What do we really know about managing fish and game? Man has been actively attempting to fiddle with fish populations for well over a century. We have been manipulating game animals for our use for about the same length of time. Personally, I have been around for half of a hundred years and am not ashamed to admit that I know very little of the "how" part of wildlife management.
Salmon are near and dear to my heart. I have been a commercial fisherman for 45 years. There is a very good book written by David Montgomery called "The King of Fish: the Thousand Year Run of Salmon". Montgomery outlines the repeat mistakes that industry, the public, and fishery managers have made over the years.
Some of those mistakes are being repeated today. Salmon hatcheries can't replace wild runs in rivers. Salmon need habitat. Salmon streams in England, the East Coast of the U.S. and the Pacific Northwest have all been degraded due to dams and industrial development. Hatcheries have been used in an attempt to replace wild runs, but their success has been relatively dismal.
That doesn't mean producing salmon at a hatchery doesn't return fish. The Solomon Gulch pink salmon hatchery had a record return of 30 million fish this year. Good for them, but do we have a clue how those fish affected other species of fish in the ocean? How could we?
The sockeye enhancement facility in the Gulkana River just above Paxson is another example. The natural run that returned to that warm spring was several hundred fish strong. The facility has expanded the natural run due to an annual egg take of near 30 million. The return varies year to year, but there's little doubt that commercial fishermen who gillnet at the mouth of the Copper River reap the benefits of this hatchery. So do personal-use fishermen who dipnet at Chitina.
How do all of these extra salmon affect Paxson Lake? Extra fry are dropped in Summit Lake and Crosswind Lake. To what result? How do more decomposing carcasses impact the ecosystem?
Boon for eagles
The most visible result of more salmon is an increase in bald eagles that hang around later in the fall. Bald eagles eat fish for the most part, but they do take an occasional mink or fox.
Remember the story a few years ago about the eagle in Valdez that picked off a little dog that ran from an RV. More eagles in an area have some impact.
Most outdoorsmen aren't concerned about 50 or 60 spare eagles flocking to the Gulkana in October, but right now there are plenty of hunters wondering where the Nelchina caribou herd is hiding. Why aren't they on the Denali Highway along the Maclaren Summit as they typically are? Think back to the early 1970s when there were almost no caribou in the area. Not only was the herd shrinking, the caribou were foraging elsewhere. Maybe that is happening again?
It has been a hot summer. Blueberries ripened early. Other plants matured sooner too. It is possible the early maturity of preferred plants change where caribou feed. The taste of food is important to all animals.
I cannot decipher how a moose can tell if the protein content of the willow bush it is munching is lower. Nelchina Basin studies show when willows are overgrazed, the willow moves protein into its root system. The browsing moose recognize this and switch to dwarf birch as the preferred feed. How?
This food switch takes place during the winter. What about summer? June's dry conditions undoubtedly had some bearing on where the moose hang out. However, that isn't the total explanation of why there are fewer moose in the upper portions of Game Management Unit 13. The moose wintering in Paxson, the Upper Delta River and Tangle Lakes were at the lowest level I have encountered since 1970. Why isn't clear. The snow wasn't excessive and predators have been knocked down to a historic low.
The idea that extreme reductions of primary predators will provide more moose and caribou for hunters to shoot has been around since game management began. It works in the short term but has not been a successful long-range plan. The feds tried poisoning predators 60 years ago before statehood.
Clues along Maclaren River
How far have we progressed with fish and game management since the 1950s? That is an impossible question to answer. I'd like to think we have come a long way. But it seems the more we know, the less we know.
I first walked up the Maclaren River in 1970. I looked at tracks then and tried to decipher what animals were where and how many. I walked up the Maclaren again yesterday and did the same. In the nearly 50 years that have passed, I have been up and down this river system uncounted times. I can tell you from my notes what I saw and thought I knew. But the reality is none of us know the cause and effect of what we plan to make happen.
The caribou know. The moose know. They live in the thickets every day. At best, we are just passing visitors, like the guest who stays in your home for a week. Outdoorsmen and game biologists have a snapshot of reality, at best.
Please lord; give us another couple hundred years and we'll try not to screw it up.
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.