where caribou hunting on the open tundra was among his favorite activities, and one that provided sustenance for he and his wife. He took this bull near his then home of Point Lay, Alaska. (SCOTT HAUGEN) aksportingjournal.com | FEBRUARY 2024
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Scott and and wife Tiffany Haugen lived a semi-subsistence life for nearly a decade on the North Slope. Here, the couple stands outside their home in Point Lay, situated on the Northwest Arctic coast and a very small village at the time. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
ON THIS EARLY SEPTEMBER day I found myself on the tundra a few miles south of where my wife Tiffany and I lived at the time in Point Lay. Point Lay was a tiny village of less than 100 residents when we lived there in the early 1990s. We carried out a semi-subsistence lifestyle, as the village had no regular store. All the meat we ate was what we hunted and fished for. Caribou were an integral part of our diet. Here, there were no distant mountains, hills or even mounds of dirt to assist in navigation. Travel was achieved by referencing creeks, rivers, tundra and the vast Arctic Ocean. Locating caribou on the flat tundra sounds like an easy task. Wide tracts of open terrain are optimal for spotting game, but when your backyard, the North Slope, has an area of 88,000 square miles, it can be nearly impossible to locate animals. The North Slope alone comprises 15 percent of Alaska’s total area, and finding any animals in such spacious land seems unfeasible. But on 38
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this day I was lucky. Crouched at the edge of the creek bed, with only willows and flat ground separating me and the caribou, I thought carefully of what my next move would be. My adrenaline level shot up, sensing I was going to get into the willows and roam with the caribou. I vowed not to look up again until I hit the junction where the creek joined the river. I dropped down into the bottom of the creek bed and after 125 yards of crawling through willows, I finally made it to the mouth of the stream.
BEFORE ME, HUNDREDS OF bull caribou
milled around. I knew I could get closer, as they still hadn’t detected me. I broke out onto an open gravel bar pocked with clumps of willows. Sneaking closer to the herd, crawling from willow bush to willow bush to conceal my presence, I methodically narrowed the distance. After 50 yards of such antics, I reentered the thick willow grove and knew I had to be close to the middle of the herd.
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I hunkered down and caught my breath before attempting to relocate the bulls through the willows that screened me. I didn’t need to look hard, as I could hear the caribou breathing heavily, their bony headgear slapping and scraping bark all around me. Just 25 feet away a bull punished a willow bush. I could see flaps of velvet, glistening crimson as it peeled from the antlers and was flung over the tops of the caribou’s main beams. From behind me, another bull ran by, its head down and rack free of velvet free. It inquisitively searched for a rival bull to challenge. The prerut was commencing. I maneuvered toward the river to see if any more caribou were crossing the stream. Just then a herd of a dozen bulls pulled themselves onto the gravel bar. Only a small patch of willows separated us. As the animals shook in unison, the sunlight reflected off of the airborne mist to form a captivating rainbow. Most of the herd continued to the willows, but one big bull that had already shed its
Haugen with one of the two bulls he took on this memorable hunt. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
The annual movement of caribou crossing rivers is a sight to behold. (SCOTT HAUGEN) 40
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velvet lagged behind. Suddenly, another bull bolted past me. It met the awaiting bull head-on at the river’s edge, where a fierce battle commenced. Fur and gravel flew as the mighty strength of the two bulls exploded in combat. I watched for nearly five minutes as the bulls fought less than 30 yards from me. I could literally feel the ground shake. At last, the subordinate bull tired and sauntered through the willows, bound for open tundra. Slowly and quietly, I retreated into the willows. I continued watching bulls fight and rake the willows for over an hour, forgetting about the gun I toted. It was one of the most magical moments of my life. Leisurely, as if by some innate command, most of the bulls began heading to open tundra to feed, many of them free of the irritating velvet tissues. I figured I had better take a bull now. It was prior to winter’s onset and we were in need of meat.
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JUST AS I WAS ready to initiate a stalk on a small group of bulls thrashing about in the willows, I heard rocks clashing behind me. While glancing through the vertical brush, I could see a lone bull making its way up the river bank. Walking over the round river rock of the gravel bar, the big bull was heading right towards me. I sat tight, holding the gun against my body. The bull continued my way, stopping to beat up a willow bush less than 20 feet away. As the white-maned bull worked its way around the clump of willows, I slipped to the backside of the bush that ensconced me. The bull sauntered right past where I had just moved from. I crouched down and tried not to breathe too loudly but grew antsy as the big bull edged closer to me. Once it cleared the curtain of willows, all I had to do was simply hold the barrel of my gun out, brace it against my hip and squeeze the trigger. The bull fell four steps from me. The rest of the caribou continued feeding undisturbed on the tundra
behind me, while others picked their way through the willows. As I field dressed my bull, two dozen sets of antlers skimmed the water’s surface as straggling bulls continued making their way across the river. I soaked in all I could, for it was a time I knew would not likely be replicated. After field dressing the bull and getting it loaded onto the three-wheeler, I headed across the bumpy tundra and back to the village. That’s when another bachelor herd of caribou emerged from a creek carving its way through the tundra. Tiffany and I were in need of meat for winter and early fall caribou was our favorite. Plus, though I’d only been driving a short while, I knew having a bull on the front rack would help balance the loads. I eased off the machine, walked a short distance and laid prone on the tundra. Resting the crosshairs behind the bull’s front shoulder, I fired. The bull lunged forward, turned a pirouette and dropped 75 yards from me. Though not a record book head, the bull had exceptionally heavy antlers. Its high-reaching shovel and white mane
made it a fine prize. This bull adorns my office wall, one that I look at every day, even as I write these words. It’s a vivid reminder of one of the most exciting hunts of my life.
THIS WAS CARIBOU HUNTING at its finest.
Simply getting the opportunity to see hundreds of bulls ford the river, along with a couple hundred cows and calves grazing on the tundra, was enthralling. Observing their behaviors and interactions at such close range was a thrill that will be with me for eternity. For a brief moment in time I walked with the caribou and was mesmerized by the presence of so many stunning bulls. On this day of collecting meat for the winter, I saw more than just caribou on the tundra. I saw what so many generations of subsistence hunters had seen before me. I saw a river of antlers. ASJ
Editor’s note: To order signed copies of Scott Haugen’s many popular fishing and hunting books, visit scotthaugen.com. Follow his adventures on Instagram and Facebook.
Loaded up and headed home. Besides providing many dinners, the day created many memories for the author. “Simply getting the opportunity to see hundreds of bulls ford the river, along with a couple hundred cows and calves grazing on the tundra, was enthralling,” Haugen recalls. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
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FIELD
When it comes time to fire on your target, pick a spot, slow your breathing and gently pull the trigger. Doing these things will greatly increase your shot accuracy. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
BECOME A SHOOTING STAR
PATIENCE, RANGE TIME, FAMILIARITY WITH GEAR AMONG PATHS TO NOTCHED TAGS SECOND OF TWO PARTS
BY SCOTT HAUGEN
L
ast month we looked at seven steps to help take your big game shooting accuracy and confidence to the next level. For nearly a quarter of a century I’ve made my living as a full-time outdoor writer. Fourteen of those years
were spent hosting TV hunting shows for major networks around the world. I quickly learned that every miss cost me, the crew and producers time and money. Bottom line: I couldn’t afford to miss. Here are more tips to help elevate
your shooting game.
TAKE YOUR TIME If you know where your target animal is and it has no clue you’re around, don’t be in a rush. In addition to being a full-time
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FIELD
1 pound grouse breasts 1/3 cup flour 1 teaspoon paprika 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1/2 teaspoon ground oregano 1/2 teaspoon thyme 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons olive oil One onion, thinly sliced One jalapeño pepper, chopped Half a bell pepper, chopped 1/2 cup celery, chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced One 141/2-ounce can diced tomatoes 1/2 cup water 3 tablespoons ketchup Two bay leaves One sprig fresh rosemary Fresh parsley for garnish
Spices from Creole cuisine can really add some flavor to your game birds, so try Tiffany Haugen’s version of a dish that can be cooked on your stovetop, in a pressure cooker or a slow cooker. (TIFFANY HAUGEN)
CREOLE SEASONING KICKS UP YOUR GAME BIRD BREASTS BY TIFFANY HAUGEN
W
hether using game bird bone-in pieces, breasts or legs and thighs, this recipe is versatile enough for any cuts. Your stovetop, pressure cooker or a slow cooker can be used to cook the birds with equally delicious outcomes. This is a versatile recipe that works well with tender grouse as well as ptarmigan. And if you have pheasant, chukar or wild turkey in the freezer, this recipe is delicious with any and all of those. Just make sure to clean out any bloodshot and bruised flesh prior to cooking in order to optimize the quality of the end product.
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In a shallow dish, mix flour, paprika, salt, pepper, oregano and thyme until mixed thoroughly. Dredge bird breasts in flour mixture, coating completely. In a large skillet, heat butter and oil on mediumhigh heat. Fry coated bird breasts until golden brown on both sides. Remove from skillet. Add more olive oil if needed and sauté onion, peppers, celery and garlic until softened. Sprinkle in the remaining seasoned flour and add diced tomatoes and water. Bring to a boil, whisking to smooth until thickened. Add ketchup and return browned game bird and onion mixture to the pan, mixing gently. Add bay leaves and rosemary and lower heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until the game bird reaches desired doneness (15 to 20 minutes). Serve over rice with fresh parsley. Editor’s note: For signed copies of Tiffany’s popular book, Cooking Game Birds and other bestselling titles, go to tiffanyhaugen.com.
FIELD writer, I’m also a wildlife photographer. One thing that’s always amazed me is how long you can watch an animal when you’re not trying to kill it. Don’t be in a rush during the hunt. If you don’t spook an animal, you’ll be surprised how calm and under control the whole hunt scenario plays out. The goal is to end the hunt with one wellplaced shot and without the animal knowing you’re there.
KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE TARGET In addition to not spooking an animal, watch it closely before closing in for a shot. See if it’s feeding, rutting, traveling, nervous, relaxed or about to bed down. Look to see how other animals around it are acting, plus always monitor the wind. Study how your target animal is behaving, as this will determine your next move and how quickly, or slowly, you need to move.
USE THE RIGHT SCOPE If hunting black bear in the coastal rainforest of Southeast Alaska, a 1x6power scope is great. But that’s not the scope you want when hunting caribou on the open tundra. Rifles, cartridges and scopes are specialized pieces of equipment, serving specific purposes. Be sure to get the right scope to fit the gun and load being used, and the terrain and animal being hunted. A quality scope is one of your most valuable tools, so don’t skimp.
AVOID BIG BORES A major reason shots at big game animals are missed is because of recoil fear. If you’re flinching from recoil, you’re either shooting too big of a caliber or the rifle is very lightweight. Lightweight rifles usually have ported barrels, which are loud but reduce the recoil. To remedy flinching, you can downsize to a smallercaliber rifle, keep shooting and work your way up to bigger bores as you 48
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Getting the exact distance before taking a shot at big game is a must. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
become comfortable with the recoil. Or you can just shoot a smaller-caliber rifle. It’s better to shoot a smaller caliber with utmost accuracy than hope you hit the mark with a bigger bullet. Securing an after-market padded butt pad is another option to reduce recoil.
GET THE RIGHT RANGE Never guess the yardage of an animal prior to taking a shot. It’s pretty easy to tell if an animal is inside 200 yards, which is what most rifles are zeroed at. Using a common caliber like a .30-06 that’s zeroed at 200 yards ensures your bullet will remain within 3 vertical inches of the point of aim out to about 250 yards, meaning you’ll hit the kill zone. But judging the distance of big game in Alaska, especially in open habitats, can be tough. Get a rangefinder and use it. Having one with a built-in inclinometer, be it a separate unit or in a binocular, is best, especially if hunting in mountainous terrain.
KNOW YOUR GEAR Before your hunt you should know how
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every piece of gear performs. You should also be able to operate your gun, scope and shooting sticks without thinking about it. When moving in on an animal, your focus should be on that animal, gaining a solid rest to shoot from and monitoring the conditions. You should not be preoccupied with worries about any gear. The hunt is not a place to learn how to work your gear – that happens at home, before hunting season starts.
PICK A SPOT We’ve heard this since we were kids: “Pick a spot!” But what does it really mean? None of Alaska’s big game animals are spotted, so in the literal sense, you’re not going to pick a spot. And unless the animal is very close, you’re not going to be able to pick a single hair to focus on. What you can do is look for wrinkles and creases in the skin behind the front shoulder. Sometimes it’s just a shadow or lighting change that tells you where the reticle should be. Sometimes you’ll see dirt or a scar where you want the bullet to hit.
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FIELD
Don’t be in a rush to close in on an animal or take the shot. Take your time, relax and stay calm in order to maximize your shooting accuracy. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
One of the worst phrases ever associated with big game hunting is, “If you can hit a pie plate, that’s good enough.” The truth is that a pie plate is about the size of the lungs in a deersized game, but if you focus on a tiny point on that pie plate, the greater the likelihood is of busting it.
READY, AIM … You should never pull the trigger if the thought running through your mind is “I hope I can hit it!” Or worse yet, “I hope I don’t miss!” If either enters your mind, do not shoot. Put the gun on safety, set it down, back away and take a breath. Evaluate why you’re in question, and fix it. If you need to slow your breathing or get a better rest, do it. Every single 50
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shot you take should feel like it’s going to be a hit. If you miss, you should be dumbfounded as to why.
PRACTICE EFFICIENTLY Once your rifle is sighted in at the range and you’re shooting it with confidence and accuracy, take the training sessions into the field. Alaska’s vast land lends itself to recreational shooting, and this is easy to do if you live in a remote place. If you’re not in a place to actually fire a rifle, that’s OK, as simply carrying a rifle afield and learning how to efficiently get it set up in shooting sticks or on other shooting aids is valuable practice. If you’re away from people and can shoot in these practical practice sessions, great. If not, most common
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rifle calibers offer dummy rounds, or snap caps, which allow you to dry fire the gun thousands of times without damaging the firing pin; this is a good way to practice that trigger pull. Now is the time to plan ahead and anticipate where shot opportunities might come during your hunts next season. Invest in the gear you’ll need to help improve your shooting accuracy; what will follow is a level of confidence you may have never known. ASJ Editor’s note: Author Scott Haugen has been on hundreds of big game hunts around the world. To order signed copies of his books, or his best-selling instructional DVD, Field Dressing, Skinning & Caping Big Game, visit scotthaugen.com.
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A PALETTE THE WILD
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E FOR SPORTING ARTIST C.D. CLARKE TALKS PAINTING, ALASKAN ADVENTURES BY CHRIS COCOLES
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C.D. Clarke’s path to becoming a respected sporting artist started back in high school. Since then, the Rochester, New York, native has taken regular trips to Alaska, where he’s painted scenes like this one. He’s compiled much of his artwork in a new book. (C.D. CLARKE)
sporting artist who has painted outdoor scenes and portraits throughout the globe, C.D. Clarke couldn’t ask for a better setting than Alaska to craft an epic piece. At least when Mother Nature cooperates. “The only thing that works against Alaska – and everything else is positive about Alaska in terms of creating outdoor paintings – is the weather,” Clarke says. “Doing watercolors in the pouring rain doesn’t work out very well. And fog isn’t that interesting to paint.” But on a good day in the Last Frontier, it’s a land Clarke would want to break out the brushes to capture a place so rugged, so full of wildlife and fish, colors and landscapes. “You couldn’t ask for a better place to do what I do,” he says. “It’s inspirational; in terms of the sort of storytelling side to my work in trying to share these incredible experiences with my viewers, it’s just perfect, and
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the scenery is often incredibly dramatic,” says Clarke, who will turn 65 on March 14. “Lots of interesting compositions. It has everything. What’s not to like?” Certainly, Clarke’s visits to Alaska have been among many life-changing moments. Others include taking art classes from a dedicated high school teacher in his native Rochester, New York; mentoring from a much older cousin who’d become a famous artist; and time spent traveling the country and globe flushing birds and casting for fish. All inspired his work, and a new book, The Sporting Art of C.D. Clarke, celebrates his life through it (see excerpt on page 56). Clarke, who likes to say he was born to paint, fish and hunt, always wanted “to have a record of what I’ve been doing for the better part of my life.” Having created book cover illustrations and contributing to several publications, his contacts in both the media and marketing industry provided avenues to getting something done. But it was a dinner party at his home a couple of years ago that began to make such a project a reality. “A client of mine … said, ‘How come there’s not a C.D. Clarke book?’” he recalls. “Unless you’re Ansel Adams, they’re not big moneymakers.” But it’s been more “magical,” as Clarke puts it, than monetary, to reflect a wonderful career with painting tools. “I was in the middle of a dream coming true. ‘Holy smokes; this is actually going to happen’ … It just reinforced the feeling that I often have about how lucky I’ve been to do what I’ve been able to do,” he says. “There are a few pieces in there that are really old – like 35 years ago. And so looking back was great. It’s also kind of neat to be able to take a look back when I’m not completely over the hill yet. I look back on all the places I’ve been, and some of these remarkable places I’ve been to many times.” That certainly includes the Last Frontier.
CLARKE’S PATH TO ALASKA started in, of
all places, Chile. He’s been a regular
visitor to South America, home of some outstanding fishing and hunting opportunities. He says he’s been to Argentina about 15 or 16 times and is planning a bird hunt there in 2025. But on a whim, he was once invited to a Chilean fishing lodge owned by Jim Repine, a legendary outdoorsman on multiple continents. Repine eventually settled in Chile, but years before that he was something of a folk hero in Alaska, where he wrote books, edited magazines and hosted the TV show Alaska Outdoors. “Back in the day, Jim Repine was Mr. Alaska,” Clarke says. “He had the first outdoor TV show in Alaska. And it was him flying over in a small plane with his Rhodesian ridgeback named Jubal.” In Chile, Repine, who passed away in 2009 at 76, and Clarke became fast friends, and the former invited the latter to fish in Alaska as he headed north every summer to toss a line. On one such Last Frontier adventure, Clarke found himself in one of those spots that anglers dream about, casting for trout in the Brooks River, home of big rainbow trout and bigger brown bears that also are there to pursue those same fish. “I landed my first-ever Alaska rainbow. It wasn’t a gigantic rainbow by Alaska standards. But it was probably 6 pounds or something like that,” Clarke says. “A nice fish, for sure. But for a kid from upstate New York, I’d never seen anything like that. It was absolutely amazing.” That memory was even more special when another fisherman holding court upstream came down and asked the newbie if he wanted a photo with his prized catch. “He could tell I was really excited. He takes a picture, and unlike most of the time when someone tells you he’ll send you a picture, this guy actually did,” Clarke says of Mark Emery, who just happened to be an outdoor filmmaker and cinematographer who Alaska Sporting Journal correspondent
In his Alaska-set watercolor painting “Two Silvers,” Clarke wanted to contrast an ocean-bright coho with a darker, spawn-ready silver. “The whole idea of putting a red fish on a green background – those being complimentary colors – the whole thing kind of came together. You had one fish facing one way and one the other,” he says. “It was one of those things that almost painted itself from the concept. And I think it was really effective.” (C.D. CLARKE) 54
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Bjorn Dihle once referred to as the “Most Interesting Man In Bristol Bay” (ASJ, February 2021). Such a special moment only reinforced Clarke’s newfound love of Alaska. “There was a (Brooks) bear that they called Diver because he had learned to literally float downstream from the falls and grab salmon underwater. He would tip up like a duck. And I can remember
this bear. The scary thing about that was he’s floating down the river,” Clarke recalls. “So it’s not like he’s walking down the river. He’d suddenly appear, and the river’s not that wide. Here was this bear and he’d be 15 feet in front of you floating down the river. I certainly remember him.” There would be many more critters, fish and scenes to inspire Clarke’s artistic urges over the years.
GROWING UP IN ROCHESTER, New York, Christopher David Clarke had a passion for fishing. His dad and grandfather were both fishermen, so C.D. would join them whenever he could. “It was smallmouth bass and panfish, and even at a very young age I was passionate about that kind of stuff,” he says. “I can remember my grandmother — my mother’s mother – had a cottage at one of the Finger Lakes, and all I cared
about was fishing. She said to me, ‘You know, you can’t fish all the time.’ And as wise a woman as she was, she got that wrong.” Hunting soon followed when C.D. was a teenager and his dad allowed him to have a gun. And while the outdoors was a passion, high school proved to be the spark of a career that combined Clarke’s obsessions. Tom O’Brien was his art teacher, and
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A SPORTING ARTIST’S INSPIRATION Editor’s note: Here’s an excerpt from The Sporting Art of C.D. Clarke, published by Stackpole Books and reprinted by permission:
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fter graduating from art school, I moved to a very rural part of Maryland’s Eastern Shore and tried to figure out just how I was going to make a living as an artist. (Albert K. Murray’s) wise words had not been specific and figuring out a plan proved to be key to more than just paying bills. I worked all kinds of part-time jobs to keep my head above water – everything from planting trees in newly clear-cut forests, to riding a garbage truck, to waiting tables, and I had to also figure out how to keep painting. I developed a new skill that would become an important part of my art career. I taught myself to paint quick watercolor paintings, on location, en plein air. At the time I lived on Chesapeake Bay and there was an endless supply and variety of subject matter right outside my door: Old wooden workboats, picturesque crab shacks and salt marshes stretching to the horizon required no effort to find. I could come home from work, grab my painting gear, and be painting immediately. I painted hundreds of watercolors (and tore most of them up), learning my craft the only way you can learn to paint: by painting a lot. Unfortunately, I did not sell a lot, so I continued with the many part-time jobs for at least 10 years. I did, over time, get better at watercolor, throwing fewer and fewer away, and eventually some of the better ones were noticed. I had a painting published on the inside back cover of Gray’s Sporting Journal. I was invited to show in the Gold Room at the Easton Waterfowl Festival. I met collectors of sporting paintings who owned salmon camps, houses in the Florida Keys and ranches in Montana. They encouraged my coming to their special places and painting on the spot, creating a piece that was uniquely of their place and not just a generic painting of salmon fishing or bird shooting or trout fishing out west. My career was finally starting to take shape.
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From the very beginning I have insisted that my paintings be works of art and not just representations. By this I mean that compositions, colors, shapes and values must work together in a pleasing or intriguing way in their own right. In other words, it is not enough for a painting of an apple to look like an apple. It must be a good painting of an apple, an interesting rendering of an apple, that says something about the apple. One of the ways I try to achieve this is to let the paint have a say in the painting. How the paint is applied, the freshness of washes in watercolor, and the texture of the paint in oils are important to achieving the result I want. I suppose that this is the reason I have chosen to work in a more impressionistic style than many of my contemporaries. This style was much more the norm in the sporting art of the past, but as with much of representational art in the second half of the 20th century up to the present, reliance on photographs has had an impact … What an incredible adventure it has
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been. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that I would paint and fish and shoot in all the remote, exotic and exclusive locations that have been my pleasure to experience around the world. Patagonia, Alaska, Christmas Island, Labrador, Belize, the Bahamas, the Scottish Grouse moors, salmon rivers both sides of the Atlantic (Restigouche, Moisie, Teed, Spey, Sela, even Alta). All have been incredible, and I hope there are more to come. These amazing destinations inspire me to continue to improve my craft. Ogden Pleissner is quoted as having said, “It (painting) always lets you down. There are very few pictures that I have done that I think are just great. That I don’t have to do something more with.” I do agree, but somehow that hasn’t made me want to give up. I believe that the next painting is going to be the best and I stay encouraged. Though the next painting might not be the best, I feel that my work is still improving, and I hope I never get to the place where that is not the case. C.D. Clarke
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Clarke had an idea that it would be more than just the basic elective class many students take. “I did a little bit of painting and drawing as a younger kid, but high school is where it got a lot more serious because of this phenomenal teacher, Tom O’Brien, who ran a very serious art program. He sent several people onto professional art careers, which is amazing for the high school level,” Clarke says. “He was just one of these Energizer Bunny kind of guys to begin with. He was a pretty talented painter himself.” Indeed, some of O’Brien’s work was displayed at Rochester’s local art museum, and his teaching methods had an impact on Clarke. Students would pose for portraits in class – “obviously clothed; we didn’t want to have halfnaked bodies with a whole bunch of high school kids,” he says with a laugh. “I’ve always said from the very beginning, if you can draw the human figure, you can draw anything. It’s by far the most difficult thing to draw well. And to start students out at that level was amazing.” O’Brien also would put his budding artists in a circle in the classroom and surround them with objects to paint. “There were wagon wheels, kind of classic white eggs on a white tablecloth. There were flowers and all kinds of stuff. That just got you used to looking at texture, looking at color, and that you had to take pieces of this and put it together into something that was interesting to look at,” Clarke remembers. “So he was just working on all the fundamentals that every art student needs to work on. And I just don’t think that most high schoollevel classes go at it that seriously.” It was in Mr. O’Brien’s class where Clarke painted his first legitimate piece of sporting artwork. His canvas featured a self-portrait that included one of his many beloved dogs, a Brittany, holding up a pheasant they hunted together. The artist himself was wearing a hunting outfit – “my grandfather’s beat-up old canvas hunting coat and a tweed hat.” “I sort of want to say it’s awful, but also not too bad for high school,” Clarke says. “I’m very proud of that … For a high school kid to even try a portrait – and it’s pretty good-sized and probably half my size – 58
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Clarke has been to Alaska about six times and has found the fishing to be as fantastic as he could hope for. (C.D. CLARKE)
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that was really swinging for the fence. That’s probably a good demonstration of the fact that I was into this outdoor stuff.” He’d attend nearby Syracuse University, which has a fine art program, but downstate in New York City, Clarke would also learn a lot from a family member more than five decades his senior.
ALBERT K. MURRAY WAS in the U.S. Navy during World War II and commissioned as a lieutenant of the Combat Art Section. Besides serving for the Navy’s Fourth and Eighth Fleets during the war, he sketched battle scenes and painted portraits of Naval war heroes such as Admirals Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and William “Bull” Halsey. Murray (1906-1992) became an indemand portrait artist who also painted the likes of astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn and members of the highsociety Rockefeller and Mellon families. A second cousin Clarke always referred to as “Uncle Al,” Murray went far in the art world. Fourteen of his paintings hung in Washington D.C.’s National Portrait Gallery.
“By the end of his life he had three or four people who wanted their portrait painted waiting in the queue. So he never needed to organize a show or needed to be published in a magazine. He had more than enough work,” Clarke says. “He was an amazing guy.” One day, when Clarke was in college and visiting Uncle Al in Manhattan where he lived, they were walking through Central Park after checking out an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Out of the blue, Murray mentioned something that stuck with Clarke. “He said, ‘I want to tell you something: If you completely dedicate yourself to your work and work really hard, I can not guarantee that you’ll be famous. But I guarantee that you can make a solid living. And you’ll have the most interesting career you can possibly have.’” That someone else in the family had become a successful artist was something of a turning point. In Sporting Art, Clarke muses that his parents never said, “No one makes a living as an artist.” And here was Murray imploring his cousin to stick with it and that it could become a fascinating professional ride.
The oil painting Clarke titled “Jet Boats” captures the essence of Alaska’s unpredictable conditions. He created a wonderful work of art from a typically gloomy day along the river. “As an angler and outdoorsman I love that kind of weather. So many of my greatest experiences have happened in that kind of weather. If you’re really serious about the hunting and fishing stuff, you’re not always looking for bright sunny days,” he says. (C.D. CLARKE)
Profitable or enough to get by, it would never get boring. “Nobody ever said truer words to me. And it certainly proved to be true for me. But in terms of artistic mentoring, I was at the very beginning of my career and I don’t think I can say the second year of art school is the beginning of your career,” Clarke says. “And he was at the very, very end (of his). I didn’t get to spend any brushing time with him; I didn’t get to do critiques with him; I wished the hell that our careers overlapped by 10 or 15 years instead of a couple of years. Most of my time with him I was a little kid. I was not an artist yet and he was a famous painter.” 60
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Clarke captured the Wood River in an oil painting. He sees more than just diverse wildlife and fishing scenes in Alaska. “You can’t get hung up on the fact that everyone says a river is a beautiful river; that’s kind of the literary product,” Clarke says. “Anything like that has to come after you’ve determined that it’s going to make a good painting in terms of the nuts and bolts of composition and color and design … They’re all about details.” (C.D. CLARKE)
Murray was artist buddies with two fellow iconic New Yorkers, illustrator Dean Cornwell and painter Ogden Pleissner, the latter of whom Clarke calls “one of the most famous sporting artists ever.” “Al had written a letter to Ogden Pleissner saying that, ‘I have this young relative who is starting off on much the same path as you and has the same interest in sporting art and painting hunting and fishing. He’d love to meet you sometime.’” Sadly, Pleissner was in London at the
time and died of a heart attack in 1983. The meet and greet never came to fruition. “The letter was waiting for Pleissner at his studio in Vermont and he never got it. So a near miss with one of my idols,” Clarke says. “Apparently, Pleissner was kind of a curmudgeonly old guy, so it may have been a horrible experience.”
TWO OF CLARKE’S FAVORITE Alaska-based paintings reflect what the state typically means to outdoorsmen and -women, plus sporting artists alike.
“One is the painting called ‘Two Silvers.’ The general principle of showing a bright fish and a dark fish, and then the fact that I had that green background – I forget whether it was a dock or a deck – the whole idea of putting a red fish on a green background. Those being complementary colors, the whole thing kind of came together,” Clarke says of the watercolor painting. “You had one fish facing one way and one the other. It was one of those things that almost painted itself from the concept. And I
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Even now in his mid-60s, Clarke wants to keep experiencing life through his fishing and hunting adventures and reflecting on them via his art. “You’re not going to do the hard work if you don’t like doing it. That’s why I think passion is the important thing. I had the passion part right from the beginning.” (C.D. CLARKE)
think it was really effective.” Clarke titled his other favorite Alaskan work “Jet Boats.” It’s an oil painting that depicts an overcast scene on a Last Frontier river. He says Alaska’s beauty can be shown in more subtle ways. Yes, there are snow-capped mountains glistening in sunshine, the kind of environment that would make painters salivate to create. But the jet boats represent something else entirely. “For me anyway, it kind of captures that rugged, cold, misty side of Alaska. As an angler and outdoorsman I love that kind of weather. So many of my greatest experiences have happened in that kind of weather. If you’re really serious about the hunting and fishing stuff, you’re not always looking for bright sunny days,” he says. The 49th state’s weather may change in a blur, but you can create something magnificent in every condition. “The concept of those having two or three little splashes of color with the gas 62
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tank and the life vests, that was one of the things that drew me to it. Everything in that painting is sort of gray and mossy green, except those splashes of color. That kind of works from a purely painting perspective.” He’s been to Alaska a half-dozen times now (Clarke’s wife Tracey often joins him on many trips these days, along with their bird dogs, as she’s become a diehard bird hunter). He’d love to go back and experience a float down a river, perhaps in Southeast Alaska targeting the steelhead run. Think of the potential such a journey could inspire for a painter who’s created moments from similar adventures in Argentina, Canada, Scotland and more. Clarke cites famous sporting artist Robert Abbott, who once said, “You’ve got to paint the football before you paint the stitches on the football.” Clarke takes such advice to heart, citing that the football stitches represent the idea that such personal touches are “all about the details.” “When you look at it from a sporting
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art lens, the thing that you absolutely have to do is to look at it as a painting first. And that means that you gotta have a painting that has an interesting composition and has some interesting colors and interesting textures. You can’t get hung up on the fact that everyone says a river is a beautiful river; that’s kind of the literary product,” Clarke says. “Anything like that has to come after you’ve determined that it’s going to make a good painting in terms of the nuts and bolts of composition and color and design.” In the book’s foreword, noted fly angler and author Nick Lyons talked about Clarke’s gift expressed through his paintings. “Many remind us of places we have been, experiences we have had afield or astream, sights we have seen, but his paintings are never photographic,” Lyons writes. “C.D. also offers the crucial moments for sportsmen – the moment of a strike or the bent rod in the midst of the fight; these could easily become a cliché in sporting art, but they always seem alive and real in C.D.’s paintings.” As Clarke reflected on the book’s release and his years of hard work, travel and painting his life onto canvas, he became sentimental about how he evolved as a craftsman of color. “When you have extreme passion coupled with extreme talent, that’s when you get the few geniuses that are out there. That’s when you get a Picasso or a Mozart. Or a John Singer Sargent, where you’ve got an incredible facility built in, plus the passion to keep doing it,” he says, citing Sargent as one of his inspirations. “I think most artists out there in any of the arts, not everybody is a genius, but there are lots of people who have produced great art and written lots of great music who aren’t geniuses. You’re not going to do the hard work if you don’t like doing it. That’s why I think passion is the important thing. I had the passion part right from the beginning. And that’s what kept me doing it a lot. Because I loved it.” ASJ Editor’s note: For more on C.D. Clarke and to order a copy of his book, go to cdclarke .com. You can also order The Sporting Art of C.D. Clarke at Amazon and elsewhere.