Covid-19 has impacted many services and regulations, including hunting
The Board of Game is calling a Special Meeting Regarding Spring Bear Hunts - June 03, 2020, 1:00 p.m.
The Alaska Board of Game (board) has scheduled a special meeting for June 3, 2020 to consider two proposals to “help address the loss of spring bear hunting opportunity for residents and nonresidents due to the travel restrictions resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.” Details to be considered for each of the proposals are currently being developed and will be available to the board and the public prior to the meeting's comment deadline set for Wednesday, May 27, 2020.
Brown bears at Brooks Falls. Photo by Russ Taylor, National Park Service.
We encourage members and supporter to submit written public comments to help inform the board members in the decision making process. Written comments may be submitted online at www.boardofgame.adfg.alaska.gov; emailed to dfg.bog.comments@alaska.gov; or faxed to 907-465-6094.
Written comments on proposals must include the proposal number(s) for which the comments pertain, the submitter’s first and last name, and community of residence. The deadline for submitting written comments is Wednesday, May 27, 2020.
The meeting agenda, notice, proposals, and other meeting materials will be available online here. Audio recording of the April 14, 2020 meeting can be found online here.
Map of Alaska GMU 9
Alaska Wildlife Alliance comment on the April 13th Pre-Proposal Meeting
April 13, 2020
Re: Alaska Wildlife Alliance comments on April 14th Special Meeting
Dear Alaska Board of Game,
On behalf of the members of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, please accept the following comments regarding the April 14, 2020 special meeting.
Open a spring 2021, resident and nonresident brown bear hunting season in Game Management Unit (GMU) 9 under 5 AAC 85.020.
Citing concerns from ADF&G presentations and testimony at the 2018 and 2019 Board of Game meetings, Alaska Wildlife Alliance requests that the Board not permit consecutive seasons for brown bears in Unit 9 for the following reasons:
1. Biological Concerns
In 2018, ADF&G reported a suspected lost cohort of young and middle-aged bears in the 2012/2013 seasons. Dave Crowley presented that the agency was seeing bears dead in dens in May and June of 2012, and that the failed berry crops in 2013-2015 added pressure on young and middle-aged brown bears.
Crowley, at the 2019 Board of Game meeting, testified on Proposal 147 stating concern for expanding the Spring season because evidence remained that hunters were overharvesting the older age class (10:36 am audio). The missing cohort and increase in hunters, “puts unsustainable pressure on older bears” in Unit 9B (10:36 audio). Approving consecutive seasons would already anomalous for Unit 9, but particularly concerning given the existing hunting pressures on older bears.
Overall population decline: At the 2018 Board of Game meeting, Unit 9 area biologist Dave Crowley testified on Proposal 132, to open a resident-only early season for the registration brown bear hunts in Unit 9, or open resident-only registration or drawing permit hunts. During his testimony, Dave Crowley reported the following:
There is an overall population decline in Unit 9 bears since the early 2000s and that he is concerned “hunters are mining out the last of the big adults” (8:58 am audio). Crowley reported that during the last three hunt periods, the proportion of females killed suddenly dropped, and in 2011 (before the cohort loss) female harvest dropped. Crowley testified that this couldn’t be explained by harvest or management because there had not been a season change and it was before the weather events that led to the cohort loss. “This shows two things,” Crowley said, “a long-term population decline since 2000 and on top of that a cohort loss” (9:59 am audio). Again, this area has not seen consecutive hunts in decades, so what has changed, from a Board and biological perspective, to consider consecutive seasons given these biological concerns just two years ago?
The brown bear population could not sustain an annual resident-only hunt in addition to the biennial hunt. Crowley was very clear that the agency is against an increase in bear harvest and does not support consecutive resident hunts because of biological concerns (8:32 am audio). The 2021 Spring hunt before the Board today considers consecutive resident and non-resident hunts. If a consecutive resident-only hunt was denied on grounds of biological concern in 2018, what biological conditions have changed in 2020 to make consecutive seasons (for both residents and non-residents) a consideration? How can the agency ensure that consecutive seasons, even if they predict a low hunter turn-out in Spring 2020, will not result in an increase in harvest?
In 2019, Crowley testified that moose calf mortality is not closely tied to brown bears. Letting the population rest for one season could help build-up the population and would not pose significant threat to moose populations.
2. Since there is no biological reason for adding a season, we assume that this proposal, if not exclusively brought forward as a favor to guides, is adding seasons to disincentivize resident bear hunters from breaking the Governor’s ban on intrastate travel. This is not an acceptable reason for the Board to downplay biological concerns.
Protecting Alaskan communities, especially remote villages, from Covid-19 is an admirable aspiration for the Board. If this is truly the intention of this proposal, the Board would close the 2020 Spring hunt to resident and non-resident hunters, and only then consider adding a season.
From conversations with agency biologists and Board members, the call for this proposal came from guides asking the Board to help the recoup financial losses due to Covid-19. Everyone is affected economically by the pandemic, not just professional hunting guides, and every Alaskan business has access to applying for financial relief. We appreciate that the Board is trying to help guides in this difficult time, but there is no Board mandate or authority for protecting the financial interests of any specific user group, especially if that decision poses a biological risk that causes further damage at the expense of other industries. If bear populations decline, the wildlife viewing industry will not only face unprecedented losses in 2020, but in subsequent years as well.
It is economically important to keep this bear population stable, not only for guiding, but wildlife viewing. A May 2019 study by the University of Alaska Fairbanks concluded that remote-access bear viewing, exactly the kind provided by brown bears in Unit 9, annually supports $36.3 million in production and contributes $19 million in value added to the Southcentral region. Spending by service providers in the wildlife viewing industry and households supports approximately $17.3 million annually in labor income and 490 jobs in the Southcentral region. Adding a consecutive brown bear season, especially during an overall population decline and lacking cohort, will only exacerbate the losses for wildlife viewing industries in future years. If there is an overharvest from consecutive seasons, as the Board and ADF&G have expressed concerns about since the 1970s, the Board will have managed exclusively for one user group, at the expense of all other wildlife-consuming industries (wildlife watching ecotourism, etc.).
Lack of safeguards to quickly remedy an overharvest. In 2018, biologist Dave Crowley testified that closing hunts in Unit 9 by emergency order is not feasible due to area vastness and the costs of travel for hunters. If there is an overharvest, how would the Board and agency 1) know if the population has declined outside of harvest data (cub production, etc) 2) issue a closure to prevent further biological decline?
Thank you for receiving these comments, and we hope that the staff and Board are staying safe and healthy during this difficult time.
Sincerely,
Nicole Schmitt
Executive Director
Alaska Wildlife Alliance will post additional information, including the agency biological analysis, on our website and mailing list.
