Current federal court cases will have an impact on Alaska

Political decisions which will affect us in Alaska and the rest of the country are currently being debated in court and out in the public eye. Charges and counter-charges are being tossed around by both sides. Name calling is ongoing and constitutional questions are being raised.

What is going on?

No, I’m not talking about the presidential campaigns of either Republicans or Democrats. I am bringing to your attention the current push by a couple of federal agencies to seize authority to manage waterways and wildlife resources in federal parks, preserves, and refuges, including non-federal lands here in Alaska and across large sections of the Lower 48, especially in the western states.

My understanding of the Alaska statehood contract with the federal government included that Alaska would have the authority to manage fisheries and wildlife within the boundaries of the state. I also understood that that concept was reinforced in the wording of ANILCA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, passed in 1980.

A case is currently being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court which will, hopefully, resolve the question of how much jurisdictional authority the National Park Service has over state or private holdings within a NPS managed federal Park or Preserve.

In 2007, John Sturgeon was stopped on a small gravel bar on the Nation River, a tributary of the Yukon River in eastern Alaska. Six miles of the Nation River are within the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. Sturgeon was repairing his 10-foot hovercraft which he had used for moose hunting in the area since 1990. He began hunting there in 1971. Changes made in 1983 to the general nation-wide NPS regulations outlawed the use of hovercrafts on all lands and waters, regardless of ownership, within sites managed by the NPS. Sturgeon was told he was breaking the law by NPS personnel who approached him.

Tina Cunning, a longtime expert on ANILCA in Alaska, worked for ADF&G and with the NPS in the implementation of ANILCA. She felt that these 1983 hovercraft and other general regulation changes made nationally did not apply to Alaska. Cunning is on record as saying this is a jurisdictional power struggle between Alaska and the NPS and needs to be resolved.

A second situation is ongoing as well. Doug Vincent-Lang, a former director of the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Division of Fish and Game, reported that the NPS has recently finalized a package of regulations that “pre-empts state hunting regulations on national preserves in Alaska.” He also stated that a similar set of regulations is being proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for refuge lands in Alaska.

According to the USFWS website, “These proposed regulatory changes for the non-subsistence take of wildlife would apply only to State regulated general hunting and trapping and intensive management activities on Alaska National Wildlife Refuges. These proposed regulations would not change Federal subsistence regulations (36 CFR 242 and 50 CFR 100) or restrict taking of fish or wildlife for subsistence uses under Federal subsistence regulations.”

Vincent-Lang stated, “These actions represent a serious abrogation of public trust doctrine and the tradition of having states manage fish and wildlife resources. They also break promises and commitments made to Alaska under ANILCA and other federal laws. They are simply an unjustified overreach that unnecessarily affects Alaska hunters, many of whom rely on the pre-empted state hunting regulations for subsistence. It is also important to understand that none of the pre-empted regulations were necessary to ensure for conservation, but rather were based on the personal ideologies of NPS and USFWS staff.”

The Sturgeon case has already been argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. With the recent passing of Justice Scalia, the outcome on this issue is anybody’s guess. However, you still have time to submit public comment on the USFWS proposed regulation changes. You can find a link to the proposed regulation wording on the USFWS website for Alaska Wildlife Refuges. Click on the “Proposed Regulation Changes” item in the menu on the left side of the page. You have until March 8, 2016 to submit your comments.

As a side note, I worked with both Tina Cunning and Doug Vincent-Lang during my career with Fish and Game. Tina boggled my mind with her knowledge of federal/state interactions and was excellent in explaining to us “uninformed” exactly how these things worked. Vincent-Lang was one of the most intelligent people I worked with – period! I learned to listen when they had something to say.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. This column is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman or its parent company, Wick Communications. You can leave Delo a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.