Subsistence, fishing issues top AC agenda

WASILLA — If there’s one thing hunters and fishermen like more than hunting and fishing, it’s talking about hunting and fishing.

Fortunately for outdoors enthusiasts in the Valley, there’s plenty to talk about these days.

The Matanuska Valley Fish and Game Advisory Committee, which is tasked with making recommendations to the statewide boards of Fish and Game on wildlife issues, will meet Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the MTA building in Palmer. There, members of the public can share opinions or air grievances in front of the board.

While the nonsubsistence area proposal is the biggest issue currently under discussion, the advisory committee’s main agenda on Wednesday will include reports from Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists on the current status of Mat-Su salmon runs and a recap of the past summer’s fisheries in the area.

But while fishing issues are certainly a concern, the big topic currently being addressed by the committee deals with a proposal the group submitted to the state asking to re-classify portions of Game Unit 13 as nonsubsistence area. The proposal, which will be taken up during a joint statewide meeting of the Alaska Board of Fish and Alaska Board of Game in Anchorage that begins Friday, would impact the controversial Tier II permit system currently in place and includes the Nelchina moose and caribou hunts.

As it stands, moose and caribou permits are given out based on a subsistence points criteria, rather than a statewide drawing system.

The proposal, if eventually passed, would open up hunting in the area to all Alaska hunters, effectively doing away with much of the Tier II hunt.

The advisory committee’s proposal could have a major impact on how the state interprets subsistence regulations. As it currently stands, five areas of the state — Fairbanks, the Anchorage/Mat-Su/Kenai area, Juneau, Valdez and Ketchikan — are considered “nonsubsistence” areas by the state.

The proposal would expand that list to include an area bound by the Richardson, Glenn and Parks Highways. The advisory committee has argued that this area no longer meets the state’s subsistence criteria, which includes a number of social, historical and economic factors.

But Ken Johns, president of Glennallen-based AHTNA, Inc., said the Native corporation is strongly opposed to the proposal, and plans to voice its opposition at the statewide meeting.

“Definitely we’ve got people that are going to be there,” Johns said Monday.

Johns said the idea that area residents no longer qualify as subsistence users doesn’t hold water.

“We literally use the whole unit,” Johns said.

In addition, Johns said a statewide hunt would further tax the area’s limited wildlife populations.

“In this unit, the game population can only handle a certain amount of people and it cannot withstand a general statewide hunt,” he said.

Johns said the proposal is part of an ongoing effort to try and limit subsistence use in the area. In addition to public comment, Johns said Ahtna, Inc. also plans to submit an informational document outlining opposition to the proposal at the statewide meeting.

No changes to the current hunting and fishing rules will come out of this weekend’s meeting. Instead, if the joint boards decide the proposal has merit, they’ll likely ask the Department of Fish and Game for further information. Much of the information currently available on the issue dates back to the mid-1980s, when the subsistence issue was first taken up.

“If they see enough public input agreeing with it, and the data that they look at warrants further investigation, then what they will do is hand it over to the department,” Hamann said.

Hamann said he’d like to see new information on the area, which he argues has grown to more closely mirror other areas of the state.

“Most of it is 15 years old,” he said.

While Wednesday’s committee meeting won’t specifically deal with that issue, committee chair Denny Hamann said it’s likely a number of concerned locals will attend both for informational purposes and to share their views on the controversial proposal.

“We are going to be taking public testimony at the meeting,” Hamann said Monday.

Any public testimony taken at the advisory committee meeting will be largely symbolic when it comes to the subsistence proposal. That’s because official public testimony on proposals before the joint boards must be taken during the statewide meeting, which will be held at the Coast International Inn.

Anyone wishing to comment there must sign-up by 3 p.m. Friday or forfeit any chance to have their say.

Hamann said it’s important that people understand that they must sign up to testify ahead of time.

“A lot of people do not understand how the public testimony works,” he said.

Once someone is signed up to testify, comments are taken on a first-come, first-serve basis. That means that the earlier someone signs up, the earlier their testimony can be heard.

Since the meeting is scheduled to run through the weekend, that can mean people who don’t sign up early could have to wait.

The Matanuska Valley Fish and Game Advisory Committee meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the MTA building in Palmer. For more information on the meeting or the committee as a whole, contact Denny Hamann at 373-5938.

The joint meeting of the Alaska Board of Fish and Alaska Board of Game will begin Friday at 1 p.m. at the Coast International Inn. Deadline to sign-up to comment is 3 p.m., with public testimony to follow. The meeting is scheduled to run through Oct. 8.

For more information, visit www.boards.adfg.state.ak.us

All meetings are open to the public.

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@

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