Subsistence

The council that manages Alaska’s federal fisheries may be just days away from a decision that could limit how much chum salmon the Bering Sea trawl fleet can scoop up as bycatch.

The Alaska Federation of Natives has launched an aggressive campaign to fight the Safari Club International's effort to weaken the influence of the federal government on subsistence management in Alaska and restore state authority over its regulation.

Changes to federal subsistence management are still possible through a newly started regulation review process.

Safari Club leaders and Alaska Native subsistence advocates have long been at odds over rights to hunt and fish in Alaska. But the sport hunting group reached out to help a group of Native hunters, displaced by October's devastating storm, reconnect to their subsistence culture.

According to a notice published Dec. 15 in the Federal Register, the Interior Department is conducting “a targeted review” of the program mandated by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA).

A collaboration between local organizations is collecting subsistence food donations to support storm-impacted families evacuated to Bethel or living in their home villages.

A tribal organization has been delivering subsistence foods to displaced families in their hotel rooms.

Three lawsuits take aim at a Trump administration-approved land trade that would allow for a road through designated wilderness in Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

A statewide effort to replace lost subsistence harvests is part of the system of aid that organizations are trying to tailor to the needs of Indigenous rural Alaskans.

Many of the Western Alaskan residents displaced by Typhoon Halong also lost their subsistence harvests.