Heads up for 2025 Prince of Wales Blacktail hunters. Active proposals to close all of Unit 2 to non-qualified hunters. (aka all Non-Residents)

44hunter45

44hunter45

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Thanks to Jim Baichtal for the heads up on this. I am planning a SEAK trip this fall, but may end up somewhere else. If you are heading to POW this season, you are going to want to watch this hearing on July 17th before booking travel.

Meeting notice with MS Teams link:

Upcoming Federal Subsistence Board Meetings | U.S. Department of the Interior

www.doi.gov www.doi.gov

Media release:

Here are the proposals.

Pending Special Actions | U.S. Department of the Interior

www.doi.gov www.doi.gov

1750429980818.png
 
If the herd is suffering, it should be on Alaska F&G to determine that and provide the limitations. Not via this Federal Subsistence meeting.

Based on all of my experiences with Alaska F&G, they are some extremely qualified individuals that have impressed me. I have full faith in them doing their job.
 
seeth07 said:
If the herd is suffering, it should be on Alaska F&G to determine that and provide the limitations. Not via this Federal Subsistence meeting.

Based on all of my experiences with Alaska F&G, they are some extremely qualified individuals that have impressed me. I have full faith in them doing their job.
Click to expand...
I don't disagree with you but welcome to Alaska hunting politics. The Subsistence Board has immense power in controlling NR hunting in Alaska. Be it deer on POW, moose in NWAK, or Caribou in the north.

AKFG is powerless in this other than presenting their science to the Subsistence Board. I'm not interested in political debate. These are the facts and everyone needs to be aware.

If you follow this on FB, you will see there is growing NR hate in SEAK. Some has to do with bad actors, but most is the misconception that NR hunters are killing all the deer.
IMHO - That is driving this more than science. A recent change is that Ketchikan residents now qualify for subsistence as "Rural" residents, creating a massive boost in qualified hunters just a ferry ride away from POW.

If residents can legally kill twice as many bucks as NR, the math is pretty simple. The herd on POW is suffering and steps do need to be taken. AKFG is already a couple of years behind on this issue. I do not claim to be a biologist, but trust bios who are very close to this. There are a mix of other players who need to come to the table to make meaningful changes. Namely USFS, AKFG, the Tribal Corporations, and I suppose the Subsistence Board too.

Anyone who wants to go deeper on this should listen to Randy's Hunt Talk Radio Podcast with Jim Baichtal, #255. How much influence does Jim have with AKFG? He is the AKFG Commissioner from SEAK. The podcast goes into herd and forest health throughout the range of both Sitka and Columbia Black tail. Jim also met with MeatEater while he was in Bozeman and did a podcast with them. Out of respect to @Big Fin, I'm not posting competitive media links. You can google it.

February 12, 2025 – Hunt Talk Radio

hunttalkradio.com hunttalkradio.com
 
44hunter45 said:
Thanks to Jim Baichtal for the heads up on this. I am planning a SEAK trip this fall, but may end up somewhere else. If you are heading to POW this season, you are going to want to watch this hearing on July 17th before booking travel.

Meeting notice with MS Teams link:

Upcoming Federal Subsistence Board Meetings | U.S. Department of the Interior

www.doi.gov www.doi.gov

Media release:

Here are the proposals.

Pending Special Actions | U.S. Department of the Interior

www.doi.gov www.doi.gov

View attachment 375465
Click to expand...
Trying to increase the numbers.
 
Hmmm, well I had been planning to do a blacktail hunt there in 26. Guess we’ll have to see where this goes.
 
44hunter45 said:
The USFWS Subsistence board website has not been updated with the ruling yet. I have an email in to the co-coordinator.
I will call them today at 0900 Juneau time.
Click to expand...
I've been looking online too but haven't seen anything yet. I'm going this year, but I'll just have to adjust my plans to my back up location if they close the season.
 
SC Living Outdoors said:
I've been looking online too but haven't seen anything yet. I'm going this year, but I'll just have to adjust my plans to my back up location if they close the season.
Click to expand...
Same here. I will have add transporter costs for that location. I am still planning a Coho trip in September.
 
@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.
 
See attached press release.
 

Attachments

  • FW_ Federal Subsistence Board Acts on Wildlife Special Action Requests WSA25-01, WSA25-02, and...pdf
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