Wednesday, August 3, 2016
2016
HUNTING GUIDE INSIDE
• Preview of Fortymile and Nelchina caribou hunts • This could be a bountiful year for upland bird hunters • Military debuts app for hunters on training lands ... and more
2
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
2016 HUNTING GUIDE
Table of Contents Bird hunting this season looks good ...............3 Non-federal subsistence hunters blocked ....4 Moose-habitat restoration in Tok .....................5 Caribou hunts in Fortymile, Nelchina .............6 Anterless moose reductions almost done ....7 Sheep-hunting allocations unchanged .........8 App for hunters on military lands .................10 Fish and Game answers FAQs .........................11 Curl guide for sheep hunters .............................2 Keep animal remains off roadways ...............14 Avoiding bowhunting conflicts .....................16
Bundled in arctic gear, hunters brave the cold during January 2009 to wait in line outside the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for an “any moose� registration hunting permit for the Minto Flats Management Area. ERIC ENGMAN/NEWS-MINER FILE PHOTO
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ON THE COVER: A caribou shakes off water on the banks of the North Fork of the Chena River off Chena Hot Spring Road in 2003. JOHN HAGEN/NEWS-MINER FILE PHOTO
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
3
2016 HUNTING GUIDE
Good numbers expected for upland bird hunts By Robin Wood FOR THE NEWS-MINER
Hunters in search of grouse and ptarmigan around Interior Alaska this fall and winter may be treated to large numbers of fowl. Steady to strong survey reports, a mild winter last year and fortuitous timing in the bird’s 7- to 10-year life cycles appear to be coinciding. Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Cameron Carroll said, “Things are looking really good, it’s a good year to get out.” Carroll based her assessment on spring breeding surveys conducted on ruffed and
Ivotuk Airstrip
sharp-tailed grouse and rock ptarmigan, and wing collections of spruce grouse and ptarmigan. This summer was also the first time brood surveys were conducted, giving estimates of juvenile production. Grouse and ptarmigan are referred to as upland birds for the terrain they inhabit. In regards to ruffed grouse, a steady population persists near Clear Air Force Station despite diminished habitat. Areas around Delta Junction and Tok appear to be seeing population increases, Carroll said, while noting surveys are BIRDS » 19
Ivotuk Hills
A spruce grouse takes flight from a spruce tree in the Isberg Recreation Area on March 31, 2010. ERIC ENGMAN/NEWS-MINER FILE PHOTO
Tulugak Airstrip
Killik Airstrip
Elusive Lake
NOTICE TO AIRMEN, GUIDES, OUTFITTERS, RAFTERS & SPORT HUNTERS Large tracts of land on the Western and Central North Slope are owned by the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC). Entry on these privately owned lands requires the consent of ASRC. Sport hunting and fishing are prohibited on ASRC lands. Within ASRC lands in the Central and Western Arctic are a number of gravel airstrips that are closed to public access. Entry on the following airstrips requires the written consent of ASRC:
AKULIK 69°00’02”N 163°26’33”W; EAGLE CREEK 68°40’46”N 162°39’13”W; KILLIK 68°27’15”N 154°17’43”W; TIGLIKPUK 68°25’25”N 151°27’26”W; TULUGAK 68°59’36”N 151°11’42”W; *IVOTUK* 68°28’42”N 155°45’50”W; Airstrip is public but please be aware of ASRC’s ownership of apron, road, and drill site. These airstrips are subject to periodic surveillance by ASRC. Trespassers will be prosecuted. Certain easements are reserved for the public in various locations on ASRC lands. These easements are owned by ASRC and are reserved for public use for limited specific purposes. These easements are reserved to allow access to lakes by float plane, temporary overnight camping at specific 1 acre sites near the lake shores (not to exceed 24 hours), and to allow for trail access to adjacent public lands. Some specific areas that require the proper following of easements are: Elusive Lake, Shainin Lake, Chandler Lake, Udurivik Lake, Imiaknikpak Lake, and Windy Lake. Any deviation from easement stipulations will be considered trespass and is criminally punishable under Alaska Statute11.46.330. Sport hunting and fishing are not allowed on these easements. You are highly encouraged to contact ASRC if you are planning a float trip on the Kukpowruk, Kokolik, Utukok, Okokmilaga, Chandler, Anaktuvuk, Kurupa, Killik, or Colville Rivers. Each of these waterways have unique circumstances or restrictions that must be followed to prevent trespass. In addition, North Slope Borough, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and/or National Park Service permits may also be required for commercially operating on adjacent public lands. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permissions For more information contact: Arctic Slope Regional Corporation Land Department
3900 C Street, Suite 801 Anchorage, AK 99503-5963
907 339-6017
www.ASRC.com/landinfo
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and permits to access these areas.
4
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
2016 HUNTING GUIDE
Northwest caribou hunting in flux with subsistence board ruling WMORROW @NEWSMINER.COM
The future of hunting for Alaska’s largest caribou herd remains in flux this hunting season as Alaska’s state government fights a federal subsistence board decision to restrict hunting among non-local hunters. At about 200,000 caribou, the Northwest Arctic Caribou Herd remains the biggest in the state, but it’s been in decline, dropping in size by 50 percent since 2003. The closure began July 1 and runs through June 30, 2017. The Federal Subsistence Board made the decision in April, closing the hunt of caribou in Game Management Unit 23 — which covers much
of the area in and around the Northwest Arctic Borough — to all but federally qualified subsistence users. The closure prevents most people who live outside the area from flying in for caribou hunting. The state has asked U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to reverse the decision. In July the board had a series of public meetings in Nome, Kotzebue and Barrow. The decision marked the first time such a closure has occurred in the region. The federal board approved the closure because of the Northwest Arctic Caribou Herd’s numbers, which have been in decline, and to conserve a healthy population for subsistence use, as required through the
Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. The state disagrees with the board, claiming such a closure is unnecessary to preserve the herd and sets a dangerous precedent for future closures. Lem Butler, assistant director for the Division of Wildlife Conservation with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the federal board’s decision to instate the closure fails to adhere to the management plan developed by stakeholders with aid from state and federal departments. That plan wouldn’t have the federal board consider a closure until the herd fell below 200,000, according to Butler. “We want them to review this decision, because
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it’s pretty monumental,” Butler said. “We did all this work to put together a management plan, and this decision doesn’t adhere to that plan.” Up d a t e d e s t i m a t e s from the state put the herd’s population at about 206,000, according to Butler. He said state estimates show the herd approaching a more stable population than it had been about seven years ago — it generally ranges between 200,000 and 500,000 caribou, he said. “If all it takes is for the population to be in decline and for a few people to express the opinion they want to see a closure, if that’s the benchmark, we could see a lot more closures in the future,” Butler
said. “That really has us concerned.” Neither side disputes the herd’s population decline — during the last decade or so, the herd’s size has been cut in half. Where the state disagrees with the federal board’s assessment, is the future potential of the herd. Whereas the board is acting now to ensure future population growth, the state believes the herd is already on the rebound. Beyond that, the state says closing the herd to Outside hunters wouldn’t make much of a difference to its conservation anyway. “The people who were put out by this decision account for about 600 caribou harvest annually, compared to about 11,400
by the people who are still in place,” Butler said. The state attempted to appeal the decision directly to the federal board in May but was told the board has no direct appeal process. So, instead, the state’s request lies in the hands of Jewell. The Interior secretary has clashed in the past with some of Alaska’s leaders, notably Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has repeatedly feuded with Jewell regarding the construction of a road through a National Wildlife Refuge to the community of King Cove. Contact staff writer Weston Morrow at 459-7520. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMschools. A version of this article was published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner on July 1, 2016.
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By Weston Morrow
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
5
2016 HUNTING GUIDE
Bulldozer enhances moose habitat near Tok OF FISH AND GAME
Aspen is a botanical Phoenix, flourishing in the wake of destruction. The lush growth that emerges after an aspen
stand is burned or crushed is ideal for moose and grouse, and that benefits moose and grouse hunters. The state has partnered with the Ruffed Grouse Society on a habitat enhancement project near Tok, and this winter more
than 250 acres were treated. It’s the second year of a five-year project that aims to treat about 750 acres. Treatment basically means a bulldozer pushes through an aspen stand with the blade down, pulling a heavy rolling drum. The drum is studCOME SEE US AT THE TANANA VALLEY STATE FAIR AUG 5-14
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from fires to habitat enhancement. He and his crew have been working with Fish and Game and the Ruffed Grouse Society on the project. He said this winter they treat-
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ded with chopping blades. The dozer blade snaps the trees off at the base and the roller chopper breaks them up. Peter Talus is the fire management officer for the state Division of Forestry in Tok. In fall and winter, he can turn his focus
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6
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
2016 HUNTING GUIDE
Fortymile, Nelchina herds look strong for hunting SFRIEDMAN@NEWSMINER.COM
The two largest caribou herds south of the Brooks Range both have stable or increasing populations headed into the 2016 hunting season, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game estimates. The Fortymile and Nelchina caribou herds are both popular targets of Interior hunters because they are large herds whose migrations routes takes them through areas accessible by state highway.
Kenny Haskins, right, of North Pole and Michael Rego of Moose Creek haul their caribou to their truck Dec. 3, 2006, near Circle Hot Springs. SAM HARREL/NEWS-MINER FILE PHOTO
Fortymile herd
The caribou of the Fortymile Herd range between the Fortymile River north of Tok and the Steese Highway north of Fairbanks. Like the past two years,
state officials have set the Fortymile harvest quota at 1,000 animals — 750 in the fall and 250 in the winter. This year the hunt begins Aug. 29 along the Steese and Taylor highway corridors. The season opens Aug. 10 in the more remote parts of the herd’s range. This year biologists are in the process of creating a new estimate for the size of the herd by analyzing aerial photographs, said Jeff Wells, an assistant wildlife biologist at the Tok fish and game office. In the meantime, a 2010 estimate of 52,000 caribou is likely accurate, he said. “Based on collars and other information that we have, our best estimate is that it’s pretty stable and similar to that (2010) number,” he said. The state manages most of the Fortymile Caribou hunt
with a registration permits, meaning the hunt is open to all hunters with a hunting license. Hunters must report their kill to the state within three days of taking a caribou. The hunt closes by emergency order when biologists decide hunters are getting close to reaching the quota. The season has been as short as one day on years when caribou congregated near the highway near the season opening. On other years the caribou elude hunters for weeks. If the quota isn’t met the, fall hunt closes Sept. 30 for Alaska residents . The Alaska Department of Fish and Game asks hunters to call the Fortymile Caribou hotline to check on the status of the hunt before they go into the field. The phone number is 267-2310.
Nelchina herd
Managers of the Nelchina Caribou Herd boosted the number of drawing permits this year with the goal of lowering the herd’s population to a goal of between 35,000 and 45,000 caribou. The Nelchina Herd migrates along the southern foothills of the Alaska Range between the Talkeetna Mountains and the Glenn Highway. The herd numbers about 47,800 animals, according to a 2015 survey, said Area Wildlife Biologist Frank Robbins in Glennallen. In February the state awarded 5,000 drawing permits for Nelchina caribou. In addition to the drawing permits, state also allows Nelchina caribou hunting using two differCARIBOU » 9
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By Sam Friedman
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
7
2016 HUNTING GUIDE
Fairbanks-area moose populations fall within target range SFRIEDMAN @NEWSMINER.COM
After years of authorizing hunts to cut down the moose population to sustainable levels, moose concentrations are now in biologist’s target ranges around Fairbanks and south of the Tanana River. An intensive survey last year concluded about 12,000 moose live in Game Management Unit 20A, south of Fairbanks across the Tanana. Around 12,000 moose are also thought to live in GMU 20B around Fairbanks as well, although GMU 20B hasn’t been surveyed in detail since 2013, according to wild-
life biologists at the Fairbanks Department of Fish and Game office. In 2004, state game managers in Fairbanks began targe ting cow moose with antlerless hunts south of Fairbanks to reduce the population from an overabundance that threatened to overbrose the area’s moose habitat. Cow hunt opportunities have gradually decreased as the population has dropped. For the third year in a row, there will be no hunts targeting female moose in GMU 20A this year. A small number of antlerless drawing permits were created in Game Management Unit 20B, a total of 92 in the central and western parts of the
area. The department’s target population for GMU 20B is between 12,000 and 16,000 moose. For GMU 20B the Alaska Board of Game broadened the target to between 10,000 and 15,000 moose this year to account for the challenges of making a precise moose population count. Wildlife biologists use twinning rates — the percentage of calf-bearing cows that give birth to twin calves instead of single calves — as a stand-in statistic for moose population health. This year twinning rates were below average for Unit 20A and 20B, but that may be related to the high percentage of twin
A large bull moose feeds in a pond just north of Delta Junction along the Richardson Highway on July 19, 2010. TIM MOWRY/ NEWS-MINER FILE PHOTO
calves born last year. “We had a banner year last year. In 2015, twinning rates were excellent regionwide and at least in 20A they were some of the highest we’d seen in a long time. Sometimes when you have banner
years like that the year following will be significantly lower,” said Area Wildlife Biologist Don Young with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Biologists are still trying to make sense of
another trend they observed during spring calf surveys. In comparison to similar calves weighed before the antlerless hunt program, male calves weighed MOOSE » 13
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By Sam Friedman
8
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
2016 HUNTING GUIDE
Board rejects most sheep allocation proposals SFRIEDMAN@NEWSMINER.COM
There aren’t any major changes this year to the percentage of sheep hunts open to non-Alaska residents despite the recent efforts of resident hunters to change the rules. Sheep hunting issues, in particular the distribution of opportunities between local and out-of-state hunters, dominated the agenda of the Alaska Board of Game when it met this spring in Fairbanks. The meeting drew 118 people to testify, the most for any meeting in recent memory. In general, the board kept the status quo for sheep hunting rules, voting “no” unanimously on almost all of the 22 proposals to rewrite the rules for how sheep hunting opportunities get distributed. The board did tinker with the sheep
hunting rules by passing two proposals related to sheep hunting. The two small rules changes expanded youth hunt opportunities and restricted nonresident hunters who return to Alaska to hunt sheep multiple years in a row. Juvenile hunters accompanied by an adult will now enjoy an early season hunting opportunity Aug. 1-5 in several sheep hunting areas across the state, with the 4-3 passage of Proposal 47. The board also set a bag limit for nonresidents of one sheep every four years with its 5-2 passage of Proposal 28. Nonresident hunters could previously return to hunt sheep multiple years in a row, although few did.
Resident/nonresident redistribution Alaska’s Dall sheep attract local
and out-of-state hunters to the mountains. In recent years, nonresidents have been much more successful, harvesting 40 percent of the sheep despite making up only 20 percent of the sheep hunting population, according to a 2014 study commissioned by the board. Nonresidents must be accompanied by a professional guide or an Alaskan family member. The guiding industry usually justifies the large nonresident share of the sheep harvest by pointing to the higher tag fees nonresidents pay for the privilege of hunting sheep in Alaska. The tag fee money goes to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Resident hunters who complained about too many hunters crowding into the mountains
Dall sheep lick the minerals from the Alaska Highway at Sheep Mountain on Kluane Lake in the Yukon during February 2008. SAM HARREL/ NEWSMINER FILE PHOTO
SHEEP » 9
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By Sam Friedman
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
9
2016 HUNTING GUIDE Continued from 8 during the August and September sheep season wrote many proposed regulations to restrict non-resident access. Five of the proposals asked the board to make more space for residents by capping nonresident harvest share at either 10 percent or 12 percent. The board unanimously rejected these proposals. The board also unanimously rejected a slate of proposals to divide the hunting season into resident and nonresident seasons and to restrict nonresidents to drawing-permit hunts. Despite their votes, some board members said they would be willing to look at future proposals to modify the resident-nonresident breakdown. “This is an interesting proposal. It does seek to reduce the harvest by nonresidents from 40 to 30 percent, and I think that’s one goal we probably should be
looking at,” board chairman Ted Spraker said during discussion of a proposal from the Alaska Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers to move nonresident sheep hunts to permit drawing. “Right now it’s basically 60-40 with residents taking 60.” Although he said it was going in the right direction, Spraker voted against the proposal with the rest of the board. He voted no because the proposal lacked support from regional fish and game advisory committees, he said. Board member Nate Turner serves on both the Board of Game and the Dall Sheep Working Group, a panel of more than 40 people the board created last year to further study sheep hunting policy. At the conclusion of sheep proposal voting, Turner said the series of “no” votes shouldn’t be seen as unwillingness to approach sheep issues. Many of the rejected proposals were written before the creation of the sheep working group, he said.
“We dealt with what was in front of us based on the information that we had in front of us,” he said. “This board is glad to receive recommendations from (the working group), especially if they can be formed on a consensus basis.”
‘No conservation concerns’ In the view of Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s biologists, sheep hunting rules don’t need to be changed this year for the sake of preserving sheep populations. Howe ver, sheep numbers have been declining. Because of this decline, the statewide sportsmen’s group Alaska Outdoor Council asked the board to reduce sheep bag limits in a series of six sheep hunts, five of them subsistence hunts. “Until adequate survey data on the Dall sheep in these areas can be obtained, showing an increase
in the sheep population to historic levels, there should be no harvest of ewes, smaller rams, or a three sheep bag limit, for conservation reasons,” the group wrote in its proposal. Pr o p o s a l 4 9 w o u l d h av e dropped bag limits from three sheep to one ram in Brooks Range subsistence hunts. In other hunts it would have changed the limit from one ewe to one ram. The board voted the proposal down by a 4-3 vote, with the “yes” votes from Pete Probasco, Teresa Sager Albaugh and David Brown. Alaska’s sheep numbers have been declining for 20 years, but state biologists attribute the reduction to weather and other conditions, not hunting pressure. The estimated statewide sheep population in 2010 was 45,010 according to the state, down from about 56,740 in 1990. Contact outdoors editor Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMoutdoors. A previous version of this story appeared in the News-Miner on March 24.
CARIBOU Continued from 6 ent types of subsistence permits. “ W h a t w e’r e attempting to do this year — and the reason for the high number of permits this year — is hopefully to have the ability to lower the numbers if necessary,” he said. “That’s how we manage these populations is through harvest, to provide as much opportunity as possible.” Contact Outdoors Editor Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMoutdoors.
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SHEEP
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Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
2016 HUNTING GUIDE
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2. Check in by calling the USARTRAK automated phone system or online.This must be done before entering the training lands and you will need your RAP number to access the system. This permit is free to all individuals and required by those 16 years of age and older.
To check-in online, you will need your permit number and pin number. ONLINE OPTIONS: • Check into training areas for recreating • Update and renew RAP cards • Reprint existing RAP cards • Purchase Wood Cutting Permits online with a credit card • Complete Bear Baiting and Trapping Harvest Reports • View and print Fort Wainwright Recreation Maps
USARTRAK Telephone Numbers: Fairbanks Area: Delta Junction: Eielson Area: USARTRAK:
353-3181 873-3181 353-3181 1-877-250-9781
Important Fort Wainwright Telephone Numbers: 873-1616 353-7535
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1. Obtain a Recreation Access Permit (RAP). This can be obtained online or at one of our three kiosk locations: Fort Wainwright Visitor Center, Fort Greely Visitor Center, and Fort Wainwright Natural Resources office.
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Contact Outdoors Editor Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMoutdoors.
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Fort Wainwright introduced a map app this year to help hunters stay in the open sections of its training grounds. The maps of the military’s training areas are at https:// usartrak.isportsman.net. Hunters can download them onto their phones and use a free PDF map app to check their location using their phones’ GPS. Fort Wainwright manages three large military training areas in the Interior that can be used by members of the public who receive a permit. The lands are open for hunting and other outdoor recreation except for temporary closures for military training exercises and permanent closures at bombing ranges that contain dangerous unexploded
ordnance. Both temporary and permanent closures are identified on the interactive maps. Users need to apply for a Recreation Access Permit to use the military lands. The application can be completed online at the isportsman website or by visiting the Fort Wainwright, Fort Greely or Donnelly Training Area visitor centers. Much of the Donnelly Training Area is open in mid-September, but large sections will be closed Sept 6 to 8 and Sept. 26 to 30. Most of the Tanana Flats Training Area is open for most of the hunting season. The Yukon Training Area near Eielson Air Force Base is open sporadically during the fall hunting season. See the maps on the isportsman website.
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Scale 1:300,000
This is for informational purposes only.
Please visit usartrak.isportsman.net to view more detailed recreation maps and to find the latest information regarding training area and road closures. Entering restricted areas is a criminal offense and may result in criminal prosecution.
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Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
11
2016 HUNTING GUIDE
FAQ with Fish and Game staff ment-approved bowhunter certification course. Bow Ed: Hunters born on or after Jan. 1, 1986 will need to have completed an IBEP approved archer y cer tification course before hunting. Hunters born before Jan. 1, 1986 will still need IBEP certification to hunt in archery only areas, such as the Fairbanks Management Area and Dalton Highway Corridor. Youth Sheep Hunt: New for 2016 is a youth sheep hunt for hunters aged 10-17 in all areas open to general season harvest ticket. The season is August 1-5. Basic hunter education is required. The harvested sheep counts as the bag limit for the youth and accompanying adult.
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Q: Who do I ask about transport wildlife parts across the Canadian border? A: Contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Fairbanks: 456-2335). Q: Where can I find maps for the area I want to hunt? A: You can find hunt maps on the ADF&G website at http://hunt. alaska.gov. Q: Can I get my harvest tickets online? A: Yes, at http://hunt. alaska.gov. Click on the “Get Your Permit/Harvest Ticket” link. Please be aware beginning July 1, all bowhunters using bow and arrow to hunt big game, in any hunt, must have successfully completed a depart-
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Wildlife biologist Laurie Boeck compiled this list from the hunter information desk. Q: Do I need Hunter Education certification if I’m 16 years old but with a person who was born after Jan. 1, 1986? A: Yes. Q: My 12 year-old son is an Alaska resident. Does he need his own harvest tickets? A: Yes, starting at age 10 a youth will need his/her own harvest tickets. Q: Do I need any special paper work from ADF&G if I’m flying out of state with my moose meat and antlers? A: No, but check with your airline for any requirements they may have for checked baggage.
For Home Owners!
12
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
2016 HUNTING GUIDE
Understanding the new curl rules for sheep hunting ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME
Sheep hunters, listen up! Determining a legal sheep by the full-curl regulation is not an easy task and it requires knowledge, experience and practice. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Wildlife Conservation has produced a staff guide for determining legal sheep under the full-curl regulation. The purpose of this guide is to provide consistency across the state in staff methods/knowledge of aging Dall sheep using horn annuli and/or determining curl legality during the sealing process. The methods within the guide for determining age and curl size of Dall sheep
have been standardized and approved by the Department of Fish and Game.
What’s coming up
A two-part process
The initial plan of the Division was to create a manual for sheep hunters to improve their success in the field and to reduce the number of sub-legal sheep that are shot each year. A group of sheep biologists and sheep sealers from across the state worked with Wildlife Education and Outreach staff to develop a hunter guide. The Education and Outreach program has produced identification guides for hunters about most of Alaska’s big game species that may be restricted to a specific sex and/or size of animal. This includes bison, mountain goats, muskoxen, moose and brown bears. Dall
Part of the full curl guide is shown.
sheep is the last big game species to tackle and it is the most difficult. For the other big game species, there are fairly simple characteristics for determining sex or age of an animal. The full-curl horn regulation is more complex and encompasses several options
SOURCE: ADFG
for determining legality. Because of this, it was determined that the sheep group should first create a guide/ training manual for staff before the hunter guide was completed. Part one — the staff guide — is complete. Part two is a work in progress.
Now that the staff guide is complete, we have started to develop a hunting guide to judging Dall sheep in the field, and a Dall sheep hunting website with an online quiz (similar to the mountain goat pages). This hunter guide and website will include a lot of the same information that is in the staff guide, but will also include more information about viewing sheep and judging full-curl horns in the field. The hunter guide will be available next season.
What you can do now
Although this document is CURL RULES » 13
F13508823
By Mike Taras
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
13
2016 HUNTING GUIDE
CURL RULES Continued from 12 designed for staff to use in the lab during sealing, the information within it describes, in detail, how the full-curl regulation is interpreted. It also contains very specific information about how to look at sheep horns to determine whether they meet the full curl regulation — including an in-depth description of aging Dall sheep by counting the annuli.
A look at the regulation:
A sheep is determined to be legal under the full-curl definition if: (A) the tip of at least one horn has grown through 360 degrees of a circle described by the outer surface of the horn, as viewed from the side. There are three ways to view
first six months of a sheep’s life and is the section of horn distal of the first annulus, which is the swelling of the horn that forms during the first winter of life. Or (C) the sheep is a least 8 years of age as determined by horn growth annuli. This is a risky method. Sheep annuli are difficult to view at any distance, never mind at hundreds of yards through a scope. In addition, sheep horns have false annuli that a hunter may unwittingly count. “Dall Sheep — Guide to Judging Sheep Horns Under the FullCurl Regulation” is available for viewing and printing online. More sheep hunting resources can be found, as well. You can find it on the ADF&G website under bit.ly/2aoteCO. Mike Taras is a hunter, tracker and naturalist, and serves as an Education and Outreach Specialist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks. Originally published in the July 2016 issue of Alaska Fish and Wildlife News
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MOOSE Continued from 7 significantly more this year, but there was no significant increase in the weight of female calves, said Assistant Area Biologist Tony Hollis. “We’re not sure exactly what that means,” he said. “It might mean that there’s been some improvement in the habitat with the population reduction and lower densities. But we’re not sure why we saw that difference between the sexes.”
Harvest success
Moose hunters on the Interior’s road system area had their best year since 2012 last season. Hunters killed 1,962
moose in Game Management Unit 20 last year. That’s the most since the 2012 harvest of 2,383. In all, Unit 20 extends from Tanana on the northwest side to the Canada border southeast of Chicken Just more than one in four moose hunters were successful last hunting season, a common success rate. “In general, 25 percent success rate is pretty much average for success rates moose,” Young said. “Really long term, looking at decades, the mid-20s success rate has been pretty stable.” Throughout Alaska last year, 28,482 hunters harvested a total of 7,454 moose. Contact Outdoors Editor Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter: @ FDNMoutdoors.
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the horns to know whether they complete a circle. If the horns are full-curl based on any one of these tests, it is legal: The perfect circle test The stick test The horn base/tip angle test, or, (B) both horn tips are broken: The terms broken and broomed have been used synonymously by sheep hunters for years. Broken is the only term used in regulation. We do not use the term “broomed.” Broken, as it applies to the horn tips of male (rams) Dall sheep, means: The lamb tip is absent; horn tips that are chipped or cracked are not broken if any portion of the lamb tip is present; Characteristics of the lamb tip include: 1. a length of less than 4 inches, 2. the inside surface of the lamb tip is often distinctly concave when compared to the remainder of the horn, and 3. the lamb tip is the section of horn that is grown during the
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Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
2016 HUNTING GUIDE
Poor carcass disposal puts hunters in a bad light ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME
The gut piles on the road near Eagle have gotten so bad Teresa Balboni can’t even walk her dogs. “We’ve never seen so many black bears here before,” she wrote. “All these people leaving carcasses right on the road, it brings the bears right in.” She said at times it was so bad her husband, who drove a snowplow and road grader for the Department of Transportation, “would have to grade the carcasses off the road, that’s how heavily burdened the road was with kills.” Most hunters in Alaska are not dressing out or butchering game animals on a road. Some are, and it can be a problem. In this case, caribou hunters along the
Taylor Highway in eastern Interior Alaska are the culprits, but the problem occurs throughout Alaska and is not limited to caribou. The fix is simple. “I tell people that I run into on the Taylor Highway, ‘Don’t gut your animal on the road or the side of the road — drag it into the woods, away from trailheads or campsites and campgrounds,” said state wildlife biologist Jeff Gross, who is based in Tok. “It’s not that heavy an animal. That’ll keep viscera off the road, and it’ll keep the majority of the blood off the road.” Gross said it’s a chronic problem on the Taylor, which runs from Tetlin Junction near Tok to Eagle, near the Alaska-Canada border. It is particularly problematic during the fall caribou hunt, which takes place right along the highway.
“Road hunting is real popular for Fortymile caribou,” he said. “Preferably they’d be shot well off the road, but we know that’s not always the case.” The Taylor Highway also sees heavy tourist traffic. “It puts a real negative image in tourists’ heads about hunters and hunting in Alaska when they’re passing gut piles in and on the road,” he said. “Plus, it can draw predators. It’s up to hunters to put a good face on hunting. Unfortunately around Tok we also have a number of places where people discard carcass remains just off the road, within a quarter to half-mile from peoples’ residences. “Hunters can go to a landfill. Or in the Interior there are sparsely populated areas well away from communities where hunters can discard carcass remains in the
woods. But hunters should make sure it’s well away from any public road, trail or campground. Just use common sense.” In Southeast Alaska, the biggest problem is fish-related waste. In Juneau, it’s illegal to hunt big game or shoot within a quarter-mile of a road, so hunters are unlikely to be dressing game by a road. “A lot of the calls we get are fish carcasses,” said Juneau-based wildlife biologist Stephanie Sell. “It smells horrible, and it attracts bears. We do get some calls for carcasses and bones, and sometimes people wonder if it’s human remains. There are a few problem hot spots where people will dump a carcass, and we’ve been called about bones right in town. We encourage people to drag a carcass as far off the road as possible, where it won’t be an
attractant issue.” The sea is also an option, she said. “We live on the ocean, and you can dump them overboard. Guts will float, so puncture them. It’s kind of gross but it’s got to be done. A hide will float. You’ve got to consider if it might wash up somewhere around people.” Freezing is a great way to dispose of anything smelly. Double-bag it, freeze it, and then put it in the trash on the day of pick up. In Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, where large numbers of people live in close proximity to bears, illegally discarded fish waste appears in vacant lots, in greenbelt parks, and on local lake shores. “We had one instance a couple of summers ago where a guy CARCASS » 18
F13508820
By Riley Woodford
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
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Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
2016 HUNTING GUIDE
Take appropriate precautions when bowhunting in neighborhoods By Sam Friedman SFRIEDMAN@NEWSMINER.COM
Sept. 15, 2015, was a bad day for the moose, the bowhunter and the North Pole-area family that didn’t want to watch the hunter finish killing the moose in their front yard. About 8 a.m., Jeri Wigdahl was with her daughter and her 6-year-old grandson, getting him ready for school. She heard a “thump” and looked out the window to see a moose sitting in the front yard. Wigdahl’s home is on a twoacre plot in the Plack Road area of North Pole. Her family shares the area with occasional moose visitors. They enjoy the wildlife, even if the moose occasionally raid the garden. As she looked out at the moose Tuesday morning, Wigdahl saw her daughter run to the front door and start yelling
“No, no, no, no.” “She saw a man standing on the road on our property with a bow drawn,” Wigdahl said. “And he went and shot it anyway.” The moose stood up, walked in front of her flower bed and collapsed, Wigdahl said. The hunter explained he shot the moose with an arrow at a neighboring property where he had permission to hunt, she said. After wounding it, he had an ethical obligation to finish it off at the private property where it ended up. Wigdahl was angry. She’s not against hunting but said it was unpleasant and unexpected to see the animal shot outside her window on her own property. “For people who aren’t hunters, and a 6-year-old child who loves moose and is so tender-hearted to witness this, has been an emotional rollercoaster,” she wrote in response to
questions from the News-Miner on Wednesday. She called the Alaska State Troopers. She was surprised to learn the hunter hadn’t done anything illegal.
Best practices and the law
Alaska’s hunting regulations for the area around Fairbanks allow for the hunting of bull moose by bow and arrow during the September general seasons. Bowhunting is allowed on most state-owned land or private property with the landowner’s permission. Hunters need bowhunting certifications. They also can’t shoot from roads, down roads or across roads. State regulations allow bowhunting for moose but not rifle hunting in the more populated areas because bows are quieter
and less dangerous to people downrange. It’s a hunt that potentially allows Fairbanksans to fill a freezer at a fraction of the cost of hunting in outlying areas and which promises to prevent moose-versus-car crashes by thinning the herd along heavily-traveled roads. But because it’s such a visible hunt, it comes with higher standards, if not legally, then at least ethically. Lt. Justin Rodgers is the Fairbanks area’s top wildlife law enforcement officer with the Alaska Wildlife Troopers. He responded to Wigdahl’s house when he got the call about the moose outside her window. Rodgers explained Wednesday that the hunter acted lawfully because he had an obligation to hunt down the wounded animal after he had injured it. The hunter would
have run afoul of the law if he had remained on the Wigdhal’s property after she asked him to leave. Rodgers was able to defuse the situation by moving the carcass off of her property. He also hosed down the bloody spot on her yard. Although the hunter didn’t get a citation, Rodgers said he thought the hunter learned a lesson and wouldn’t shoot a moose again if the injured moose was likely to wander onto someone else’s property. “We all need to all exercise our privileges responsibly so as not to be offensive to others,” Rodgers said. “It all boils down to the difference between the laws and legal expectations and ethical expectations. We’re not in the business of charging people for ethical violations.” BOWHUNTING » 18
NOTICE TO INTERIOR CARIBOU AND MOOSE HUNTERS The 50-mile road that was built to access Pogo Gold Mine was authorized and completed under State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources permitting processes — Mine Permit # ADL416949.
HUNTING SEASON’S HERE!
Under this permit, the Pogo Mine Access Road and Pogo Mine property are restricted to all public access. The DNR permit further stipulates that use of the road for hunting and/or transportation of hunters or hunting equipment is expressly prohibited.
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Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
17
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Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
2016 HUNTING GUIDE
CARCASS Continued from 14 got charged by a brown bear off of Fairview Loop outside of Wasilla,” said Palmer wildlife biologist Tim Peltier. “We went in to investigate and found the bear had been defending a pile of (illegally discarded) salmon carcasses.” Anglers and dipnetters on the Kenai and in Southcentral have good options for dealing with fish waste. The Central Peninsula Landfill located at Mile 98.5 Sterling Highway 2.5 miles south of Soldotna accepts fish waste free of charge from 8 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. seven days a week. Fish waste can also be deposited at other Kenai Peninsula transfer facilities, including those in
Cooper Landing, Kasilof, and Ninilchik, but in smaller quantities; all fish waste must be bagged in plastic trash bags with a limit of two bags dropped off per day. Anchorage Regional Landfill, the city’s Central Transfer Station, and the Girdwood Transfer Station all accept residential, non-commercial fish waste. Matanuska-Susitna Borough Solid Waste takes residential, non-commercial fish waste at all facilities, but it must be bagged. The central landfill location serves Palmer/Wasilla, with transfer stations located in Big Lake, Butte, and Sutton. This article originally was published in the July 2016 edition of Alaska Fish and Wildlife News.
BOWHUNTING Continued from 16
Guidelines for urban moose hunts Rodgers advises bowhunters to be aware of surrounding land ownership when hunting. “When moose are shot with archery equipment, they don’t necessarily fall over dead right where they were shot,” he said. “Make sure you’ve got enough area that you’re welcome to hunt on to complete that take.” He’s dealt with one other similar case of an arrow-shot moose wandering onto private property, this one in the Goldstream Valley. Hunters should also try to speak to landowners before going onto their land to finish killing a game animal, according to Cathie Harms, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks.
“You should ask,” she said. “It’s a difficult situation. You’re going to get one of two responses.” Harms said she had a hunter visit her about a wounded moose on her land a few years ago. She gave the hunter access and cut down a few sapling trees to make it easier for him to get his truck in, she said. If a landowner denies access to land where a game animal is dying, the hunter should call troopers and explain the situation, she said. If the hunter at her house had rung the doorbell instead of immediately going to kill the moose, Wigdahl said she still wouldn’t have been pleased to see him. But she would have appreciated his effort and it would have given her grandson the chance to turn away, she said.
Cleaning gut piles
Trespassing isn’t the only place where moose hunting regulations clash with neighborhood values. Cleaning up a kill site also is viewed
differently in the backcountry versus on the outskirts of Fairbanks. In a separate case this week, Alice Orlich was walking her dog near her home near the Mushers Hall on Farmers Loop when she came across the remains of a moose carcass. She suspects the moose was killed by a hunter and not an animal based on the vehicle tracks near the carcass, cut marks on the hoofs and a burlap game bag left behind. She posted a picture of the remains on the Fairbanks, Alaska Facebook group. Like Wigdahl, she was surprised to learn this hunting practice is legal, albeit frowned upon. In the backcountry, it’s common practice to salvage the legally required parts of meat and leave behind the gut pile. The regulation is the same in the Fairbanks Management Area, but it’s ethically indefensible to leave a gut pile near a road, according to Harms. Reprinted from Sept. 18, 2015
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2016 HUNTING GUIDE Continued from 3 never exact or fully inclusive. Biologists survey ruffed grouse by listening for male wing drumming, while sharp-tailed grouse are counted in dancing circles called leks. Average surveys of sharp-tailed grouse for 2016 were contrasted by “a lot of reports from people seeing sharp-tail,” Carroll said. Spruce grouse are not surveyed, but fish and game does record harvest data if hunters voluntarily turn in one wing and six tail feathers per bird (other grouse and ptarmigan are also accepted.) Wing collection has increased recently, but Carroll said it could simply be more people are engaged and participating in collecting and submitting. Surveys of rock ptarmigan at Eagle Summit have only been conducted for two years, but Carroll said the area has “a real healthy population.” Lifelong hunter and author of “Upland Hunting in Alaska,” Jim McCann expects “a great year for
grouse hunting.” McCann recommends hunting grouse in September, while winter and spring are ideal for ptarmigan due to migrations. Driving back roads and logging trails are some of the easiest ways to hunt upland birds (Carroll recommends just after first snow as birds will be looking for grit). But beware, it’s also the easiest way to violate laws — shooting from a road, across a road or at a bird on a road is illegal. For McCann, people who simply travel back roads are “missing out on the best part of upland bird hunting, the long walk in the autumn woods with a good gun in hand.” McCann preaches becoming a “student of the birds” by scouting locations and reading fish and game’s “Wildlife Notebook Series,” available online at bit.ly/2amDheu. McCann said grouse are often fond of south-facing hillsides with significant aspen, spruce and willow. Ptarmigan, on the other hand, tend to fly from one location to another. No birds in the morning
could change to a bounty later in the day. New hunters should get a lightweight shotgun they can carry long distances and practice at a local trap range, McCann said. Carroll recommends all hunters brush up on regulations, specifically page 140 of fish and game’s hunting regulations. Specifically, Carroll highlighted the smaller bag limits specific to Unit 20D — west of the Johnson River’s east bank and south of the Tanana River’s north bank — of 15 grouse per day with 30 in possession, of which not more than five per day and 10 in possession may be sharp-tailed grouse. Unit 20D also opens later than most other areas, on Aug. 25. New and old hunters alike should refrain from shooting whole broods of birds to preserve future generations, McCann said. Upland bird hunters should have plenty to be excited about this upcoming season in Interior Alaska, which McCann calls “the center of the best upland bird hunting in Alaska.”
HABITAT Continued from 5 ed about 16 acres per day, about twice what they did last winter. That’s with a D-5 and a D-6 cat, each pulling a roller chopper. “That’s about eight acres per machine,” he said. “It’s pretty flat here but there’s micro terrain, little drainages, and some old fire-killed material in there that’ll slow them down.”
Roller chopping aspen
Winter is the best time for the work and produces the greatest return. “We like it fifteen-below to zero, that’s ideal,” he said. “The stems snap really good with the blade, and the roller chopper chops everything up. The stems break easily when it’s cold and they’re green. If it’s up in the 20s or so, that’s too warm. You’re pushing stuff over and it’s not breaking.” He said the success of the enhancement is apparent a few years later. It’s also apparent if the treatment was done in summer or winter, as areas treated in winter are noticeably more productive. Riley Woodford is the editor of Alaska Fish and Wildlife News, which originally published this article
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