Alaska Sporting Journal - July 2020 by Media Index Publishing Group

FISHING • HUNTING • ADVENTURE

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Volume 12 • Issue 2 www.aksportingjournal.com PUBLISHER James R. Baker

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Katie Aumann

GENERAL MANAGER John Rusnak

INFORMATION SERVICES MANAGER Lois Sanborn

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Andy Walgamott

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES media@media-inc.com

EDITOR Chris Cocoles WRITERS Paul D. Atkins, Bjorn Dihle, Scott Haugen, Tiffany Haugen, Jenny Weis SALES MANAGER Paul Yarnold ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Mamie Griffin, Jim Klark, Mike Smith DESIGNER Lesley-Anne Slisko-Cooper PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Kelly Baker WEB DEVELOPMENT/INBOUND MARKETING Jon Hines

MEDIA INDEX PUBLISHING GROUP 14240 Interurban Ave South • Suite 190 Tukwila, WA 98168 (206) 382-9220 • Fax (206) 382-9437 media@media-inc.com • www.media-inc.com CORRESPONDENCE Twitter @AKSportJourn Facebook.com/alaskasportingjournal Email ccocoles@media-inc.com ON THE COVER Actor Mark Harmon (left), who stars in the long-running CBS drama NCIS, was interviewed by director Mark Titus for his new salmon conservation film The Wild. Harmon joined Titus for a Bristol Bay fishing trip. (MARK TITUS/THE WILD)

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CONTENTS

VOLUME 12 • ISSUE 2

12 THE FIGHT TO KEEP BRISTOL BAY WILD

In 2016, filmmaker Mark Titus made The Breach, a documentary dubbed a “love story for salmon.” (We wrote about it.) Some of The Breach focused on the fight to block the proposed Pebble Mine, and as a follow-up, Titus offers up The Wild, a more detailed look at the connection Bristol Bay locals have to the world’s last great sockeye run and freshwater salmon habitat, and why they, celebrities and even the director himself are willing to do all that they can to save what they love.

(JASON CHING)

FEATURES 43

DON’T CRACK WHEN HANDLING SALMON EGGS In March, our From Field to Fire columnist Scott Haugen provided some of his best salmon egg curing recipes and tricks. But he says the most important step in making a killer bait is actually right after you land that roe-heavy hen. Haugen has the details on best egg handling practices, while wife Tiffany serves up creative ways to cook fillets.

OFFSEASON GAME PLAN: PREPPING FOR FALL HUNTS

As he does every summer, Paul Atkins leaves his Arctic Alaska home to visit family and friends in his native Oklahoma. But even in America’s Heartland, Atkins is dreaming of his fall hunts back in the Last Frontier, and his preparation for those adventures starts now. Find out what you too can do in summer’s offseason to be ready to fill that moose or caribou tag in the coming months.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE 11 24

GAME UNIT PROFILE: SEWARD PENINSULA’S BIG GAME BOUNTY

Covering remnants of the Bering Land Bridge – where some of the first hunters to reach North America may have pursued their quarry during the last ice age – Game Management Unit 22 is a sportsmen’s paradise. Paul Atkins offer intel on its plentiful muskox, grizzly bears and caribou.

33 41

The Editor’s Note New Column! Pride of Bristol Bay: How the Pebble Mine could impact McNeil River’s iconic bears Trout Unlimited’s Alaska chapter leads EPA lawsuit as mining battle rages on Outdoor Calendar

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 $29.95 (12 issues). Send check or money order to Media Inc. Publishing Group, 14240 Interurban Ave South, Suite 190, Tukwila, WA 98168 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 © 2020 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.

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Bears and salmon are part of Alaska’s heart and soul – not to mention the life cycle that has made the state so special. The prospect of the Pebble Mine has its critics concerned and fighting to save what they love. (DREW HAMILTON)

“‘How do you save what you love?”

ark Titus didn’t intend anything so prophetic when he tagged his newest film, The Wild (page 12), with that query. But as our country aches – combatting not only the COVID-19 pandemic crisis but also racial inequality issues – saving what we love seems like the only logical recourse. “I would contend that part of our human experience is our love that we have for the natural and wild systems that sustain us and our implicit need for those systems,” Titus says of the Bristol Bay crusade told through his documentaries. “Especially systems that are regenerative food sources that can continue on forever if they’re left the way that they are.” Bristol Bay and its residents’ fight to stop the Pebble Mine is featured in three stories this month, including our review and profile of The Wild, a follow-up to Titus’s The Breach that we also featured in 2015. This is a critical time in the Pebble Mine saga, as this summer could see another step toward the greenlighting of the gold and copper mine. In this presidential election year, the Trump administration seems committed to fast-tracking approval, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expected to make a permit decision soon. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency faces a lawsuit (page 33). So in a time when hate and division are teetering between unifying and tearing us apart, saving what we love is as important as it has ever been in this country. Certainly many Alaskans who depend on Bristol Bay’s pristine waters and the salmon that thrive there won’t be giving up. “We’re living in some really challenging times and there are a lot of things that are happening that are painful, that are necessary – like Black Lives Matter. Hearing people’s voices who have not been heard for 400 years is necessary,” Titus says. “Just like hearing the voices of the people of Bristol Bay saying for decades that our land is sacred, these fish are sacred, this water is sacred. This is necessary.” -Chris Cocoles aksportingjournal.com | JULY 2020

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BORN TO STAY

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AY WILD

BRISTOL BAY’S RESISTANCE TO PROPOSED PEBBLE MINE STARS IN NEW SALMON DOCUMENTARY BY CHRIS COCOLES

THE DOUBTS

Mark Titus got off the plane in Dillingham with lots of jelly beans – “my little comfort go-to sugar fix,” he says – lots of camera equipment and lots of figurative baggage besides his own literal baggage. It was July 2017 and Titus was headed to Bristol Bay to work on a follow-up film to his 2015 documentary The Breach (Alaska Sporting Journal, May 2015). But he was also returning to Alaska less than two months removed from a stint in rehab from alcohol abuse. As he mentions in the film, Titus had fallen into despair from a string of family tragedies. Now he was trying to keep himself together and make his newest film, this one focusing solely on the looming Pebble Mine project, its potential impact on Bristol Bay’s people and salmon and the fight to stop its construction. “I won’t lie; I was scared … Making The Wild was an exercise in listening to the universe, as I didn’t want to get on a plane and go to Bristol Bay in the first place,” Titus says. “And something outside of me kept pushing me to get on the plane, literally, to leave Seattle. I told my wife that morning that I didn’t think I could do it. ‘What if I relapse?’ ‘What if 1,000 things went wrong?’ And something just told me I had to go.”

II. THE PASSION “How do you save what you love?” It’s a fitting tagline for the new documentary The Wild. Director Mark Titus travels to Bristol Bay to chronicle the pushback to the proposed Pebble Mine. (JASON CHING)

One of Titus’ first interviews was to be with local commercial set net fisherman Ole Olson. One problem with that? Titus wasn’t exactly sure how to contact him. He had a Montana area code cell

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“I always go through my gear each year – whether I need too or not,” Atkins says. “It lets me take stock on what I have and what I need to adjust or add or maybe even in this case clean and store for the next trip out.” (PAUL D. ATKINS)

Actor/environmental activist Adrian Grenier (left) and artist Zaria Forman (right) are among those outsiders who participated in Titus’s (center) film. (MARK TITUS) number for him, but service can be spotty in isolated Bristol Bay. So finding the guy seemed problematic. “I got out of the plane, turned to get

my bag and ran headlong into this giant man’s chest. And it was Ole Olson. Like, no sh*t,” Titus says with a laugh. “So all the questions I had up until that point:

How am I going to get where I need to go? What am I going to eat and where am I going to stay tonight? And where am I going to find Ole? All of a sudden there he is – as the bay magically does, it produced him out of thin air.” Olson offered Titus a dinner invitation and the use of his Nushagak Point cabin. This was kind of the cathartic moment that someone as vulnerable as Titus was back then desperately needed. The passion for the waters he makes a living on made Olson one of several locals whom Titus collaborated with to make this film. 0thers ranged from fishing lodge owner Nanci Morris Lyon to Alaska Native subsistence setnetter Alannah Hurley, who offered a searchlight to Titus when he was coming off so many dark days. “There is something that is driving these folks to do this. It’s not just a job, not just a means of an income, it’s not just something to tell tall tales around the campfire about,” Titus says. “There is a deep-seated love for this land, this water and this miraculous fish that brings life itself back when it returns to the ocean. It motivates everything they do. It motivates them to pass it on to the next generation.”

III. THE TRADITIONS Hurley, executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay and part of a multi-

Alannah Hurley (right, with former Alaska state senator Rick Halford) is executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay and part of a multigenerational fishing family. “We draw strength from this amazing place that the creator has given us,” she emotionally says in the film. (MARK TITUS) 14

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Bear Trail Lodge owner Nanci Morris Lyon hopes her fishing trip with President Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric will have a lasting impression as their father’s administration accelerates the Pebble Mine’s permitting process. (KEVIN TOMLINSON)

generational fishing family, provides some of The Wild’s most poignant moments. “Some things do not have a price tag. Some things are not for sale … We draw strength from this amazing place that the creator has given us. So I think myself, like many people from here ...,” Hurley says in the film before covering her face with her hands. “I just get super emotional, because when I think about what my grandmother went through, what her mom went through or her mom went through … to make sure that we continue to exist here.” Titus did his best to keep a straight face himself during his face-to-face meetings with those who fear their livelihoods are at stake if they end up sharing Bristol Bay with a large copper and gold mine facility. “You take a lot of that drama and that feeling of love and that feeling of what’s at stake, internally,” Titus says. “They made me more aware, awake and empathetic toward what’s at stake for the people who do live there year-round.”

IV. THE CELEBRITY ACTIVIST For TV viewers, actor Adrian Grenier will forever be known as Vincent Chase in HBO’s iconic series Entourage, about 16

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four young New York friends who drive the fast lane together in Hollywood, where Grenier’s Chase becomes a sudden acting star. But in real life Grenier is nothing like he and his cocky friends running amok in fictional Tinseltown. Instead, he’s become a dedicated environmental activist who has crusaded for protecting whales and eliminating plastic straw use. So when Titus was hired to help shoot a public service announcement for one of Grenier’s causes, he returned the favor by appearing in The Wild. “He was incredibly thoughtful and generous with his time,” Titus says. “We’ve been in touch and working on getting him on one of our virtual panels during a screening.”

V. THE MINERS The Wild not only provides a voice for those who feel the Pebble Mine is a potential threat to what’s considered the world’s last great wild sockeye salmon run. Pebble Partnership CEO Tom Collier and chairman of the board John Shively are also prominently featured after other mining supporters had declined to appear in The Breach. The director finds it ironic that Collier had more screen time

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than anyone else in the final cut. And he had a lot to say, exuding confidence that his proposed mine won’t experience malfunctions of any kind. “And we’re pretty confident in that,” Collier tells Titus in their meeting at the partnership’s Anchorage headquarters. “If there was a cataclysmic incident, it would have an impact on .02 of 1 percent of salmon. We don’t think there’s a risk, OK. This (calculation) is if there’s a catastrophic accident of some type. So I don’t want people to think that we’re going into this accepting this as a risk.” In all fairness, Titus found both of the Pebble executives “incredibly hospitable.” (After their interview concluded, Shively helped carry Titus’s filming gear back to his car.) “These are people talking to people, and in this time of bitter divisiveness, we can use a little bit more of that,” Titus says. “At the end of the day, what it really boils down to is these are people – human beings just like me – who have very real objectives in their lives, and we have a very different viewpoint on the way Bristol Bay’s future should go. But I was very grateful to at least capture their thoughts and their perspective on what their vision of Bristol Bay’s future

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should be, even though I don’t agree with them.”

VI. THE FISHING ACTOR Titus was grateful multiple celebrities lended their voices to his new film. Besides Grenier, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard and Top Chef personality Tom Colicchio, longtime movie and television actor Mark Harmon, currently starring on popular show NCIS, was interviewed by Titus in Los Angeles. “I was particularly interested in working with Mark because of his apolitical appeal,” Titus says. “Across the United States everyone likes his show – red, blue, it doesn’t matter. And that’s what we’re looking for here.” Harmon and some buddies once enjoyed an epic fishing trip in the Bristol Bay region, and now every year he offers up smoked wild salmon to friends and family around the holidays, a tradition that’s now more than a quarter of a century old. “We have messed up every other natural (salmon) run in the world, except this one,” the former UCLA quarterback and Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee says in the film. “This being the last there is, it makes me want to pay attention.” At the end of their interview Harmon asks Titus, “What more can I do?” Titus then invited Harmon to go back to Bristol Bay and fish there again. So during a break in Harmon’s hectic TV filming schedule, he joined Titus and his wife Wenche during the Nushagak River’s king salmon derby. In a plot twist, Wenche ended up catching the biggest salmon, and Harmon made it a point to poke a little fun at the filmmaker’s expense when he wasn’t landing any fish. “She kicked both Harmon’s and my ass,” Titus says of his wife. At the same time, the two Marks bonded throughout their week together in Alaska. Harmon’s family has also endured substance abuse issues, so he and Titus had a spiritual connection. “When I leveled with him and was very vulnerable about my own situation, it really kind of opened the doorway between us,” Titus says. “We spoke very honestly and openly about the things that matter.” 18

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When actor Mark Harmon (left) finished his interview with Titus, he asked, “What more can I do?” He joined the director on a Bristol Bay fishing trip after he’d been there years earlier. “He hadn’t been back in a long time,” Titus says of Harmon, “and if you spend time in the bay, it probably looked exactly the same as when he was there before.” (MARK TITUS)

VII. THE PRESIDENT’S SONS Nancy Morris Lyon, owner and operator of Bear Trail Lodge (907-246-2327; beartraillodge.com) on the Naknek River in King Salmon, offered a glimmer of hope during a most divisive time in the political arena. The Environmental Protection Agency under President Donald Trump has made it a point to try and accelerate the mine’s permitting process. Still, Morris Lyon shared a fascinating subplot in the film. She hosted Trump’s outdoors-loving sons Donald Jr. and Eric for a Bristol Bay fishing adventure. “I really enjoyed my time with them,” Morris Lyon says in the film. “They loved their time here. And I would certainly hope that President Trump would take to heart the memories that they gleaned here … I’m going to have faith in them to know that they will get it right and allow us to make sure that what we have for an ecosystem and environment around here can maintain in its current form. Otherwise they won’t be able to share it with their grandchildren and

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great grandchildren.” For his part, Titus says he appreciated Morris Lyon’s transparency when sharing her story about hosting the sons of a commander in chief who seems to be very pro-Pebble Mine. He calls the longtime lodge owner and fishing guide a dear friend and an ally in their shared passion for protecting Bristol Bay’s salmon. In terms of how much influence Donald Jr.’s and Eric’s experience will have on their father’s policies, Titus says he isn’t holding his breath. “But it can’t hurt anything for one heart to another heart, one human to another human who has experienced things bigger than themselves, to inject that into the current debate at a bigger political level. It’s a much better thing for those guys to have done that and relate that experience to their father than not.” And what about that November 3 election date? Will the results dictate what happens next? “No question. I just unequivocally think

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The Wild was also a personal journey for Titus as a follow-up to his 2015 documentary The Breach. Battling alcoholism, he started filming in Bristol Bay less than two months removed from rehab. “I was led to it and something pushed me through it,” he says. “And the movie itself and the journey started becoming more and more clear.” (TODD SOLIDAY)

it’s very clear that there’s just one choice moving forward for Bristol Bay,” Titus says. “And that is not to vote for the current administration, because we know in the last four years this current administration has fast-tracked the Pebble permitting process. That’s just data.”

VIII. THE ARTISTS Artwork has played a part in both of the Titus’s salmon films. Ketchikan-based painter Ray Troll’s salmon-inspired work is featured in The Breach. “I’m first and foremost a fan of the artists. My very first piece of art – sorry, Ray, to do this to you – I bought a piece of his art called Midnight Run when I was 19 in Dillingham working in the cannery,” Titus says. In The Wild, artist Zaria Forman talked about the landscapes of diminishing ice flows from around the world that she’s painted and how she has a soft spot for precious natural resources that are under siege. And Titus sought out a Dillingham local named Apayo Moore, a member of the Yupik tribe (“I paint because I have a hard time talking,” the mom jokes). Moore’s paintings and murals depicting the natural resources to be found around the bay can be seen throughout Dillingham. Titus always appreciated the salmon motif in Moore’s work while in town. “And then to get to meet her and see the depth of her soul and the work that she has endured to carry on the torch of her people’s traditional ways,” Titus says. “To me it was a miraculous gift to have her agree to participate in the film and share her heart and her artwork.” 20

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IX. THE INSPIRATION Steve Gleason, a Pacific Northwest native, Washington State University Hall of Fame football player, and longtime outdoorsman, was once a gritty NFL defensive back who is royalty in New Orleans, where as a member of the Saints his blocked punt in a Monday Night Football game spawned a statue titled Rebirth, signifying the city’s recovery process post-Hurricane Katrina.

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The 43-year-old Gleason, whose brother Kyle is a Bristol Bay fisherman and a friend of Titus, has ALS, is confined to a wheelchair and uses what’s known as speech-generating device technology with his eyes to speak. Titus met with Gleason, his wife Michel and their kids in New Orleans. “Steve Gleason is a soul of fire and the kind of person that I want to have around my eternal table,” Titus says. “He’s got a different perspective on the world because of his lack of physical ability. He can see into the soul of things and see the things that endure and are worth fighting for. He knows that’s why he’s here and absolutely shines bright with every word that he’s got. Being able to interview him was a massive gift to me just to be able to meet him.” Gleason shared his own Bristol Bay story – also chronicled in his powerful documentary, Gleason – from shortly after his initial ALS diagnosis almost 10 years ago. He and then-pregnant Michel made a 13,000-mile road trip that included touring Alaska and fishing while Of his interaction with former NFL player Steve Gleason – who before ALS robbed him of his mobility caught a Bristol Bay sockeye – Titus says, “He can see into the soul of things and see the things that endure and are worth fighting for.” (MARK TITUS)

C t

“Regardless of the immediate outcome of this permitting process, it’s still a continuation of this story, and in many ways just the beginning of the next chapter,” Titus says of the ongoing fight. “I would contend that part of our human experience is our love that we have for the natural and wild systems that sustain us and our implicit need for those systems. Especially systems that are regenerative food sources that can continue on forever if they’re left the way that they are.” (JASON CHING)

he still had use of his motor skills. “I was losing the ability to cast a line, which, for someone who has enjoyed fishing their entire life, it was crushing,” Gleason says in The Wild. “I decided to give it one more cast. Incredibly, even miraculously, I snagged a glorious sockeye salmon. That salmon came through Bristol Bay.”

X. THE FUTURE “Getting sober is not one a one-time event where you get a diploma and you move on; it’s a lifetime of recovery,” Titus says. “I just celebrated three years of sobriety on May 3, and during the course of recovery I have grown in ways that I didn’t think were possible.” Just as someone with a drinking problem is more likely to use the term recovering rather than recovered, the Pebble Mine and Bristol Bay story is far from finished. At the end of his movie, Titus asks what can be done to ensure that this remarkable spot so full of sustainable life never goes away: “How we will bear the responsibility of this story’s ending? This story of what could be saved and how 22

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we will be held accountable for what will happen on our watch?” And that’s what has both locals and concerned outsiders so stressed, so nervous, so unsure about the future. For Morris Lyon, Hurley, Olson and Moore, Bristol Bay represents their home, their careers and their family legacies. And the region has just as much of a lasting memory on visitors like Harmon and Gleason, maybe even a couple of Trump’s kids, if you dare to dream. If Titus has learned anything about Bristol Bay – he refers to his friends there as his “salmon family” – it’s that it can be a stimulating place to many people for many reasons. But the specter of the proposed mine makes it feel like it won’t remain that way forever. The Wild cites the devastation of accidents at British Columbia’s Mount Polley mine and two Brazilian sites as painful whatif reminders. Titus lives in Seattle, where salmon runs were once plentiful but are now a shell of their former selves due to a variety of human-caused damage. So despite the reassurances of Pebble’s Collier and Shively, it’s easy for him to be

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leery that the mine project supposedly poses zero threat to Bristol Bay salmon. “So what it really boils down to is this: No matter how much Tom Collier assures me, you or anybody that they’re never going to have a dam failure, (that) they’re never going to have a problem with this project, he can’t back that up with any data at all – anymore than I can say this thing is going to wipe out the entire system, guaranteed,” Titus says. “What we can say is that history has shown this is not a good idea – that every time human beings have come into salmon country to extract resources, the salmon have been left for dead. So essentially Tom Collier’s saying the same thing that my alcoholic self is saying: ‘This time it will be different.’” ASJ Editor’s note: For more info and screening dates for The Wild, go to thewildfilm.com. Director Mark Titus is also founder and CEO of Eva’s Wild, which “provides three ways for people to take action that matters – by sourcing wild, wholesome foods; distributing evocative, inspirational media, and arranging passage to pristine, wild destinations.” See evaswild.com for more..

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ME BEAR ADVOCATES WORRY MCNEIL RIVER SANCTUARY COULD BE IMPACTED BY PROPOSED PEBBLE MINE PROJECT BY BJORN DIHLE

The number of brown bears that congregate at the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary and Refuge can be staggering. But would the proposed Pebble Mine, which has sparked opposition from Bristol Bay leaders, also threaten the significant bear community? (DREW HAMILTON)

n the late 1990s, Drew Hamilton followed an old timer who lived on a homestead in Alaska’s Lake Clark National Park, on the Alaska Peninsula, to a sedge meadow loaded with brown bears. It was Drew’s first real introduction to the animal, and he watched in awe as bears browsed the greenery and peacefully went about their lives. Then, to Drew’s surprise, his companion spread out a tarp on the grass and lay down to take a nap. “It was kind of an epiphany. That old timer showed me that what I’d been taught about bears wasn’t true – that they weren’t demon monsters,” Drew remembered. Since then, Drew has put in decades working as a bear viewing guide – mostly on the Alaska Peninsula – as well as five years working as the Alaska Department Fish and Game technician at the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary and Refuge. He is the board president of Friends of McNeil, a diverse yet unified group of people devoted to protecting the sanctuary and the incredible population of brown bears that utilize it. On one occasion Drew counted 78 bears visible at the same time on a quartermile stretch of river. The sanctuary has the

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Drew Hamilton has spent three decades as a bear viewing guide and is now president of Friends of McNeil, which works to preserve the rich ursine habitat. He thinks this sanctuary could be disrupted by Pebble Mine construction: “It’d be a 200-mile gash in the best brown bear habitat in the world.” (DREW HAMILTON)

densest concentration of brown bears on earth, according to ADFG. “McNeil is where bear biologists go on vacation,” Drew said. The sanctuary is open to the public for bear viewing from early June through late August each summer. Due to popularity – and to maintain a “wilderness” experience that keeps both bears and people happy – ADFG has established a lottery permitting system. A bear has never hurt someone at McNeil and, since ADFG actively began managing the sanctuary in the 1970s, no bear has been hurt by a person. The flawless track record is based on people being consistent and respectful in their behavior – as well as measures to make sure bears don’t become accustomed to human food. Polly Hessing, a retired ADFG wildlife 26

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biologist who spent around 14 seasons working as a technician at the refuge, emphasized the decades and decades of many people’s effort to make McNeil what it is today: a natural wonder and, hands down, the greatest bear viewing area in the world. According to a recent study made in part by the University of Alaska, bear viewing at McNeil, Katmai National Park and Lake Clark generates $34 million annually.

HOWEVER, THE FUTURE OF McNeil’s bears is threatened by the proposed Pebble Mine. Despite decades of local protest – including from past Alaskan politicians like Governor Jay Hammond and Senator Ted Stevens – the Pebble Project permitting process is currently being rushed along by a politically

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motivated agenda. When most people think of what’s at stake with Pebble, they think of the damage that will occur to Bristol Bay’s invaluable watersheds and the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery. (The commercial fishery generates nearly $700 million annually.) They also think of sportfishing visitors and residents dependent on salmon for food. It’s important to also consider the negative effects Pebble would have on bears. Drew Hamilton wants people to understand the consequences Pebble would have on not just McNeil, but brown bears across the Alaska Peninsula and Bristol Bay. “It’d be a 200-mile gash in the best brown bear habitat in the world. People need to understand that a McNeil bear is also a Katmai and Bristol Bay bear. They move around a lot,” Drew said.

Rachel James and Erin McKittrick hike along Amakdedori Bay, where the Pebble Mine Project’s industrial port would be. “An industrial complex there would be a gravestone for wildlife,” says James, Bristol Bay campaign coordinator for SalmonState. (JAYME DITTMAR)

Polly Hessing also emphasized how far and wide McNeil bears roam. Bears would be displaced by the enormous footprint of the mine. Habituated animals used to the consistency of McNeil – some of which took years to develop tolerance toward humans – have a possibility of being mistakenly viewed

as threatening and killed when they wander close to mine workers. If permitted, Pebble’s industrial web would eat up 200 square miles of the wildest country on the Alaska Peninsula. A proposed natural gas line and industrial corridor would run from Lake Iliamna to Amakdedori Bay – around 12 miles

A brown bear with her spring cub in the McNeil River Refuge, which according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is considered to host the densest concentration of brown bears on the planet. (DREW HAMILTON)

from McNeil – where a giant industrial port will be built. At certain points, the proposed road would come within an eighth of a mile of the sanctuary’s border. In 2018, Rachel James, the Bristol Bay Campaign Coordinator for SalmonState, decided to see what was at stake and to walk from where the port would be built in Amakdedori Bay, along the route of the proposed road to Iliamna Lake. It was a four-day trek and it quickly became obvious that Rachel, and her travel companions Erin McKittrick and Jayme Dittmar, were traveling through a brown bear’s paradise. Sign was everywhere and the several streams they crossed were chock-full of spawning salmon. The proposed road followed a huge wildlife corridor used by animals to get from one side of the Alaska Peninsula to the other. Rachel called the route “the umbilical cord to Pebble’s proposed mine.”

RACHEL JAMES, DREW HAMILTON and Polly Hessing don’t mince their words when they talk about Pebble and what permitting the mine will mean for the future – and the lack thereof – of the region’s salmon, brown bears and 28

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people. For them, and the majority of Alaskans, what the world stands to lose with permitting Pebble far outweighs what we could potentially gain. Rachel reflected on her hike and experience in the region. “Having been in the belly of the beast, I can say the Alaska Peninsula is a Serengeti,” she said. “An industrial complex there would be a gravestone for wildlife.” “You’re looking at a world with eight billion people,” Drew added. “Deep down in all of us, going back to our primal roots, bears are representative of the wild and a world we lost. They’re in our DNA. There will soon come a time where wild places like McNeil will be a priceless commodity.” What the future holds for the bears of McNeil remains to be seen. One thing is certain, though: We can either have Pebble or we can keep one of the last remaining brown bear strongholds left on earth. What’s more important is up for us to decide. ASJ Editor’s note: For more info, visit friendsofmcneilriver.org. Author Bjorn Dihle’s Pride of Bristol Bay is a free column provided by its namesake, a fisherman-direct seafood marketer that specializes in delivering the highest quality of sustainably caught wild salmon from Bristol Bay to your doorstep. Visit prideofbristolbay.com. “Deep down in all of us, going back to our primal roots, bears are representative of the wild and a world we lost. They’re in our DNA,” Hamilton says. “There will soon come a time where wild places like McNeil will be a priceless commodity.” (DREW HAMILTON)

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PEBBLE PLAN APPEALED

TROUT UNLIMITED, OTHERS TAKE EPA LAWSUIT TO 9TH CIRCUIT COURT IN INTENSIFYING RACE AGAINST MINE AS FEDERAL AGENCIES ROLL OVER FOR POLITICS BY JENNY WEIS

he Bristol Bay region of Alaska: Visitors from near and far flock to its remote corners to see giant brown bears, harvest moose or catch a trophy rainbow trout. Its wild salmon fill freezers and grills worldwide, its economic impacts buoy Alaska’s fishing industries, and it boasts a rich cultural history and subsistence way of life supporting more

than 30 Alaska Native Tribes. There are few places as productive as Bristol Bay left on the planet – for sportsmen and women, commercial salmon fishermen and subsistencebased cultures alike. “All we have to do is have the common sense to leave this place alone.” That’s how Chris Wood, Trout

Unlimited CEO, looks at handling Bristol Bay, a place that, while thriving and productive today, faces a massive potential upheaval known as the proposed Pebble Mine. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will decide this summer whether or not it will hand the Canadian-owned Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP) its key permit

The threat to Bristol Bay’s river system, home to the world’s last great wild sockeye salmon run, has brought together the recreational and commercial fishing industries, tribal agencies and conservation groups in the fight to block the proposed Pebble Mine. (FLY OUT MEDIA) aksportingjournal.com | JULY 2020

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Trout Unlimited is among the plaintiffs suing the Environmental Protection Agency, which under the Trump administration has loosened previous determinations about the threat a mining operation would pose. “For some,” says author Jenny Weis of Trout Unlimited, “it was a matter of upholding the law. For others, it was also about pursuing every avenue to ensure the world-class region receives the protections it deserves.” (FLY OUT MEDIA)

to build a large, open-pit gold and copper mine on top of or directly upstream of the places that these peoples and fishing and tourism industries depend on. Fishing and tourism are big business, especially for a rural region. They provide for roughly 20,000 workers and amount to about $1.6 billion in economic activity for the state. Scientists and state and federal agencies agree on what makes the region as productive as it is. As the U.S. Department of Interior put it, “the Bristol Bay watershed is an unparalleled area of globally-significant biological and ecological value … provid[ing] intact, connected habitats that maintain the productivity of the entire ecosystem, including world-class salmon populations and numerous other fish and wildlife species.” That “intact” distinction is where fishermen, local business owners and residents see major issues with the proposed Pebble Mine. At the request of local Tribes, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set out to determine 34

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what level of impacts from mining would constitute “unacceptable adverse effects” to the fish and water resources of the region, and therefore be limited by federal law. In other words, they looked to find how large a mine in the region could be before it had an overwhelming negative impact on the fishery.

A MULTI-YEAR, PEER-REVIEWED study of the region ensued – known as the Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment. Based on this study, and with many thousands of Alaskans and millions of Americans voicing support, the EPA then released the Bristol Bay Proposed Determination in 2014, citing the unique and wild character, as well as the economic and cultural importance of the region. The Proposed Determination offered a series of restrictions on mining in order to limit the scale of impacts the proposed Pebble Mine could have to the world-class salmon, trout and water resources of the region. Due to a series of lawsuits filed by

JULY 2020 | aksportingjournal.com

PLP, the Proposed Determination was never finalized, but remained on the table for later application. When the Trump administration came into office, PLP jumped at a perceived political window to move forward with its mine proposal by applying for its key federal permit. Despite the fact that PLP’s 2017 application proposed a mine with impacts six times the size of what was allowed under the Proposed Determination, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the permit process in cooperation with the EPA, set out on a swift pace to hand PLP its ticket to build the proposed Pebble Mine against the advice of the scientific community and EPA’s previously completed peerreviewed study. In 2018, President Donald Trump’s EPA reconsidered the Proposed Determination and decided to leave it in place, concluding “any mining projects in the region likely pose a risk to the abundant natural resources that exist there” and “(u)ntil (EPA) know(s) the

full extent of that risk, those natural resources and world-class fisheries deserve the utmost protection.” But, by mid-2019 the Corps’ review of PLP’s permit was well underway when the EPA suddenly announced it was reversing itself and would withdraw the Proposed Determination, effectively removing perhaps the largest roadblock to permitting the mine, despite no new science or information easing environmental concerns. The EPA conceded it was “not basing its decisionmaking on technical consideration or judgments,” regarding whether the mine proposal would result in “unacceptable adverse effects.” “The practical effect of the EPA’s decision was to help out a mine that would devastate a fishing and hunting paradise,” said John Holman, who grew up in the area and is a second-generation owner of No See Um Lodge. Holman wasn’t the only one outraged

by the stark about-face. Trout Unlimited quickly filed a lawsuit against the EPA, which alleged the agency ignored science and the potential impacts of developing the mine when it withdrew the Proposed Determination, and in doing so violated the Administrative Procedures Act and Clean Water Act. The lawsuit meant different things to the many groups who depend on and value Bristol Bay. For some, it was a matter of upholding the law. For others, it was also about pursuing every avenue to ensure the world-class region receives the protections it deserves. “Any action that jeopardizes this fishery and extremely unique place is unacceptable,” said Nelli Williams, Alaska director for Trout Unlimited. “The proposed Pebble Mine is widely opposed by anglers and hunters across Alaska and the country. This lawsuit is a step to hold the EPA accountable to their own science

The EPA is expected to soon determine whether or not Pebble Partnership will have its permit application approved. “Any action that jeopardizes this fishery and extremely unique place is unacceptable,” said Nelli Williams, Alaska director for Trout Unlimited. (FLY OUT MEDIA)

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and American sportsmen and women, not a foreign-owned mining company.” For Holman, it was about his family business. “I cannot in good faith pass a business down to my family that will become a financial burden if the Pebble Mine is built,” he said. “This decision made it seem like the EPA and our elected officials are writing off thousands of American jobs and businesses like mine so a foreign mining company can obliterate the land I depend on, then walk away.” Other business owners within Bristol Bay’s recreational fishing industry chimed in. “Contrary to science, the will of the people, and common sense, Pebble is advancing toward their key permit, thanks in part to agencies giving them handouts. This lawsuit calls that out,” said Nanci Morris Lyon, local resident and owner of Bear Trail Lodge. “We can’t afford Pebble in Bristol Bay, and

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that means we need science, oversight, integrity and persistence.”

TO THE DISMAY OF the many hunters and anglers committed to protecting the region, in April of this year, a U.S. District Court judge in Anchorage dismissed the lawsuit after concluding it had no jurisdiction to review the case. After careful consideration, however, Trout Unlimited appealed this decision in late May to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and was granted expedited review. “Bristol Bay is simply too important not to pursue every angle to protect it from the irresponsible proposed Pebble Mine,” Williams said. “Contrary to Pebble's claims, this mine has many hurdles in front of it – this lawsuit being just one of them.” Meanwhile, the Corps announced a major change to the mine proposal related to how the company would transport its ore to Cook Inlet. The company and permit reviewers shifted to an alternate road and transportation corridor north of Lake Iliamna without any new study or public comment on

such route. Local landowners, whose property would need to be crossed along this northern route, quickly issued statements opposed to the mine and making clear their land was not available for PLP’s use. Keith Jensen, president of Pedro Bay Village Council, which owns a key swath of land in question, said the “announcement just proves this toxic project has no basis in reality. We will never trade our salmon for gold.” And so it stands. Nothing has disproven the EPA’s original science and long-held conclusion that mining at the size and scale contemplated by PLP would have unacceptable adverse impacts to Bristol Bay’s fisheries or waters. The private lands needed for PLP’s proposal are not available. Alaska’s state administration under Governor Mike Dunleavy continues to support the project, the Corps presses on to the finish line of its permit review, and the EPA’s decision to improperly withdraw protections for Bristol Bay’s world-class resources remain before the courts. And yet, hunters and anglers remain

determined. “An overwhelming majority of Alaskans and millions of Americans are opposed to this mine, local landowners are refusing access for the project, and criticisms from agencies, tribes, scientific experts and the public remain unanswered. The proposed Pebble Mine still faces a significant uphill battle," said Williams. Within the coming weeks, we’ll see significant news in the ongoing saga over the Pebble Mine. While we wait, Alaskans will go fishing – just as we do every year. More than 50 million salmon are expected to return to the river systems that feed the Bristol Bay region this summer, but the decisions made today about the proposed Pebble Mine will determine how many more years salmon continue to swim upstream. ASJ Editor’s note: Jenny Weis is the communications and digital advocacy specialist for Trout Unlimited’s Alaska program. Go to tu.org/tu-programs/alaska for more information.

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OUTDOOR CALENDAR*

July 25 Valdez Kids Pink Salmon Derby; valdezfishderbies.com/kids-derby July 25-Sept. 6 Valdez Silver Salmon Derby; valdezfishderbies.com/silver-derby

July 31 First Valdez Big Prize Friday (part of Silver Salmon Derby); valdezfishderbies.com/ silver-derby/big-prize-fridays Aug. 7-Sept. 16 Valdez Silver Salmon Tagged Fish Contest; valdezfishderbies.com/ tagged-fish-contest Aug. 8 Valdez Women’s Silver Salmon Derby; valdezfishderbies.com/womens-derby Aug. 10-18 Seward Silver Salmon Derby; salmon.seward.com Aug. 14-16 Golden North Salmon Derby, Juneau; goldennorthsalmonderby.com Aug. 19-21 Ted Stevens Kenai River Classic; krsa.com/events/ted-stevens-kenai-river-classic July cancellations 1st Annual Homer Halibut Tournament; homerhalibuttournament.com Mount Marathon Race, Seward; mmr.seward.com The Valdez Kids Pink Salmon Derby is scheduled for July 25, with prizes awarded for several age groups. (VALDEZ FISH DERBIES)

* Given coronavirus distancing concerns with public events, reconfirm before attending. Some have been rescheduled and others may not take place.

aksportingjournal.com | JULY 2020

ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL

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FIELD

Bruised eggs in a fish that hasn’t been bled (right) can taint an entire batch of cured roe. Safe handling is one way to prevent damaging your eggs. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

START RIGHT FOR EGG-CELLENT CURES

PERFECT SALMON BAIT BEGINS WITH PROPER HANDLING AFTER LANDING ROE-RICH HENS

BY SCOTT HAUGEN

n the March edition of this column, we looked at recipes for curing salmon eggs. While the topic is a passion of mine, I may have gotten ahead of myself. So, this month we’re taking a close look at the first – and most important – steps of curing salmon eggs, and that’s the handling process. When curing salmon eggs, the pro-

cess begins well before the eggs actually go into the curing jar. It begins the moment a fish is landed. From this point, it’s crucial to take care of the eggs during transport, so as not to damage them. To promote fresh, high-quality salmon eggs, start with bleeding the fish as soon after the catch as possible. First, strike the fish on the head to ensure a

quick, clean kill, then take what photos you’d like.

BLOOD IN THE WATER Once dead, there are a few ways to bleed a fish. Whatever option you choose, do it quickly before the blood sets up in the body cavity of the dead fish. Blood coagulates fast in dead fish, making it a bac-

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ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL

FIELD

A big salmon can yield a big enough fillet to cut into pieces and experiment with creative recipes like Tiffany Haugen’s misoinspired dish. (TIFFANY HAUGEN)

GET CREATIVE WITH SALMON FILLETS BY TIFFANY HAUGEN

o matter what Alaskan salmon species you catch or may have in the freezer, when it comes to new and exciting ways to cook fish, think outside the box. Many of us get stuck preparing our prized catch the same way meal after meal. It’s understandable that you may not want to risk using unfamiliar ingredients on something you worked so hard to attain, but think of what you might be missing out on. The great thing about catching a big fish – such as an Alaskan king salmon or fat coho – is that it can be divided up and seasoned in many different ways. If there are a few recipes that sound intriguing, try cutting the fillets in half, or even thirds, and try the new recipe on smaller portions of fish. Label them and invite your friends and family to taste-test. Try to stay away from recipes that have a lot of ingredients that you don’t have on-hand or won’t use again. If you haven’t tried miso before, it’s an amazing

ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL

ingredient to keep in your refrigerator for all sorts of cooking options. Miso is fermented so it will last a long time; a tablespoon or two will make a quick broth-like soup or it can be used in stews, salad dressings, sauces or marinades as a salty/umami element.

JULY 2020 | aksportingjournal.com

1 fillet salmon 1 tablespoon miso 1 tablespoon butter, melted 1 tablespoon rice vinegar 1 teaspoon honey 1 sheet roasted seaweed or one 5-gram snack pack Rinse fish fillet in cold water and pat dry. Place fish in an ovenproof dish or foil pouch. In a small bowl, combine miso, butter, rice vinegar and honey. Spread miso mixture evenly over salmon fillet. Crush or tear seaweed into tiny pieces and sprinkle on top. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven 15 to 25 minutes or until the internal temperature of the fish reaches 135 degrees. Serve with mixed spicy mayo (see ingredients below).

SPICY MAYO 1/3 cup mayonnaise 1 tablespoon chili sauce 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice, optional

Editor’s note: For signed copies of Tiffany’s popular book, Cooking Seafood, and other titles, visit tiffanyhaugen.com.

FIELD Bleeding your fish immediately after catching it is one of the most important steps in attaining well-cured eggs to be used as bait. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

terial breeding ground and creating foul odors that can pass to the cured egg and potentially repel salmon. Since salmon have a sense of smell measured in parts per billion, it’s important to pay attention to such details early on, well before the actual curing takes place. The most popular and easiest of all methoed for bleeding a fish is to cut a gill rake. This can be done by cutting it with a knife, snipping it with scissors or pliers, or busting it with your fingers. With several gill rakes on each side – under the gill plates – busting a few at a time will result in faster, optimal bleeding. Another bleeding option is taking a sharp knife and cutting at the base of the tail, on the underside. Be sure to cut all the way to the spine to hit the main vein. A third option is inserting a long knife into the underside of the upper belly at the heart. Be sure the blade enters in 46

ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL

front of the pectoral fins so as to avoid slicing the eggs. This is where most of the blood coagulates in a dead fish, and much of it congeals around the eggs. Bleeding a fish in this way allows you to grab it by the tail and hold it in the water to bleed out. It is a fairly fast process. Releasing blood ensures your eggs will remain odor-free, maintain proper color and keep a healthy appearance. What’s next?

KEEPING EGGS INSIDE Depending on where you’re at and the conditions you’re in, you may want to transport your eggs inside the fish in order to prevent damaging the skeins. An already bled body cavity is one of the best “containers” in which to transport skeins of eggs. This keeps them moist, prevents them from coming into contact with potential objects, which transfer

JULY 2020 | aksportingjournal.com

foul odors to them, and keeps them from bruising or bursting. If outside temperatures are cool enough, leave the eggs inside the fish for transport. On warm days, putting the fish on ice – with the eggs still inside – is a good choice. If bank fishing, hang the fish by the gills in the shade to keep them cool. In cold streams, keeping the fish in water will keep them cool. Avoid keeping your fish in warm water – yes, there are some warm waters in Alaska – so as to prevent the meat from actually heating up, thus causing the internal organs to do the same, which can potentially taint the eggs and the meat.

TAKE CARE OF YOUR CATCH When handling fish, do so with care. Avoid tossing your fish, dropping them on the ground or flinging them against objects like a cooler or fish-cleaning ta-

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FIELD

Scott Haugen, author of the best-selling book on egg cures for salmon fishing, has been experimenting with the science of egg cures for over 45 years. Wellcured eggs paid off for him with this nice Nushagak River king. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

ble. Fish flesh is very tender and easily damaged. Not only will this mishandling damage the meat – thus decreasing its overall taste and quality – it will damage the eggs also. While on the water, removing your eggs from the fish is also an option. On several occasions I've removed skeins from hens just minutes after being caught. Done immediately after dispatching the fish, eggs will be blood-free and gorgeous in coloration. They must be placed in a clean, sealable plastic bag so they don't come in contact with potential contaminants. From there, they go into a cooler. When dealing with ocean-caught fish, removing their eggs within minutes of being caught is important. Salmon in the ocean are still actively feeding, and when killed, the bacterial byproducts in their guts are oftentimes regurgitated. These acids and bacteria can escape into the body cavity and taint the eggs.

HANDLE WITH KID – OR RUBBER – GLOVES No matter where in the process you handle your eggs, using rubber gloves is wise. Remember that a fish's sense of smell is measured in parts per billion, and human odors released from oils through our skin can make a difference in egg smell. I know of several guides and avid anglers who catch impressive numbers of fish each year and never touch the eggs with bare hands – from the time they are removed from the fish to the time they are cured and go on the hook. Salmon eggs that are handled roughly, bruised and contaminated with foul odors cannot be fixed, no matter how good your cure is. So the next time a cure is blamed for not catching salmon, see if the eggs were in ideal condition to start with. You may discover it’s not your egg cure that’s let you down in the past; rather it’s the poor quality of eggs you started with. ASJ Editor’s note: Signed copies of Scott Haugen's best-selling book, Egg Cures: Proven Recipes & Techniques, can be ordered at scotthaugen.com. Follow Scott’s adventures on Instagram and Facebook. 48

ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL

JULY 2020 | aksportingjournal.com

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ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL

GREAT SEASONS START IN THE OFFSEASON FROM STAYING FIT TO HONING SHOOTING SKILLS, HERE’S HOW TO PREP FOR FALL HUNTS BY PAUL D. ATKINS

sat and watched silently as the sun started to disappear beyond the hills, dipping ever closer to the horizon. The big oak and sycamore trees that surrounded me waved in the hot afternoon breeze, providing some relief. It was a scorcher in Oklahoma, but even so, it was still good to be back home in the woods, especially sitting in my old treestand overlooking the old pond that sits in the back pasture. It was peaceful and quiet, something I needed after a long flight from the North Country. That feeling didn’t last long, however; something big was moving towards me through the brush and to the bottom of the tree. Now, the thing that came in through the brush was a hog and was as wild as any grizzly I’ve encountered. He moved slowly in stealth mode, if you will, and like a lot of bears from my past, it seemed like he almost had a sixth sense. I watched from my tree, carefully gauging the distance to the small corn feeder placed below me. Finally, at dark – or as dark as it gets here in Oklahoma – I carefully drew the BowTech and placed the pin on where I needed it to be. The string dropped and the boar only went maybe 30 yards. Now, if only I can do that on a

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Shooting every day is author Paul Atkinsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; mantra. As he awaits the return of fall hunting season in Alaska, Atkins is making multiple preparations, including honing his bowhunting accuracy. The better you can get the feel of your equipment in situations that might arise during the actual hunt, the more comfortable and confident you will be. (PAUL ATKINS) aksportingjournal.com | JULY 2020

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big grizzly come this fall. Practice makes perfect. Be prepared!

KEEPING SANE IN DOWNTIME For me, the offseason is bittersweet; it always has been. For sure I would rather be in Alaska chasing bears – either down the beach or over a bait pile somewhere in Southcentral or Southeast. But with the COVID-19 situation, I am not able to. Both of my bear hunts, plus my annual halibut fishing trip, got cancelled back in March, even though now it looks like they all could have happened. Oh well, it’s time to prepare for the fall anyway, and for me that means honing my shooting skills by hunting hogs and going to the range, getting gear ready for fall bear camp upriver, and maybe trying to get in a little better shape.

PREPARATION FROM AFAR From where I’m sitting, upriver is about 6,000 miles away, but it’s a place that I constantly think about and prepare for

each July. It’s hot here in Oklahoma and the humidity is brutal, but the thought of what my longtime friend and hunting partner Lew and I will experience in early August is what keeps me going and in the right frame of mind. Plus, it pushes me in terms of hope and the unexpected excitement that surely will be had. Preparing for the fall has become a tradition for me, and even though it’s only July, I know I can never start too early. That’s because as soon as I step off the plane in Kotzebue again, I will immediately be boarding Lew’s boat for another adventure. For those who don’t know, hunting in the Arctic is more than just a leisurely jog out your front door and then home again. It takes a lot more prep than most hunts do. You have to have the right gear and make sure it’s in order and it works, especially when you’re 100 miles upriver. You can’t just turn around, go home and get it.

“I always go through my gear each year – whether I need to or not,” Atkins says. “It lets me take stock on what I have and what I need to adjust or add, or in this case, maybe clean and store for the next trip out.” (PAUL D. ATKINS)

WORKING OUT THE KINKS So how do I get prepared, or at least start my preparation? Well, first I need to work on getting in shape. Being cooped up for the last five months has added some extra pounds in all the places where I don’t need it. That means hitting the gym – it’s applicable since they’re now open – and working with weights and the treadmill every day. It’s hard at first, but as soon as you start to see improvement, it comes naturally. We all need to exercise for sure and more often than not, most of us are out of shape, even though we still believe we can take on anything the great outdoors has to offer. If you’re like me and are planning a trip – or in my case, several trips – to the Alaskan wilderness, you need to condition yourself for it. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s the mountains or the tundra; you will definitely need to be in shape. Most people show up not knowing what to expect, but there are some who know what it feels like shooting an animal in the deep stuff a mile from camp. It hurts, I promise. Sheep hunting or any hunt where you have to go up, for example, is about as tough as it gets, and even if you are in shape, it can be very, very demanding. On the other hand, if your hunt plans include only caribou, you still have to be able to navigate long distances through some pretty rough country, especially if the tussocks are knee-deep and far apart.

TALKING ABOUT SHOOTING PRACTICE Secondly, I need to shoot, which means both with a rifle and bow. I try to shoot every day, even though trudging outside in the 90-plus-degree summer heat of Oklahoma is no fun. The humidity is a killer too. You begin to sweat long before you even think about pulling back your bow. Early mornings and late evenings are best, but it’s still hot. I try to focus on the positives: how cool the Arctic air will feel once we get to camp in August and September. It’s where the thought of an extra layer or maybe gathering more firewood feels much more pleasing. For most of us, practice is pretty much a constant, whether you hunt with a rifle or a bow. So, long before you go trekking 52

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Atkins hopes he runs into this guy or a big bull like him come late summer. All that prep work and planning will really have paid off then, especially if he rides home with full game bags full and a big rack. (PAUL D. ATKINS)

through the tundra, you’ll want to make sure you can effectively hit what you are shooting at. This is where practice comes in and should be in a variety of situations. Knowing for certain your “effective range” is probably the biggest positive or negative, depending on how you look at it. For example: Most shots on caribou, moose and even sheep will seldom be from a standing upright position. It has been my experience that you are usually on your knees or sitting flat on the ground with the wind and rain blowing up your backside. Bowhunters and rifle hunters should practice from these positions as much as possible and do it while wearing the same gear you will be hunting in. This means a full pack, rain gear and waders. This will give the hunter a better feeling 54

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of what to expect when the moment of truth arrives. It’s kind of crazy to see me in full camo with a backpack on while lying on our lawn or up in a tree here in Oklahoma shooting each summer. My relatives think I’m crazy.

FIND A PLACE TO SHOOT Down here and in most states of America’s Heartland, finding a place to shoot a bow is easy: backyards and 3-D shoots run amok. It’s easy to get dialed in, but not so much when it comes to sighting in your rifle. Nothing compares to the vastness of Alaska and its wide-open spaces. What looks like 200 yards there looks like a full mile here. Now, I’m speaking from my own experiences and what I’m used to in the offseason. I usually focus on my archery

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gear while I’m here and save shooting the long gun for once I get back to the Arctic. Whatever the case, shoot as much as possible, have a good rangefinder and focus on what you’re aiming at. That’s what I try to do here, even though I wish I were standing on one of Kotzebue’s beaches doing it instead.

CAMP ITEM CHECKLIST Third in my being prepared list deals with camp. It’s true Lew and I have about every piece of gear that you could ever imagine and possibly need on a do-it-yourself type hunt. We have enough tents, stoves, tables, chairs, knives, saws, tarps, game bags, pots, pans, utensils and weapons to supply an army. But like usual, there is always something we forget, or wish we had. Paper towels and toilet paper are

Aim small, hit small – or so they say. Get focused, concentrate and don’t shoot just to shoot when it comes to preparing for a hunt. You owe it to the animal, if nothing else. (PAUL D. ATKINS)

DON’T TAKE IT FOR GRANTED

ne of the biggest mistakes that I’ve made is taking my shooting skills for granted. I consider myself a decent enough shot that usually my rifle is dead-on – or at least it was last year. The bears and the muskox all went down easily, so why should I even think that the same rifle and even my bow wouldn’t shoot the same this coming fall? They’re both stored safely in their cases and haven’t been touched since March. All I need to do is grab them and go, right? Not true; I’ve had too many misses in the past to just call it good. A couple of years ago, Lew Pagel and I were at bear camp in late August. After a late dinner, we decided to cruise upstream and see if we could catch a grizzly taking a midnight stroll. I was carrying my trusty old 7mm, which I’d used 100 times before. It has probably killed more stuff than the plague, so why not this time? The problem was I hadn’t used it in two seasons and took it for granted that it was on. Of course we found a bear – a big boy casually walking down the bank – not 100 yards from where we were sitting. At the moment of truth, I threw up my rifle, found him in the scope and felt the recoil slam into my shoulder. Nothing! The bear looked in our direction and before I could get a second shot off, he was long gone into the willows. I came to find out the rifle was shooting high and to the left. Hindsight cost me a super nice grizzly. Lesson learned; sight in that rifle, no matter what. PA

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a good example, and so are plates, but that’s another story. Here’s how we do it. All our gear is locked in a Conex, a large storage/shipping container, that sits outside Lew’s house. Each summer, while I’m here and he’s there, I have him go through and check to see that everything is in order. It might have been easier to do it before I left, but it has become part of our offseason ritual . It gives us a chance to communicate and plan, which adds excitement for what’s to come and to plan accordingly. Either way, we can work on what we need. If we’re missing something, then I can pick it up while I’m here and bring it north when I return in late July. It’s a lot cheaper; believe me! Whatever you decide on your adventure, you need to plan long before you start the boat or get on a plane to head out. While bear hunting last spring,

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“It all comes together for me when I’m sitting in the front of Lew’s boat, staring at the beautiful country and the gear laying before me,” Atkins says. “I know that we’ve planned and everything in these bags and cooler will suffice us for a week of adventure.” (PAUL D. ATKINS)

“I live for bear camp,” the author says, and even though he’s been in 95-degree weather visiting family back in Oklahoma, the thought of spending a week on an Alaskan river while hunting bears and catching salmon in the cool dry air keeps him and longtime friend and partner Lew Pagel (left) going. (PAUL D. ATKINS)

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Flying out versus boating to your destination is a bit different and creates new challenges that can be very rewarding. However you plan to reach your hunting grounds, have a good plan in place and your hard work will pay off. (PAUL D. ATKINS)

Lew forgot his binoculars. It happens and I can tattle on my best friend, but without them he was lost. So was I. I needed his eyes and two sets are always better than one, no matter the situation. He didn’t forget them the next time and we saw bears in places that were hard to see. It all worked out, but you have to make sure you have what you need. We do the same with food. I make a list (I’m very fond of lists) and if there is something that we specifically need, I buy it, put it in a tub and bring it north. For example, we cherish MREs, practicallying living on them while at hunting camp or in the boat. They’re relatively cheap, but to get them shipped to Kotzebue costs more than the meals themselves. Pop-Tarts 60

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are another! The rest of our list can be bought at the local AC.

THINKING ABOUT HOW TO GET THERE Lastly, transport is also important to have figured out. This year we may try something different and add a plane ride to our hunting plans. Flying out versus taking the boat – which we will still do plenty of – necessitates a whole different planning agenda and requires a new set of rules, specifically on what we can and cannot take. Weight is restricted, and if we get a couple of caribou or maybe even a moose, then it’s even more so. Your list gets shorter for sure and probably will need to be scrutinized several times before you get it right. If an Alaskan hunt is in your future or

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it arrives maybe as early as this fall, now is the time to start preparing yourself. It’s an adventure of a lifetime and creates memories that you’ll cherish forever. The feel of the tundra; the smell of camp smoke; that long, hard stalk that produced the big bull that now hangs on your wall and filled up your freezer. All were made possible due to good planning. Make yours today! ASJ Editor’s note: Paul Atkins is an outdoor writer and author from Kotzebue, Alaska. He’s had hundreds of articles published on big game hunting throughout North America and Africa, plus surviving in the Arctic. His new book Into the Arctic will be on bookshelves this summer and available online. Paul is a regular contributor to Alaska Sporting Journal.

SEWARD PENINSULA UNIT OFFERS PREMIER HUNTING Editor’s note: From the Alaska Panhandle to the “top of the world” in Barrow/Utqiagvik, Alaska contains 26 game management units that feature land for hunting and other outdoor activities. Our Arctic adventurer Paul Atkins is breaking down some of the units he’s hunted in the past in this ongoing feature. This issue: GMU 22.

GMU PrOFILE

BY PAUL D. ATKINS

ame Management Unit 22 is very familiar to me. It lies directly south of where I call home, Kotzebue and Unit 23, and the area and the landscape are very similar. The trials and tribulations are the same and many of the same animals exist there. I’ve only hunted muskox in the region, but moose, bear and – especially – caribou call it home.

Author Paul Atkins with a Game Management Unit 22 muskox. He says the big game animals are plentiful in the unit and that three roads leading out of Nome “allow you to get a bit closer than normal.” (PAUL D. ATKINS)

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As with most units close to the Arctic Circle, caribou are plentiful in GMU 22. Bag limits are liberal throughout the year for residents and are restricted to one bull for nonresidents. Hunting the open tundra can be tough, but with a good plan in place, it’s still very doable. (PAUL D. ATKINS)

ELITE HUNTING AREAS For many years I thought there were no trees in Unit 22, only hills and tundra, and in the winter it was all snow and ice. But I was wrong. It’s all wilderness, especially if you head to the south end, which many consider the best hunting in the state. GMU 22 consists of the Bering Sea, Norton Sound, Bering Strait, Chukchi Sea and Kotzebue Sound drainages, plus all the adjacent islands in the Bering Sea between the mouths of the Goodhope and Pastolik Rivers. This also includes all seaward waters and lands within 3 miles of these coastlines. 64

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KEY OPENERS

July 1: Caribou season north of the Golsovia River drainage Aug. 1: Brown bear season Aug. 1: Resident muskox season Aug. 1: Wolf season Sept. 1: Wolverine season Sept. 1: Nonresident moose season Oct. 1: Caribou season west of Golovnin Bay, west of the west banks of Fish and Niukluk Rivers below the Libby River (excluding the Libby River drainage and Niukluk River drainage above the mouth of the Libby River)

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The unit is broken into five subunits – 22A through 22E – and all have different restrictions and requirements, plus bag limits vary within each. For example, some of the areas allow two brown or grizzly bears, while others only one. Unlike Unit 23, moose are available for nonresidents through draw tags and registration hunts. If you do plan to hunt moose in this unit, you’ll need to make sure and check the Alaska Department of Fish and Game website for updates.

A BULL MARKET Caribou can be found about everywhere, especially once they leave the far north

Grizzly populations are growing all over the state and the same can be said in this unit. Tags are available over the counter. As elsewhere in Alaska, nonresidents need a guide or to hunt with a related state resident, but finding a good bear is attainable. (PAUL D. ATKINS)Â

for their southern feeding grounds. As in the far north they are spread out throughout the fall and winter. Residents have a pretty liberal bag limit, while nonresidents are restricted to only one bull. Muskox are plentiful too and can be hunted on a federal subsistence tag throughout the unit, except for the 22A subunit. Trophy destruction is required once harvested, which in my opinion is a bummer, but the meat is well worth the effort.

PREDATOR, SMALL GAME OPTIONS Twenty wolves are allowed for residents, along with one wolverine, a rarely seen critter in the state that is a trophy in its own right. Like most units in Alaska, small game is plentiful. If ptarmigan and snowshoe hares are on your menu, then this is the place to go. ASJ Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s note: Follow Paul Atkins on Twitter @AKTrophyHunter.

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GMU 22 covers much of the Seward Peninsula, including the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, where some of the first hunters to reach North America may have pursued their quarry during the last ice age. (ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME)