Should nonresidents be allowed to hunt moose?

PALMER — At Wednesday’s meeting of the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game Matanuska Valley Advisory Committee, members appeared split on the question of whether to reduce the number of nonresident hunting permits in unit 13 down to 100 from 150, or even lower.

The unit was recently opened up to nonresident hunts for bull moose with 50-inch antlers, or at least four brow tines on at least one side.

Resident permits are limited to residents of Alaska, not just those who reside within the unit. Such permits are currently allowed in unit 13 for bulls, and antlerless moose. Unit 13 covers the Matanuska River from Chickaloon to just past Glennallen, stretches northwest toward Denali National Park, and abuts Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in the east.

Earlier in the meeting, the committee elected to propose doing away with the community subsistence hunt for the area, something Herman Griese, vice president of game on the committee, said would simplify permitting.

In a phone interview after the meeting, Griese said the community subsistence hunt had originally kicked in when moose populations were low.

“If we’re allowing nonresidents to hunt, there must be enough animals to meet local needs,” he said, adding that keeping the community subsistence hunt would be “burdensome over time.”

Those applying for nonresident permits must be accompanied on the hunt by an Alaska resident. An Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game representative said the department doesn’t keep track of how many of those permits go to commercial guided hunting trips, versus how many go to non-residents going hunting with friends or family.

At the meeting, member Birch Yuknis proposed reducing the number of nonresident permits from 100 to 50, saying he wanted to ensure the committee is giving priority to residents.

During discussion, Tom DeLand questioned whether there was a need to add non-resident permits to unit 13 at all.

“Why is there any nonresident hunt?” he asked.

“Because there’s additional animals to support it,” Griese told him.

“Then why would we want that unit that, for over a half-century, has always been known as a resident unit? That’s bogus,” DeLand said. “Absolutely bogus.”

He said the moose surplus should go toward making more animals available to resident hunters.

DeLand was reminded he could recommend to the board that unit 13 be a resident-only unit, and write the language for such a change.

The vote was called on Yuknis’ proposal to drop the number to 50 for nonresident permits. Four members voted in favor of Yuknis' proposal, and three against with two abstaining.

Chairman Jehnifer Ehmann, who moderated the meeting, said that because the committee had not yet decided how to interpret votes in abstention, she did not know how the vote stood.

Votes in abstention can be counted in the negative or as zero.

After querying abstainers for more information about why they abstained, she announced there weren’t enough pro-votes to carry Yuknis' proposal, and kept it at 100.

She added, “It would not be advantageous to have a split on our own proposal. We have to come to some consensus.”

Griese said reducing the number to 50 might not have had a significant impact either way, since the nonresident hunting permits have been underutilized since they opened as it is.

He added that if ADF&G decides to adopt the advisory committee’s proposal, wildlife area biologists still have the option to restrict permits below the proposed cap of 100 if moose population numbers change.