Alaska News

Tangled federal, state hunting regulations leave Alaskans conflicted

Imagine this. It's largely fiction, though not farfetched at all.

One Shot Griggs and his boy Johnny were on their way to Paxson from Delta in the predawn for opening day of the winter caribou hunt. It was just barely light enough to shoot when the pair rolled by the "Entering Federal Subsistence Hunting Area" sign a few hundred yards north of old Paxson Lodge.

A mile or so farther along, Griggs stomped the brakes as he spotted a small herd of caribou in a swamp below the road. "There goes our winter meat!" hollered One Shot.

"Wait Pa, we're in the Paxson Closed Area!" exclaimed Johnny.

"Not for us boy, we have federal tags. That there swamp is all ours!"

By now, the caribou were a couple hundred yards from the Richardson Highway, but One Shot Griggs laid his .30-06 rifle over the hood and touched off. The wounded lead bull humped up before Johnny dropped him with a well-placed shot to the neck.

"Kick them shell cases off the road, 'case the warden comes by. We don't want him thinking we shot from the road," said Griggs.

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Just about then, a white Ford with flashing lights pulled up. Alaska warden Don hopped out.

"Hey Griggs, did you just shoot that caribou down in the swamp?"

"Sure did, good shot huh?" said Griggs.

"Yeah," Don said. "But he's a couple hundred yards out. Do you have a federal tag? This is a closed area for state hunters."

"Sure Don, you know I'm all about subsistence." Griggs replied.

"Yeah, Griggs, but the federal area ends 148 yards out from the highway right here, so I'm going to have to confiscate your caribou and give you a ticket. After you pack it up here of course," Don said smugly.

Two sweaty hours later, One Shot and Johnny are back in hunt mode but not talking much. The pair drove slowly back toward Paxson Lodge. Johnny glanced down the One-Mile Pit Road and, lo and behold, a half-dozen caribou stood near the entrance to the gravel pit.

"Hold it, Pa!" Johnny exclaimed.

Griggs jerked the old truck onto the gravel pit road and screeched to a stop. Johnny bailed out and quickly dropped two of the standing caribou.

"Good shooting Johnny!" Griggs said.

One Shot and Johnny efficiently field-dressed the caribou and began loading them in the truck. They were almost done when federal warden Bob pulled up in his white Chevy with flashing lights.

"What are you dudes doing?" asked Bob.

"Loadin' my caribou," snapped Johnny. "And we ain't 'dudes!'

"Well, you can't hunt here, so you may as well load those two caribou in my truck, 'cause I have to confiscate them and ticket you. This is a federal hunt area, and you have the proper tags. But this is a state gravel pit and they put calcium chloride in the sand pile. The salt is considered to be man-made bait so hunting is closed in the pit," Bob said.

Confusing? It is. But the conflict between state and federal permit holders in Alaska Game Management Unit 13 is just beginning. The hunt regulations are so poorly defined as to be almost impossible for the average hunter to decipher.

The "bait" as defined by the federal warden is only found by interpreting the rules found in the federal regulation book under general definitions -- to include a gravel pile that happens to contain salt. How would a hunter from Delta Junction know the state maintenance crew had calcium in the gravel at the pit instead of in the tent at the state shop?

What's more, since the federal open-to-hunt section of the Paxson Reserve zig-zags and varies from 1,000 yards to less than 150 yards, it would be almost impossible for any hunter to guess where the actual boundaries are.

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I attended the Southcentral Federal Subsistence Council meeting in Copper Center on Oct. 21. I presented our Fish and Game Advisory Committee's case for keeping the Paxson Reserve closed. Fish and Game concurred, as did the five area residents who also attended the meeting. No matter. The council wanted those extra 1,500 acres to hunt in.

Is 1,500 additional acres in an area that has been closed to hunting since 1958 worth the conflict and confusion? I doubt many hunters would think so. The other side of the highway along the reserve is open to both federal and state permit holders.

The boys that decide on our hunting regulations, both federal and state, pay little heed to the conflicted and confusing regulations saddling hunters. The "I want/We must have" attitude toward game management needs to be replaced with something simpler that puts the biological health of the resource first but doesn't leave hunters hopelessly confused.

One Shot Griggs and Johnny drove slowly and disconsolately toward home.

"Hey, brighten up Johnny," Griggs said. "We still have one more tag left."

John Schandelmeier is a lifelong Alaskan who lives with his family near Paxson. He is a Bristol Bay commercial fisherman and two-time winner of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.

John Schandelmeier

Outdoor opinion columnist John Schandelmeier is a lifelong Alaskan who lives with his family near Paxson. He is a Bristol Bay commercial fisherman and two-time winner of the Yukon Quest.

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