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Proposals To Change Federal Subsistence Fishing And Wildlife Management Enter Discussion Across AK

Karen Laubenstein
/
USFWS

Proposals to change federal subsistence management are under discussion across the state.

One proposal put forward would give the federal government more flexibility in managing subsistence fishing on the Kuskokwim River.  Right now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service uses the state's management plan to regulate fishing.  This means that subsistence users only have to follow one set of rules. To set different regulations than the state, federal regulators have to issue a Federal Special Action that can only be imposed in certain situations.

The proposal argues that giving federal regulators more leeway would enable them to better respond to climate change and “other uncertainties in the Kuskokwim River watershed.”

Proposals have also been submitted to change federal wildlife management in the Delta. One proposal seeks to move Lower Kalskag from Wildlife Management Unit 19A to Unit 18. Another proposal wants to close a portion of Unit 18 west of Mountain Village to non-residents and big game sport hunters. A third proposal wants to allow the use of artificial light to draw out denning bears in Unit 18. A fourth proposal wants to change the boundaries of Units 18, 19, and 21 to “coordinate the state and federal subsistence management programs.”

Meetings to discuss re-writing federal policies regulating subsistence management will begin across the state this month. Ten Subsistence Regional Advisory Councils will meet now through November. The council for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta will meet in Bethel from October 12 through 13 at 9 a.m. in the AVCP Regional Housing Authority Conference Room.

Anna Rose MacArthur served as KYUK's News Director from 2015-2022.