@Big Fin. et al
I just got off the phone with the SEAK USFWS Subsistence Board coordinator for SEAK. DeAnna was very pleasant and interested in my story. It would be wrong to make USFWS and its people to be the bad guys in this. This is a complex process with a number of Agencies involved. I may have some bits of this wrong and I'm open to correction from those who know it better.
The board rejected all three Special Action Requests for Unit 2 last night. There will be a news release later today.
I got additional news from DeAnna.
Non-qualified hunters are OK for 2025. However, this is not resolved for 2026 and going forward. The same three proposals are moving through the Subsistence Board process to be considered at the April 2026 meeting. The Special Action Requests were a move to expedite a ruling, since the Board moves at a glacial pace.
She provided me some backstory to this whole business, which has a lot to do with Alaska's unique relationship to it's native peoples and hunting rights. In the lower 48, tribal hunting rights are treaty specific and accessed through Tribal enrollment. In Alaska this is managed through the Subsistence Zones, and the rights extend to all who live in the zone, regardless of Tribal enrollment.
One huge exception is that residents of "urban" areas within the zone are excluded. Maybe this is decided at the Borough level? I do not know.
The re-classification of Ketchikan as rural came at the request of the Haida/Tlingit in Ketchikan who protested that Prince of Wales is traditionally their hunting grounds, but they are excluded under the current system. The Board agreed with them and extended SEAK Zone rights to EVERYONE in Ketchikan, regardless of Tribal Heritage. This resulted in a vastly expanded hunter base on a limited resource. We are talking several thousand qualified subsistence hunters a three hour ferry ride from POW. This does affect those of us who fly in to hunt? Yes of course. But for the newly qualified subsistence hunters, you put your truck on the Inter-Island Ferry and you are hunting in three hours.
DeAnna added me to her distro for all Board updates in SEAK. I will monitor this and explain the comment process as we get closer to the April meeting. The open comment period for these proposals is closed, but the is a limited opportunity to comment either live via MS TEAMs in the actual meeting, or by an email to be read at the meeting.
Now some commentary. -- The Alaskan Tribal rights system seems bizarre to someone familiar with how things are in the Continental US. It has advantages and disadvantages, just like the Tribal hunting rights system most of us are used to. For me one flaw of this system is that there is no easy way to make resources available to income challenged subsistence hunters without also making them available to those who have the means to ensure food security.
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