FAIRBANKS -- The Alaska Board of Game has voted to nearly double the number of permits issued for the popular Nelchina caribou hunt.

The seven-member board held an emergency meeting this week to address concerns raised in the wake of a court ruling that nullified a community hunt for eight Native villages.

The board voted to issue an additional 1,000 Tier 1 subsistence permits to participate in the hunt along the Dalton Highway. It made its decision after hearing testimony from state wildlife biologists that the size of the Nelchina caribou herd had increased significantly.

The court ruled the Ahtna community hunt violated the state constitution because setting aside 300 Nelchina caribou permits and 100 moose permits for eight Native villages amounted to a rural preference.

The Nelchina hunt is scheduled to open Aug. 10.

District Court Judge Carl Bauman, who made the original ruling, directed there be a stipulated partial stay to his ruling at the urging of the state and the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fund.

The permits are in addition to 850 Tier I permits the state mailed out earlier this month before the court ruled on the legality of the community hunt, as well as 500 Tier I permits that will be distributed among the eight Native communities that participated in the community hunt last year.