AFN Alarmed By Proposed Review Of Alaska’s System Of Subsistence Hunting And Fishing

By James Brooks

(Alaska Beacon) -- The U.S. Department of the Interior is considering whether to change Alaska’s unique system of hunting and fishing, which gives rural residents priority on federal land in Alaska.

According to a notice published Dec. 15 in the Federal Register, the Interior Department is conducting “a targeted review” of the program mandated by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

While no specific changes were identified in the notice, it prompted the Alaska Federation of Natives to react with concern.

In a message to members, it called the new proposal “a serious threat and a major step backward” in fish and game management within Alaska, according to a report Tuesday by the Anchorage Daily News.

Federal law requires rural residents to receive a priority when subsistence hunting and fishing, but because Alaska’s constitution prohibits the state from operating a system that gives one resident priority over another, the federal government uses one set of rules for hunting and fishing on federally controlled waters and lands, and the state uses another set for state-controlled water and land.

That has frequently led to conflicts between the state and federal government over management, and several lawsuits over the issue are currently in progress in federal court.

The Daily News reported that the suggestion to revise the two-tiered program came from Safari Club International, a large sport-hunting organization that has frequently sided with the state in lawsuits against the federal government.

Information posted online by the Interior Department indicates that the agency may consider:

• Changing the makeup of the board that regulates subsistence hunting and fishing on federal land;
• Reconsidering the rules that determine what parts of the state are “rural” and thus eligible for preferential treatment;
• And the role of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in the program.

Comments may be emailed to subsistence@ios.doi.gov before Feb. 13.