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WASILLA — Once every three years, the Alaska Board of Fisheries meets to discuss regulations governing Upper Cook Inlet fisheries. The two-week meeting in Anchorage is essentially the only opportunity residents have for changing fishing rules in their area.
But how does one go about having a say in the process?
For Mat-Su residents, there will be two opportunities to comment, first here in the Valley and again in Anchorage.
On Wednesday, the board will hold two special hearings — one at the Lake Lucille Lodge in Wasilla and another in Soldotna — to give residents who can’t travel to Anchorage a chance to be heard. These special meetings will be attended by three members of the Board of Fisheries, who will then report back to the full board when the regular meeting begins Feb. 1 at the Coast International Inn in Anchorage.
Anyone from the public is welcome to attend and comment at either meeting. The only requirement is having an opinion and signing up on time.
The Wasilla meeting will begin at 2 p.m., and comments will likely be restricted to a time limit based on the number of participants, according to Board of Fish member Howard Delo, who’ll attend the Wasilla meeting with two other board members.
That’s also true of the board meeting, where public comments are usually limited to five minutes or less.
The deadline to comment in front of the full board is 11 a.m. Saturday. Public comments will then be heard over the weekend.
Once the public comment phase of the board meeting has ended, members of the public will be chosen to serve on committees tasked with sorting through more than 300 proposals on how to alter fishing regulations. These committees are instrumental in the process, as their job will be to find consensus among user groups and report back to the full board.
Once the committee process is finished, the board will then reconvene to deliberate on what actions to take. This process is likely to begin Feb. 9 and last through the conclusion of the board meeting Feb. 12.
After that, members of the public will have to wait three more years for the next UCI meeting.
Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@
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