Concerned about canceled hunts

The Grouse Ridge Rangers Youth Shooters group is sponsoring a Christmas gun show and holiday extravaganza Satirday and Sunday at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla. The hours run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., both days. Admission is $5 for adults and kids under age 10 are free.

There will be more than 100 vendors of shooting, hunting and gun related items present. For folks less interested in gun stuff, there will also be more than 30 vendors of craft items and gift ideas. The thought is to provide something of interest for everybody in the family. All proceeds go towards offsetting the cost of targets, ammo and shooting events expenses for the Rangers as they participate in shotgun competition under the auspicious of the Alaska Scholastic Clay Target Program.

The Grouse Ridge Rangers are affiliated with the Alaska SCTP organization, a state affiliate of the national SCTP operations. Quoting from the national SCTP website: “The prime goal of the SCTP is teaching youth safe firearm handling, teamwork and leadership by taking part in a sport that can be enjoyed for a lifetime. Along the way every participant also has an opportunity to compete on a team for state and national championships in trap, skeet and sporting clays. The program, run by certified adult coaches, often involves support from the state’s game or natural resource department. The actual shooting normally takes place at a private club or public range.”

On another note, we’re in the home stretch to apply for the drawing hunt permits. In an earlier column, I explained that the application period was open from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15 for the 2015–16 drawing permit period. Go to the Fish and Game homepage and browse the menu. You’ll quickly find how to apply for the drawings. I submitted my application online over the Thanksgiving weekend.

I’m hoping by applying before the last minute, my luck will change and I’ll actually get drawn for a hunt!

Since we’re talking drawing permit hunting, I’m concerned over an article I read earlier this week about the Anchorage Fish and Game Advisory Committee cancelling the 2015 antlerless moose hunts in Game Management Unit 14C. Normally, advisory committees only advise the Board of Fisheries or Board of Game about fishing and/or hunting regulations affecting their area. In this case, however, the Alaska Legislature has granted the AC’s the authority to cancel antlerless moose permits if they feel so inclined. Without the local AC’s approval, the BOG can’t reauthorize the annual hunts, as required by regulation.

According to the article, no reason for the committee’s vote to cancel the hunts was given. If there was a biological reason to cancel, then I would agree. It appears, however, that the recent resignation of several longtime committee members, coupled with the loss of their institutional memory, and one committee member’s distrust of Fish and Game moose inventory counts in GMU 14C along with his personal prejudice against harvesting female moose led to the vote.

Here are a couple of biological facts. If you want to grow a population of moose while allowing hunting on it, you only allow the harvest of bulls. Once you’ve reached the population numbers you want, you start to harvest some of all the population: bulls, cows, and calves, preferably in a ratio determined by professional managers who have studied the situation. Otherwise, the herd will continue to grow until other factors like starvation or disease start reducing the numbers. Keeping the herd size in check and maintaining the proper ratio of bulls to cows for healthy reproduction is the accepted management method.

Because of board meeting cycles and the forward planning process of the drawing permits, if this ban stands through this upcoming BOG cycle, there might not be an antlerless permit hunt in 14C until perhaps as late as 2019. Five years of no harvest will only mean increased moose/vehicle collisions and property damage around Anchorage. Does that really make any sense?

I don’t know if the Anchorage AC will vote to reverse their decision prior to the BOG meeting cycle. If they don’t, the two valley AC’s, Mat Valley and Susitna Valley, could overrule the Anchorage vote if both of these AC’s decide that antlerless moose hunts should be controlled by professional management based on best available science and not occur at the whim or prejudice of a few individuals based on an opinion without scientific merit.