Alaska Fishing

FAIRBANKS -- The fact that Byron Haley is president-for-life of the Chitina Dipnetters Association is somewhat ironic, considering the 82-year-old Haley has only been to Chitina a few times during his 63 years in Alaska. Most of the time, he relies on friends to bring him back a few Copper River red salmon.

"We took him down seven or eight years ago and it was the first time since 1981 that he had been down to Chitina," said Haley's good friend, Rob Hams.

All of that makes Haley's dedication to dipnetters more impressive. Haley has spent more than 30 years sticking up for dipnetters by writing letters to the editor, testifying at Board of Fisheries meetings, contacting legislators and raising money.

In fact, Haley had never gone dipnetting at Chitina when he and a handful of other Fairbanksans started the Chitina Dipnetters Association in 1976. As general yardmaster at the Alaska Railroad Corp. in Fairbanks, Haley said he was too busy working to make the long drive to Chitina.

But he was well aware of what Chitina meant to Fairbanksans.

"I'd been giving guys time off for years to go to Chitina," Haley said. "They'd say, 'I need a couple days off to go to Chitina' and I'd tell them to bring me back some fish."

"I got involved only because I knew what was going on down there and wanted to support the fishery," he said. "The commercial fishermen were trying to get us shut down. They had us knocked down to 10 fish for a family and five fish for an individual. We went to the Legislature and got that changed."

These days, the limits are 30 fish per family and 15 for an individual, but the battle between dipnetters and commercial fishermen remains and Haley is still sticking up for dipnetters.

On a day last week, he was sitting at the plaintiff's table at the Rabinowitz Courthouse as attorney Mike Kramer presented an oral argument in a lawsuit filed by the Chitina Dipnetters Association and Alaska Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fund that would re-classify dipnetters as subsistence rather than personal-use. A subsistence designation would give dipnetters a higher priority to the fish at Chitina than commercial fishermen.

Dipnetters should come before commercial fishermen when it comes to harvesting Copper River salmon, Haley said.

"We're putting fish on the table for families in Alaska," he said.

As to just how Haley was elected president-for-life of the Chitina Dipnetters Association back in 1984, well, that's like one of the mystery novels he likes to read.

"I don't know how that got started," Haley said with his trademark chuckle and grin.

But it's not just dipnetters that Haley looks out for. He has been a staunch supporter of hunting and fishing for the better part of 30 years in Fairbanks.

He put in 20 years on the Fairbanks Fish and Game Advisory Committee, a group that makes recommendations to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and state boards of fish and game regarding fishing, hunting and trapping issues.

For the past 26 years, Haley has been a trustee for the Alaska Fish & Wildlife Conservation Fund, a branch of the Alaska Outdoor Council, and he sits on the fund's board of directors. During that time, he has donated $1,000 per year to the fund, even though the minimum donation was reduced to $250 in recent years.

"No one has been more faithful than him," said Dick Bishop, AOC president. "He made that commitment and he's kept it.

"He's been a stalwart for decades in efforts to promote and protect hunting, fishing and trapping," Bishop said.

While Haley is not particularly vocal or eloquent in expressing his views -- "He's not your soapbox type person," as Bishop put it -- he gets his point across when he feels it's needed.

In his 15 years on the Fairbanks Fish and Game Advisory Committee, Kramer said, Haley has been a fixture at meetings, even though he no longer serves on the committee.

"He doesn't say a whole lot, but he absorbs everything," said Kramer, who also is a member of the committee. "When it's time for him to weigh in on something people respect what he has to say."

"He really stands out as a pioneer Alaskan who's interested in passing on to future generations of Alaskans the activities that he's been fortunate to participate in," Kramer said.

Even at the age of 82, Haley is still partaking in those activities.

Late last week, Haley was preparing for a king salmon fishing trip to Montana Creek in the Susitna Valley with Rob Hams and his wife, Joanna, who are part of his "adopted" family whom he has known for about 20 years. Hams calls Haley a "die-hard" when it comes to combat fishing in the Valley.

"Once he walks down there he'll sit there for six or eight hours," Hams said.

Each fall, Hams accompanies Haley on a moose hunting trip at Haley's cabin on the Goodpaster River and Haley has accompanied Hams on caribou hunting trips on the North Slope. Haley helped Hams bag a bison in Delta Junction 15 years ago.

"We don't let him slow down," said Hams, who refers to Haley as "good old Byron."

When Haley came north in 1946, he didn't intend to hang around long.

"I came up to Alaska to make some money and go home and start a business, a gas station or something," said Haley, who drove up the just-completed Alaska Highway with a friend in a 1932 Model B Ford.

Needless to say, Haley never made it back to his hometown of Duluth, Minn. He joined the Alaska Railroad Corp. and fell in love with Alaska. During his 30 years with the railroad, Haley worked his way up from brakeman to conductor to yardmaster to general yardmaster before retiring in 1978.

A widower whose wife passed away in 1982, Haley lives alone in the same house he has occupied since 1954, a stone's throw from the railroad yard where he worked for 30 years. The house is filled with piles of books, old pictures, paintings and plaques that Haley has been awarded during the years for his conservation efforts.

His hearing isn't what it used to be, which has limited his involvement in fish and game issues in recent years, but Haley is a fixture at Fish and Game Advisory Committee meetings, as well as state Board of Fish and Game meetings.

"Being present makes a lot of difference," he said.

ADVERTISEMENT