‘Tis the season: Permit hunt application period and trapping

I was in Anchorage the other day to pick up a rifle I was having restocked. Since I was in the neighborhood, I stopped by Cabela’s to only look around (yah, right!). Anyway, on the customer service counter inside the entrance door sat a stack of the 2018-2019 Alaska Drawing Permit Hunt Supplement brochures. I had totally spaced that the application period had opened on November 1!

I quickly picked up a supplement.

There’s not a lot of new stuff that I noticed. Some things are more clearly spelled out, however. You can apply for up to six hunts per species and you can use your six allowable applications all for the same hunt. The major exception to this last statement involves moose hunts. While you can use all six of your applications for antlerless moose hunts, you can’t apply for more than three bull hunts.

Here’s the thing that caught a lot of applicants off guard last year, myself included. If you apply for antlerless moose hunts, those hunt numbers are listed in blue color. Any moose hunt which is considered to be a bull hunt is listed in black. Be aware of this because one hunt many people think is an antlerless hunt in Unit 14A (DM413) is a bull hunt. Of the fifteen permit moose hunts listed for Unit 14C, only three are considered antlerless. None of the hunts listed for Units 13 and 16B are antlerless moose hunts.

A new hunt (DI404) is listed for Unit 20D Delta bison. This is an either-sex hunt where up to 65 permits will be issued. The standard permit hunt, DI403, lists up to 45 permits and is a bull only hunt. For the 2017 Delta bison hunt, almost 27,000 applications were received for 90 permits. With those odds, you can understand why it took me 33 years to draw a Delta permit and that was 10 years ago. I ran into a guy in Cabela’s who told me he had just gotten back from a successful Delta bison hunt where he harvested a nice bull!

I had talked with another person earlier that day in the gun shop who said he had applied for about 40 years and had never drawn a bison permit! Being a successful applicant in 2007, I had to wait for five years before I could apply again. In 2008, the time to reapply after successfully receiving a bison permit was extended to 10 years. Given the large number of applicants and the few permits issued, I would expect the Board of Game to soon change the time frame to once in a lifetime for a successful permit applicant, whether you harvest a bison or not!

The other date I had missed mentioning involved the opening of trapping seasons. Most species-specific seasons opened on November 10 in Units 13, 14A, 14B, and 16. There are some exceptions to this opening date, i.e., lynx, muskrat, wolf, wolverine, and coyote have different opening dates for some of the game units listed above, so you need to consult the current trapping regulations booklet to confirm.

I’m told the numbers of snowshoe hares are increasing and should be peaking in the next couple of years. This bodes well for increased lynx and other predator populations which depend heavily on hares as a staple in their diet. However, the probable increase in these predator numbers won’t occur for a year or two after the prey population numbers rise and peak. The next few years could be good for trappers who target the predatory animals, especially lynx.

A couple of trapping related notes are in order. First, the Mat-Su Borough passed an ordinance earlier this year restricting trapping in several areas around popular trails and outdoor recreation areas here in the borough. If you plan to trap, check with the borough where these closed areas are located. I don’t know if the borough has posted signs identifying these areas yet.

And second, to avoid injury to pets with the resulting ill-will and angry outbursts, all trappers should make a special effort to set their traps well away from any popularly used hiking trails or other commonly used recreational areas. Get off the beaten path to practice your activity. You’ll enjoy the experience more and may see more animals as a result.

Now, pet owners: keep your animal on a leash and avoid areas where signage would indicate active trapping is occurring. And learn how to safely release your animal if it is caught.