FAIRBANKS -- Gov. Sean Parnell has appointed Fairbanks fur tanner Al Barrette to the Alaska Board of Game, ending a one-year hiatus when nobody living north of the Alaska Range was on the seven-person board that regulates hunting and trapping in the state.
An avid hunter and trapper, Barrette, 44, owns Fairbanks Fur Tannery. He has served on the Fairbanks Fish and Game Advisory Committee the past six years.
Barrette applied for a seat on the game board about two months ago. He said his time on the local advisory committee ignited an interest to dive deeper into the process.
Fairbanks Fish and Game Advisory Committee chairman Ray Heuer called Barrette "an excellent choice" to serve on the game board.
"He asks appropriate questions, and he's not a 'yes' man," Heuer said. "He has the Interior's best interest in mind. That's what we're lacking right now," Heuer said.
Barrette replaces former Anchorage assemblyman Bob Bell, whose three-year term will expire March 1, leaving Anchorage without a board member.
Lewis Bradley of Palmer and Ted Spraker of Soldotna both have terms that expire next year.
Parnell appointed former state legislator Ben Grussendorf of Sitka to the game board for a fourth-consecutive term. The Legislature must confirm the appointments of Grussendorf and Barrette.
The governor's spokeswoman, Sharon Leighow, said Barrette has "a wealth of experience in issues involving Alaska's game resources" and "his hunting, trapping and guiding experience, as well as his service on the Fairbanks Fish and Game Advisory Committee, will make him an effective member of the Board of Game."
As the second-youngest member of the seven-person board, Barrette said he will offer "new ideas and a maybe a younger perspective" to the board, which often finds itself embroiled in such controversial issues as predator control and cow moose hunts.
"More modern with some of the old-school thinking" is how Barrette summed up his philosophy.
Barrette has a hunting guide's license and calls himself "a consumptive user" but admitted trapping is his first love.
"I will definitely be a representative for the trappers," Barrette said.
Barrette, an Army transplant who has been in Fairbanks since 1989, said he talks to a lot of trappers and hunters who come through his shop and has a good idea what's on their minds.
Longtime Fairbanks advisory committee member Mike Tinker said Barrette represents a more "hands-on" approach than most board members because he makes his livelihood on trapping and still spends considerable time in the field.
"Al is not your Ph.D. type," Tinker said. "He's your blue-collar guy. He comes at it from the standpoint of I went out and tried this and it didn't work; why not? He brings a whole different perspective."
The board has not had a trapping representative for several years, Tinker noted.
By TIM MOWRY
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner