Newest Board of Fish member resigns

WASILLA — The Alaska Board of Fisheries newest member will soon be its latest departure.

According to Alaska Department of Fish and Game board support section executive director Glenn Haight, board member Bob Mumford said Thursday that he plans to step down following the statewide fisheries meeting in March.

“I spoke with Bob yesterday and he did put in his resignation,” Haight wrote in an email Friday.

Haight said Mumford will continue to serve on the board through its next two meetings — including a February meeting on Alaska Peninsula/Aleutian Island/Chignik finfish and the March meeting on statewide finfish issues.

In an email to the Frontiersman Friday afternoon, Mumford said he made the decision to step away from the time-consuming board due of a desire to spend more time with his family.

“I really feel like this was more of a retirement than a resignation. Since 2005 I have served about 7 years on the Big Game Commercial Services board, the Game board and the Fish board, sometimes 2 boards at the same time. It’s cut deeply into my family time,” wrote Mumford, who lives in Anchorage with his wife and son. “Anyone who has served on these boards would tell you that the time commitment of the Fish board is substantial, far more than someone who just attends the meetings would realize.”

News of Mumford’s departure from the board broke Friday on craigmedred.news, a new online news and commentary website started earlier this month by former Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch News writer Craig Medred.

Mumford — a retired Alaska State Trooper who also previously served on the Board of Game — was named by Gov. Bill Walker to fill a vacant seat on the statewide board in May. His term was supposed to expire in June of 2018. Mumford’s appointment came after Walker’s first two candidates — environmental scientist Robert Ruffner and commercial fisherman Roland Maw — didn’t make the cut. Ruffner, the executive director of the Kenai Watershed Forum, was unable to win confirmation by the Legislature, while Maw withdrew his name from consideration due to mounting concerns over his residency in the state. The former head of the United Cook Inlet Drift Association has since been charged with Permanent Fund Dividend fraud.

According to his biography on the Board of Fish web page, Mumford spent two years working as a state trooper in Palmer and 18 years as a Wildlife Trooper in various locations around the state. According to his biography on the Board of Fish web page, Mumford came to Alaska in 1975 while enlisted in the Air Force. He’s a commercial-rated pilot and described as “a life long fisherman (who) has also participated in personal use dipnetting for several years on the Kenai and Kasilof rivers.”

Email Frontiersman editor Matt Tunseth at news@frontiersman.com or call (907) 352-2268.