Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska What I did not like about Alaska

Went Caribou Hunting last year North of the Brooks Range. My complaints is with the Alaska Game & Fish Department. As a Nonresident I was allowed one Caribou in a Zone to take another I had to move to a different Zone. This is First Class Stupid from the Alaska G&F when Residents were allowed I believe 10 tags and natives 50. They are worried about me taking two in one zone total BS. IMHO. I also don't understand why every Hunter is not given 1 Free Wolf license with a big game license. Most Hunters will never shoot one but a few might. Makes more sense than paying employees from the G&F to shoot them from a airplane.
I hope to return someday

Alaska's wildlife regulations may look simple or stupid to some hunters and I agree that some are confusing. The management of wildlife in Alaska is complex.....very complex......and the state is huge.

Alaska has about 80 local F&G Advisory Committees that pass recommendations to the Board Of Game that sets dates and limits. You are welcome to send in a proposal to the BOG for any changes
you think may have merit and The BOG will review and act upon that proposal with input from local ACs.

I'm not aware of recent aerial wolf shooting on the North Slope so I can't comment there.

Shooters on the ground are not very effective on wolves. In areas with too many wolves the State licenses two-man teams to shoot them from small planes. The wolves they kill are their only pay. In areas too remote to encourage "volunteers" they have used paid contractors and employees.

Put Barrow on the southern Canada border and SE runs down into Florida and the Aleutians stick way out off the coast of California. Bad as you think AK regulations are, I guarantee they are far more tangled in an equal area where you live. Far more tangled.

You can choose to hunt in a two caribou unit to start and kill two caribou there without moving. But you cannot start in a two 'bou area and move to a one 'bou area. Very simple supply and demand math.

I hear Canadian hunts are much, much better.

I agree 100% about giving everyone free, unlimited wolf tags. Pay when you slay?

Not sure on the politics or the caribou. One thing for sure is that residents like to magnify the impact of non-residents while ignoring the impacts of residents.

That is a fact. There are a million ways that residents have to game the system. Community harvest is a favorite where we moose hunt.

I don’t care about non residents. The natives are the ones who really tuck things up with their poaching and slaughtering, wanton waste and general [bleep].

Hard to deny history...

No kidding. I particularly enjoy the formation of an organization whose mission aligns with this concept. Although, it’s a bit misleading that the RHAK chose the name they did. They in no way represent me or how I feel about the situation. A topic for another day, I suppose.

I know of no place that currently issues residents 10 tags and Natives 50, but then I don't read all the regulations for every unit- only the ones I hunt in or have some other interest in.

When the NWACH took a nose dive in the 70's, residents were for a time then issued 5 permits (all one could get on a towed sleds at one time), and once those filled, if they needed more, got 5 more, etc. This was because of run and gun on snow machines, where the kill might be strung out for miles, and carcasses often not recovered. And people killing dozens, piling them up, and not recovering. A big cause of that decline was the chasing with snow machines, which IMO resulted in massive "spontaneous" abortion rate, affecting the decline even more than the wanton slaughter I personally witnessed.

Officially, it was a "mysterious" decline... They went back to no limits for residents once the herd recovered - and biologically, none are needed.

There was no resident limit on caribou take the two years in mid 90's that I spent in Barrow, nor the 8 years 2010-2018 we lived in Kotzebue. The last couple years in Kotz the Advisory Committee got ADF&G to rubber stamp the Native practice of not taking bulls from mid October to February- Rut and skinny...., tho edible shortly after rut.

I called this "the pregnant cows only season". Ostensibly to slow a decline in the caribou herd, but really just to integrate Native practice into regulation..


Yeah.....I know.....

To reinforce Art's description of Alaska's size is this:

If you pick your starting point and direction correctly (at least 2 ways it can be done), one can travel in a straight line for 1500 miles, and be halfway across the state....

I just returned from our remote cabin in north-central Interior Alaska, from our home on the Kenai Peninsula in South-Central. It's about 750 road miles from house to boat landing, and another 50 river miles to the cabin. And still south of the Yukon.

Alaska is fairly good sized, with multiple ecosystems and population centers, requiring a diverse regulation system, which is now far more complicated than when I first got here in 1968. At that time, the regulations ran to 10 pages or less for the entire state....

Ah, progress!

1100Remingtonman: As a "non-resident" I have Hunted (Mt. Goat & Black Bear) Alaska on 4 different excursions.
I feel blessed to have done so.
After my third Mt. Goat venture the Alaska Fish & Game Department changed the regulations to now requiring a "guide" to Hunt Mt Goats in Alaska as a non-resident.
Okay... that ended those wonderful experiences for me.
Then... I heard that the F&G people made a new regulation allowing for a Hunter to harvest 2 (two!) Mt. Goats per year - with the confusing stipulation (to me anyway!) that the Hunter had to come out of the bush and present himself in person to buy the 2nd (second!) Mt. Goat tag!
Hmmm...... I thought if there are enough Mt. Goats in certain areas of Alaska then why cause a Hunter to often times "fly out" of the backcountry (like I and my Goat Hunting companions did on our Hunts) and then "fly back in"?
Must be a reason and I never did inquire or complain to the Alaska F&G on either change they made - that effected me and would have effected me.
Again I feel privileged to have Hunted in Alaska on those wonderful excursions.
I have thought about your situation and the disparity in tag numbers and can come up with NO rationale for that regulation?
I would like to hear the Alaska F&G's reasoning.
Long live Alaska.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Most G&F regulation writers are somewhat antagonistic to sportsmen and downright hostile to non-residents. A deep read of most states regulations brings up a patchwork of laws unrelated to conservation but entirely related to making your life as a hunter or fisherman difficult. Every state has their own unique stupid set of laws to make things hard.

Care to juxtapose this with what you liked about Alaska?

I loved the Brooks Range and will go back some day. I did not think the Tundra was as hard getting around as I had read. While it was not easy neither is Duck hunting on the Mississippi River going through the mud retrieving a duck, or walk up Pheasants in a Cattail slough with a foot of snow.
This might sound funny the People were the same I found and that's what I expected. What I mean by this is I fly a Corporate Jet all over the lower 48 and Canada and I found out a long time ago people are like a mirror what you show them they show you back. Be nice they are nice,
I can't say I had a great transporter flying us to and from the bush. I heard they sold it, no surprise there. The Pilot we had was great a real nice guy.
I enjoyed my time in Fairbanks and had a couple days to kill while game was being processed for my trip home. I really like the Alaskan Beer I had there and the Brew Pub by Wal Mart.
I did like the haul road for it scenery and I will do it again I hope. These are some of the things I liked pak.

Not sure what is by the Fbx Chinese embassy but you enjoyed it. I'd have reco'd Hoodoo brewery!

Can understand some of your frustration with tne regs. Looked thru your posts a bit. Did you ask questions here prior? Missed it if you did. I'm guessing this was left year's hunt?

Congrats on the 'bou.

My neighbor had an Airman in his unit that married a native girl from somewhere in NW Alaska. He told my neighbor about how her brothers would go and poach like there was no tomorrow. They even told him that no one would do anything about it as they were Alaskan Natives.

But, but, but, they're the defenders of the planet, and they are one with nature, and so forth

30+ years ago-
When a permit was required to drive the Haul Road past Dietrich Camp & one was required to sign in/out by ADF&G.
10 caribou harvests w/ 5 legally bartered for those living South of the Yukon.
Moose,Grizz(w/ $25 tag)Blk Bears,Dall Sheep w/ harvest tags annotated to back of your license.

Today-
Too many restrictions.

If one is logistically challenged-
WHINERS.....stay home.

NATIVES: we want to protect our native ways of life, we respect the animals and want to maintain it for the future.

ALSO NATIVES: we shoot hundreds of cows, out of season....

Interesting perspective. By what personal experience did you come by it?