In Western Alaska, the end of summer means the beginning of moose hunting. The season officially begins for the lower Kuskokwim Delta on Sept. 1.
The hunt is divided between two separate zones within the massive Unit 18 management area. In Zone 1, which includes Bethel and all of the lower Kuskokwim River communities, hunters can harvest one bull moose between Sept. 1 and Sept. 8.
According to Alaska Department of Fish and Game Area Biologist Patrick Jones, the short window for the Zone 1 moose hunt has become a historical necessity from a management perspective.
"We were harvesting, 15 years ago when this hunt started, 10 to 15 moose a day. Now it's really common for us to see 50 to 60 moose harvested on [Sept. 1]," Jones said. "So we're kind of in this quandary where as you get more moose, hunters find them faster. And so the amount of time the hunt's open is not really changing."
Jones said that moose numbers in Zone 1 are doing so well that there are concerns that the population may outgrow its winter food source, namely willows. In response, Jones said that the state plans to launch its first-ever cow moose draw hunt in 2025.
"I think we've kind of hit our medium where we have 1,200 people that are actively hunting every year. We have our moose population of around 5,000 moose on the Kuskokwim, and that just appears to be what our habitat can healthily support," Jones said. "The good news is that starting next year, we're going to have 100 cows available to harvest. The cow hunt is going to be a brand new thing for our region."
Jones said that the state will be providing further details about the cow moose draw hunt at some point in October 2024.
Zone 1 is mostly state managed, and therefore largely open both to local subsistence users and Alaska residents. Zone 2 is mostly federally managed, and therefore limited for the most part to rural residents who are federally qualified subsistence users.
Zone 2 encompasses a large swath of land lying west of the Kilbuck Mountains and encompasses the major tributaries of the Kuskokwim River. Hunters there will be limited to harvesting one bull moose from Sept. 1 to Oct. 15.
"A lot of people hit Zone 1 first, the first week. And if they don't have any luck, they go up to Zone 2 and turn that into a camping trip and really spend some time up there," Jones said.
While the opportunity to obtain permits in person has passed, online registration for the lower Kuskokwim moose hunt will remain open until Oct. 15. Register online by visiting hunt.alaska.gov.
Successful hunters must report harvests within five days of a kill and return harvest report cards to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game office in Bethel.
For qualifying area residents unable to take part in the moose harvest, the state is currently accepting applications for its proxy hunting program. To qualify, recipients must either be blind, 70% physically disabled, 65 years or older, or developmentally disabled. Hunters can be as young as 10 years old and must agree to personally deliver all salvageable parts of the animal to their recipients within 30 days of harvesting. All proxy hunters must immediately destroy the antlers of bull moose, a regulation to discourage the proxy program being used as a means of trophy hunting.
