Students in Klukwan and Haines got the chance to butcher and process moose meat this week after two sublegal moose were harvested by hunters this season.
Both moose were reported to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game office in Haines which area manager Carl Koch said is the ideal outcome.
“It’s always better for the hunter,” he said. That’s because the meat gets donated to a local nonprofit. “And the fine is far less.”
Koch said local nonprofits and charities can reach out to Fish and Game ahead of time to get in the queue for moose meat. When wildlife officials determine that a moose isn’t legal, then it’s the hunter’s responsibility to take care of the meat until it can be taken to a local charity.
Koch said sometimes it’s the whole moose, but usually when hunters bring the moose out – it has been partially butchered in the field.
In Klukwan, the moose arrived just in time for moose camp. Students at the school learned how to cut up and process the meat both through the efforts of staff like Shk’oohaalee Justina Hotch, but also through community volunteers like Skeenyáa Tláa, Seandog Brownell, Valentino Burrattin and others who came to help them learn how to grind it up and then portion it for vacuum sealing.
The meat will be both eaten at the school and given to members of the community.
Both of the moose that were illegally killed did not meet the legal take requirements of having a spike or forked antler, an antler spread of 50-inches or greater, or three or more brow tines on at least one side.
Koch said that means these moose were more likely to be bulls in the two- to four-year-old range, which is the age class managers are trying to protect in the Chilkat Valley.
The first illegal moose was a one by one – meaning the number of brow tines it had per side – and the second one was a two by two.”
“Neither of them was close to 50 inches,” Koch said. “We really encourage hunters to be patient. Take a really good look from different angles, especially the front.”
There are still opportunities to harvest legal moose before the end of the season – which goes until Oct. 7 if the harvest limit isn’t reached, prompting an early closure. By Tuesday, 14 of the 20-25 moose Fish and Game is aiming for have been reported.
Koch said this year has been average in terms of how fast moose are being harvested.
In the past, when the hunt was closed, a Fish and Game biologist would get in a plane, fly up the valley and blow on a horn, Koch said.
“As soon as you heard the horn, you’d hear ‘dang the hunt’s over,’” he said.
These days, they’ll issue an emergency order. Staff will sometimes put fliers around town or at landings and on people’s vehicles.
“But people should spread the word to each other,” Koch said.