The state Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation issued notices of violation on dozens of structures in the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, days before the start of moose season.  

The timing was intentional, said acting superintendent for the Southeast Region Brad Garasky, as the department is attempting to reach people at a time when they’re most likely to be using the structures. 

Over the course of two days, notices were left on at least 12 shacks or structures along the Chilkat River between the Klehini River and the Kelsall River, giving users until June 20, 2026 to clear out personal equipment, litter or debris from structures, and threatening citations or impoundment in some cases. 

Since issuing the notices, state park ranger Jacques Turcotte said community members have told him someone has threatened to shoot him. And, while he was expecting people to be angry and confused, he said he wasn’t expecting death threats. 

“You know, we just all saw a video of a man lose his life in front of his family and I can’t help but draw parallels,” Turcotte said, referencing last week’s killing of Charlie Kirk. I’m just a man who has a family that goes to work and has a job to do. I’d like to not die over this. “I understand that people are frustrated but I have no ill will towards anybody.” 

According to the notices, the state is seeking different things, depending on the type of structure. 

For cabins, the notice says that any built before 1982 when the preserve was formed are deemed public use and should be unlocked at all times, available on a first-come first-serve basis. 

That’s a departure from the norm in the Chilkat Valley where many people said they understand the hunters’ cabins to be primarily used by particular families or individuals. 

“A lot of them … have not been open and available for the general public to utilize,” Garasky said.“They’ve been claimed by individuals and also there’s been no authorized improvements, expansion and a lot of the cabins have been significantly repaired, modified, expanded upon or just flat moved to another location.” 

There has not been any consistent enforcement of preserve rules with the cabins for the last 42 years. Garasky blames that lack of enforcement, at least in recent years, on staffing.   

“It’s been on the back burner for many years,” he said. 

The bald eagle preserve management plan allows for temporary hunting and fishing camps, but requires that they not include permanent structures or facilities. 

“There’s more than just cabins involved, he said. There are some permanent camps, equipment and supply caches built out there as well.” 

Notices left on about a dozen moose stands specifies that they be removed or authorized and permitted by the state parks director.

Longtime resident, hunter and borough assemblyman Craig Loomis has been moose hunting in the same area near for decades and he thinks longtime subsistence users should be allowed to continue doing what they’re doing. 

“There’s people around here that respect me as having been hunting over there since 1966,” he said. “Other people have their certain areas that they moose hunt out of and they take care of those areas. For years I’ve been reporting to Fish and Game how many cows I see, how many calves I see, how many brown bears I see.” 

Loomis said his family used an old schoolteacher’s cabin and then when it decayed, rebuilt it using the same materials and in the same footprint because he believes that made it legal. He’s said he’s fairly certain it’s not on preserve land. 

Loomis also said he remembers applying for title to it, or filing some kind of paperwork with the state to be able to formalize the family’s use of the area. But, he’s not sure what came of that application and could not recall all of the details. 

The preserve has a long history of overlapping overship claims. That does leave open the possibility that some do have valid paperwork for their structures. 

Garasky said that’s part of the reasoning behind the year-long timeline in the notices.  

“We’ve scoured our records and we haven’t found anything, but part of it is – just before we go take a cabin down is just to make sure,” he said. “Some of the structures, cabins, we have an inkling of who the responsible parties are. We still need to try to track down who some of them are.” 

Hunter Pat Philpott said that while he considers the eagle preserve to be on land the state stole and doesn’t support state enforcement in the area, he has always understood that the shacks he maintains in the preserve are supposed to be open to the public. 

“There are no locks on any of my doors out there. It’s open for everybody,” he said. “It’s a safety place. If you’re out there on the river and you get stuck, you can get to them and you can survive.”  

Philpott said people are not supposed to be building locked, permanent structures in the preserve that are not on titled, private land. 

But the river is lined with hunters’ shacks, some he remembers helping to put up decades ago – including one that is built using WWII-era tin. 

“It’s all salvage material, scrap material,” he said. “They’re not houses, they don’t have utilities. They don’t have lights or anything.” 

His sleeping and cooking shacks are built out of repurposed two-by-fours and tin, so it wouldn’t take much to tear them down.  But, Philpott said, he hasn’t been out to them this season, so he’s not sure if he got a notice from the state. 

Still, they’re available first come, first serve. 

“I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody isn’t using mine now,” he said. “Hopefully they are.”