Meeting in Wrangell’s Nolan Center over the weekend, the seven-member Alaska Board of Game heard testimony from Southeast Alaska hunters and trappers, and made decisions on proposed changes to state regulations that govern the harvest of deer, bears, mountain goats, birds and other animals in Southeast Alaska.
On Monday, the seven-member board voted 5-2 to reject Proposal 23, which would have increased the bag limit for non-Alaska residents hunting deer in the greater Sitka-area Game Management Unit 4, which includes Baranof, Admiralty and Chichagof Islands.
Unit 4 deer proposal
Nonresidents are limited to taking two bucks during the state hunting season that runs from Aug. 1 through Dec. 31 in Unit 4. Alaska residents can take six deer each season; the does may be harvested after Sept. 15. A separate federal season is open through Jan. 31 for Southeast Alaska residents hunting in Unit 4.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game submitted the board Proposal 23 to raise the state’s non-Alaska resident bag limit from two bucks to four deer.
Sitka area management biologist Steve Bethune noted in comments on Proposal 23 that deer are more abundant in Unit 4 than any other game management unit in Alaska, and that nonresident deer hunting effort is low.
Speaking in opposition to Proposal 23 today, board member Stosh Hoffman of Bethel said that “the bottom line is, deer populations fluctuate, and right now we’re doing really good” in Unit 4.
“Two deer for nonresidents – and almost no nonresidents take more than two – to me, that’s a suitable number,” Hoffman said. “I would be more inclined to support higher resident harvest.”
Meanwhile, member Al Barrette of Fairbanks supported the proposal, noting that when nonresidents were previously allowed to purchase six deer tags in Unit 4, only a handful of nonresidents harvested more than two deer.
“I think we’re very safe, just due to the cost of harvesting deer, and the lack of interest among nonresidents in taking more than three deer,” Barrette said.
During board deliberations, Fish and Game Division of Wildlife Conservation Director Ryan Scott said the department submitted Proposal 23 at his encouragement because “there is no issue with the number of deer in Unit 4.”
“We’re probably carrying too many (deer) in certain places,” Scott said. “Certainly, we’ll have a higher mortality this winter.”
Scott noted that the nonresident limit in Unit 4 was six deer as recently as three years ago, before the Board of Game in January of 2023 reduced it to two bucks in an attempt to fend off a Federal Subsistence Board proposal to enact seasonal closures on deer hunting by “non-federally qualified users” (non-Alaska residents, and residents of “nonrural” Alaska communities like Juneau) hunting on the federal public lands around Hoonah, Angoon and Pelican.
After the Board of Game reduced the state bag limit, the Federal Subsistence Board later in 2023 decided to close deer hunting Nov. 1-10 to non-federally qualified users in areas of federal lands around Hoonah, Angoon and Pelican.
Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said today that “the state doesn’t agree with the need to restrict these areas to only federally-qualified users.
“There’s enough deer down here to provide some additional opportunity,” the commissioner said in regard to Proposal 23.
Board members ultimately sided with public opinion in rejecting Fish and Game’s proposal to raise the nonresident bag limit for deer in Unit 4; six Fish and Game community Advisory Committees opposed Proposal 23, and one AC supported the idea. About 40 people submitted on-time public comments opposing the department’s proposal, and just a handful of people commented in support.
While hearing other Unit 4 proposals on Sunday evening and this morning, the board struck down proposals to extend the brown bear hunting season, and proposals to extend the season in specific areas.
In rejecting those brown bear proposals, board members expressed deference to the Brown Bear Management Plan that the department developed about 25 years ago. Managers told the board that the longstanding management plan undergirds informal agreements between tour operators, small cruise lines, and other users to distribute brown bear hunting effort in Unit 4.
Managers also said that the annual brown bear harvest in Unit 4 is about 40 bears below managers’ harvest target, so there are opportunities for some additional brown bear harvest.
Regionwide proposals on mountain goats, cougars, night vision technology, fishers, grouse and ptarmigan
On Saturday the board voted unanimously in favor of Proposal 4, to change the definition of mountain goat “take” in Southeast Alaska so that any goat that’s hit by a bullet or arrow counts as “taken” for harvest management purposes.
The proposal’s author said the rule would benefit Southeast hunters by creating consistency with brown bear hunting regulations; ensuring accurate mountain goat harvest data; and encouraging ethical hunting practices.
On Sunday morning, the board held more than an hour of deliberations over Proposal 8, and voted unanimously to establish an open season for hunting cougar (mountain lion) in Southeast. Board members’ conversation set precedent for some legal cougar harvest, which could over time help Fish and Game collect data on a species that the department does not manage to a population objective.
Cougars are thought to enter Southeast Alaska by following big river valleys from Canada to the coast. There have been five documented mountain lion sightings in Alaska since 1989, with most credible sightings centered on Southeast Alaska, according to Fish and Game. In 2024, a young male cougar was killed on Wrangell Island, and in 2025 an adult male was captured in a wolf snare on Kuiu Island.
On another regionwide proposal (13), the board voted 5-2 to prohibit the use of night vision technology and forward-looking infrared devices for hunting furbearers (such as wolves) in Southeast Alaska Units 1-5 during state and federal deer seasons.
Prince of Wales Island residents Ellen Hannan and Kurt Whitehead submitted the proposal after the board at a statewide meeting last year approved the use of night vision and infrared for all 26 game management units across Alaska.
Southeast residents were in favor of the proposal, given concerns that the technology could be misused to take deer at night during deer season, especially on POW, which has an extensive road system and a high number of hunters.
Also on Sunday, board members voted 6-1 for Proposal 14 to remove the bag limit for people trapping fisher, a mammal in the weasel family, in Southeast.
The Board then heard a presentation from Fish and Game subsistence division staff regarding people’s traditional cultural relationships with grouse and ptarmigan in Southeast.
Following the presentation, board members voted unanimously to make a positive Customary and Traditional use finding for grouse and ptarmigan in Southeast, except for in the “non-subsistence areas” around Ketchikan and Juneau.
The board looked at eight criteria to determine that grouse and ptarmigan species in Southeast are associated with customary and traditional uses; the Board of Game must provide for customary and traditional uses first before providing for commercial or recreational uses of wildlife species.
Failed proposals
The board voted 6-1 against a proposal (1) that would have prohibited hunting of big game animals across Southeast at night, a period defined as between civil twilight of sunset and civil twilight of sunrise.
Board members were unanimously against a proposal (3) to allow people to hunt a mountain goat on the same day that they fly in a float plane; the board agreed that the proposal, if approved, would undermine a “fair chase” for hunters who hike into mountain goat habitat.
The board voted 5-2 against an amended version of Proposal 11, which would have allowed trappers to use trail cameras and other wireless communications devices in order to remotely monitor their active traplines.
Meeting information
The five-day meeting ran through Tuesday, and was open to the public, with a live video stream is provided on the board website at www.boardofgame.adfg.alaska.gov.
Meeting materials including agendas, proposals, Fish and Game staff reports, public and agency comments, and a record of the board’s decisions on each proposal can be viewed through the board’s website under “meeting info.”
This story was originally published by the Daily Sitka Sentinel.