On Monday the Bethel Fish and Game Advisory Committee held elections and heard new proposals on hunting and game regulation.
They elected three new advisory committee members for three year terms, with a fourth seat left open. Samuel Hancock, who’s new to the board, became the chair.
Patrick Jones, the area wildlife biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, told the group about a new survey on the moose population in zone one, the main stem of the Kuskokwim River. They found for the first time in a while, there was a stable moose population.
“Last time we counted it, three years ago, we had about 3,400 moose in it,” Jones said. “Here, we counted about 2,900. A slight decrease. But with the estimate we're using, the confidence interval, I would suggest that the population is stable, not changing. That's kind of a big change for us. We've been an area of rapid growth for a long time.”
They found that the area has reached its carrying capacity for moose, meaning it has reached the maximum population it’s able to support.
“The limiting factor for most places in the state, and for us here on the Kuskokwim, is how much food is available to them in the winter. There's only a certain amount of food. So moose are living primarily off of new growth willows. So the very smallest stem that grew last summer is the only thing that has any nutritional value to them, more or less. So that's kind of what we're monitoring.” Jones said.
Those population surveys and the habitat assessment are used to determine the best hunting rules and regulations to keep the wildlife population at the healthiest numbers.
Jones said, “It's looking like all the signs are pointing towards that we're reaching our carrying capacity for moose here on the Kuskokwim. And we just kind of want to go ahead and start leveling that off with harvest. That's the most productive and healthiest way to control the moose population.”
To manage populations, sometimes they use season extensions, or take off the cap on permits for hunters. At the meeting, Jones announced Fish and Game is putting a proposal to the Board of Game to host a small cow hunt in the fall in zone one on the Kuskokwim in 2025. They would aim to harvest around 50 to 100 moose, and adjust based on how that goes. Right now, they’re wondering, if they decide to run this hunt, how do they want to do it?
“The department's looking for suggestions from the public, and how they would like to see this hunt administered. And then when,” Jones said. “Just to start things off, the department's suggesting that we have the cow hunt in September, the same time we have the bull hunt. But these are all things that we're willing to adjust based on feedback we get.”
There’s a limited number of cows, and a lot of hunters, and they want to find a fair and equitable way to distribute permits.
“For example, we could do a draw hunt. So people would apply for the permits ahead of time, and then we pull names out of the hat, and the first 50 names and get the permits,” he said.
The advantage to a draw hunt is that they could have a much longer season, with only 50 people hunting. But a lot of people want to hunt.
“Contrast that with our registration permit. We do now for bulls, for example. We give about 2000 permits out, but we have a quota of about 200 bulls, which means we have a seven to nine day hunting season. Because that's how fast it takes for people to harvest 200 bulls.” Jones said.
For this fall, Jones said he expects the hunt will last around eight days. The Joint Boards of Fisheries and Game are accepting proposals pertaining to fish and game regulations, committees, and subsistence uses until May 1st. You can submit proposals at https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=gameboard.main.
