For years there have been rumors of non-residents sneaking into the Alaskans-only dipnet fishery at the mouth of the Kenai River to score salmon before scurrying South for the winter, and now the Alaska State Troopers claim they've caught one of the scofflaws. Troopers have charged a Colorado real estate agent with illegally obtaining an Alaska resident fishing license so he could get one of those coveted, Alaskan-only dipnet permits.
Realtor Anthony Bartell calls the allegation "total crap." He and troopers have been down this residency road before, he said, adding that Troopers were wrong the first time and they are wrong again. Bartell does not deny he spends most of the year Outside. But, he added, this is because his time is split almost equally among four residences. He established legal residency in Alaska back in the 1990s, he said, and he has maintained it ever since.
"I'm a well-to-do guy," he said. "I'm not trying to save $100 (on a fishing license). I'm an Alaska resident. I've been on the Kenai 20 summers. It's where my heart is, and home is where the heart is."
And, he adds, he did not dipnet. He picked up the dipnet permit with an eye to trying out this wild-and-crazy technique for catching fish, but he never joined the mob at the mouth of the Kenai slaughtering salmon. He preferred to catch his fish with a rod and reel.
No matter how he caught them, however, this is a touchy subject in the 49th state. Oil might be what fuels the Alaska economy, but fish -- especially salmon -- drive northern emotions. Alaskans tend to think of the bounty of salmon that return to the 49th state as "their" fish. More than a few residents are prone to get upset about the coolers full of salmon flowing south through Anchorage's Ted Stevens International Airport every summer.
A brief exchange from a popular outdoor forum is indicative of the heated feelings on this topic: when one commenter notes that Alaskans really "hate" non-resident fishermen, a purported local responds that vitriol stems from, among other things, summertime RV traffic.
"Many of us have seen stacks and stacks of boxes at the airport, or the rows of RV's that stay for the max limit of 2 weeks in campgrounds (before moving 15 miles down the road and repeating the pattern), complete with smokers, vacuum packers and chest freezers, etc," wrote a commenter named AlaskaHippie. "We've heard folks like this brag about visiting Alaska 'on the cheap' and then scurrying South with hundreds of pounds of processed fish to give away to friends or family or, in some cases, SELL for profit."
These emotions, of course, are a little out of touch with reality. Somewhere short of 200 million salmon were harvested in Alaska this year. About 176 million were caught and killed in commercial fisheries. State studies indicate about 80 percent of these commercially caught salmon are hauled in by non-residents, but the commercial catch by non-residents is little noticed.
What is noticed is the recreational catch, and Alaskans are extremely possessive about it. State law requires newcomers to the north must spend one complete calendar year in the state before qualifying for a resident hunting or fishing license. When it was alleged in 2010 that U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller, a man who had by then won the state Republican primary and looked to have a lock on one of the state's two Senate seats, might have once illegally obtained a resident license it became a big deal even though it had happened 16 years earlier when Miller was a law student at Yale. Miller eventually lost the election to write-in Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski.
Needless to say, Alaskans take this residency thing seriously. A spokeswoman for the Alaska State Troopers couldn't say how many citations the agency annually writes for what it calls "False Statement on Sport Fish/Hunting License," but the number is in the dozens if not the hundreds. Almost daily Trooper dispatch logs contain one or several reports like this:
On 11/11/2011, Anchorage Wildlife Troopers contacted Brandan Chetwood, age 24 of Anchorage, after an investigation was conducted to determine his residency status. Investigation revealed that Chetwood moved to Alaska only 7 months prior to purchasing his license. However, claimed to be a resident on his 2011 Sport Fish/Hunting license. Chetwood's license was seized ...
Chetwood appears to be a student studying the culinary arts in Alaska. He got the usual ticket. Bartell, on the other hand, got the book thrown at him. Troopers charged him with "False Statement Sport License Applications x3 (Misdemeanors), False Statement Personal Use Permit Application x1 (Violation), Obtain Personal Use Salmon Permit When Not Eligible x1 (Misdemeanor), Fail to Return Personal Use Permit x2 (Violations).
On 11/17/11, the Kenai Office of Judicial Services served a summons to Anthony J. Bartell from Beaver Creek, Colorado. Through an investigation by the Soldotna Post of the Alaska Wildlife Troopers, Anthony Bartell is being charged with 4 misdemeanors and 3 violations. All of the charges are a result of residency issues for Mr. Bartell. Investigation revealed that Bartell was traveling to Alaska in June and departing in August annually between 2009 and 2011. While in Alaska, Bartelll would stay in a 5th wheel travel trailer inside an RV Park. In 2009, 2010 and 2011, Bartelll purchased resident sport fishing license in Alaska. During 2010 and 2011, Bartelll obtained Upper Cook Inlet Personal Use Salmon Permits. The three violations have a total bail set at $730. The four Misdemeanor charges will be arraigned in the District Court in Kenai.
Reached by telephone in Colorado, Bartell said troopers "called my 80-year-old mother in Michigan and said, 'Your son's got warrants out for him. We're going to arrest him. Where is he?' I don't even know how they got her number."
Bartell was eventually arraigned telephonically. He is facing potential jail time, though it's unlikely he would go to jail even if convicted. Judges usually suspend the sentence. A Yakutat fishing guide found guilty of never spending 12 complete months in Alaska -- though he had a home here and usually often spent more than half the year in Alaska -- was in 2010 sentenced to a year in jail, but the judge suspended all of that time.
What constitutes Alaska residency?
The difference between Yakutat guide Ron Pelissier and Bartell, at least as Bartell tells the story, is that the Realtor spent 12 consecutive months in Alaska in the late 1990s to establish his legal residency and has, in his opinion, retained it ever since. Troopers, however, contend he lost his residency when he obtained a Colorado driver's license in 2008. There's a story behind that, Bartell said. Because of new immigration rules between the U.S. and Canada, he needed to get a passport to drive through Canada to get back to Alaska in 2008, and he was in a hurry.
Authorities in Colorado wouldn't grant him a passport there using an Alaska driver's license as ID, he said. So he went and got a Colorado driver's license.
When he got back to Alaska, he added, he went to the state Division of Motor Vehicles and got his Alaska driver's license reinstated. "I didn't feel like there was anything I was doing wrong," he said. He didn't even think about what he had done until earlier this year when a trooper called him to say troopers were investigating the possible theft of his boat. An Alaska friend of Bartell's had been stopped towing the boat from Kenai to Homer for winter storage.
Bartell said it quickly became clear from the questions the trooper asked that the call was about something other than the boat.
"But it was unfathomable they would come back with this now," he added. In 2002, Bartell was charged with five counts of illegally obtaining a fishing license. He went to court. He presented state ID and a history of being in the state regularly since establishing official residency. He told the judge his story about splitting his time between four states -- Alaska, Colorado, North Dakota and Michigan -- and how when he had to pick one as his home state, he picked Alaska.
"The case was supposed to be dismissed," Bartell said. "Now, it's really out of control. I think some of it stems from the fact I never have and never will collect a Permanent Fund Dividend. That came out in court, too. I'm not trying to scam money. (But troopers seem) of the opinion any Alaskan should collect the fund."
Ergo, anyone who doesn't collect a PFD, as Alaskans call their annual state check of more than $1,000, isn't really an Alaskan. The Permanent Fund Dividend is a giant share-the-wealth plan designed to split the oil wealth of America's largest state with some 700,000 Alaskans. It has been and remains wildly popular with governors past and present, including self-proclaimed "common-sense conservative" Sarah Palin.
Bartell said he wouldn't take the money because he's not trying to take things from Alaska. He wants to be part of the state because he loves it, and in that regard he said he now feels "absolutely blindsided. … Three years later, they've done the same thing again. This is going down the same road twice. It's costing me a fortune."
But he plans to fight it again. It's the principle of the thing. He considers Alaska his country. He loves the place, and he clearly loves his fishing, like many an Alaska. The art on the logo for Bartell's Colorado company, "Field of Streams Real Estate," sports a fly fishermen playing a fish.
A Kenai River salmon maybe?
CORRECTION: This story was corrected on Nov. 29, 2011 to clarify that the status of Senate candidate Joe Miller's residency for fish and game licensing purposes for the year in question remains unclear. Miller was splitting his time between Alaska and Yale Law School when he obtained his license in 1995. The law at the time (AS16.05.940(26)) defined as resident as "a person who for the preceding 12 consecutive months has maintained a permanent place of abode in the state and who has continually maintained a voting residence in the state..." Miller bought his license on July 31, 1995. He had established his voting residence in the state on Sept. 16, 1994. The 12-month requirement for voting residence would not have been reached until Sept. 16, 1995. The residency definition was later amended because it is likely unconstitutional to require people to register to vote. Miller has always maintained he considered himself an Alaska when he obtained the resident license.
Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com