Regulations and policies governing hunting and fishing on federal lands will be on the table at the Southeast Alaska Subsistence Regional Advisory Council meeting in Juneau next week.
The council is one of 10 in Alaska that provide recommendations to the Federal Subsistence Board, which is the decision-making body for Alaska’s Federal Subsistence Management Program.
Council members and the public will be able to participate remotely in the four-day meeting, which starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday and continues through Friday.
The Southeast council met for two days in December, after their fall meeting was postponed because of the 43-day-long federal government shutdown.
During the December meeting a leader in the Office of Subsistence Management, which administers the federal subsistence program for Alaska, announced the review of the Federal Subsistence Management Program that the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Interior are currently conducting in Alaska.
The Agriculture and Interior departments initiated the review of the subsistence program on Dec. 15 in response to the Trump administration’s January 2025 executive order “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” as well as a petition that the Safari Club International filed with the federal government last year, which asks U.S. agencies to “rein in” the subsistence program.
The OSM official’s announcement sparked more than three hours of discussion among Southeast RAC members over ways that political influence could compromise the effectiveness of the Federal Subsistence Management Program.
After the meeting, Council members drafted and approved an eight-page letter detailing their concerns that the review may lead to regulatory changes that would undermine subsistence harvest rights in the state.
Upon announcing the federally-initiated subsistence review on Dec. 15, OSM opened a 60-day public comment period. OSM later extended the comment deadline by 45 days; and is now accepting comments through March 30.
Also during the December meeting of the Southeast subsistence Regional Advisory Council, officials of the U.S. Department of Agriculture spoke about the Trump administration’s proposed rescission of the 2001 Roadless Rule, and the Agriculture department’s plans to change the Tongass National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan to make it align with the executive orders that President Trump issued when he took office last year.
A 30-day public comment period is open through March 20 to get Alaskans’ views on the administration’s update to the Tongass Land Management Plan, which is aimed at maximizing timber harvest and mineral extraction throughout the Tongass, and adjusting to increased cruise ship visitation.
The U.S. Forest Service announced today that it will be holding an in-person, community workshop at Harrigan Centennial Hall on April 17 to hear feedback on the preliminary materials it is drafting for the Tongass plan revision. Similar Forest Service workshops are scheduled this spring for more than a dozen Southeast communities.
The December meeting of the Southeast subsistence council also marked the close of Sitka representative Harvey Kitka’s long tenure as a council member. Since joining the council in 2003, Kitka has shared his insights on management of wildlife, fish and their habitats, and helped shape the federal subsistence program for Alaska.
Council members serve in three-year terms, and may apply for re-appointment at the end of each term. People can apply by April 2 to fill seats on the Southeast council that are opening up this year.
A panel of federal staff from several land management agencies review the applications, conduct interviews and rank applicants before the Federal Subsistence Board nominates individuals for appointment by the U.S. Secretary of Interior.
It’s up to the Interior secretary to issue appointment letters to new members. During Trump’s first term as president, the Interior secretary did not appoint Council members to fill vacant seats, leaving some regional councils unable to meet quorum.
Current members of the Southeast RAC are Patricia Phillips and James Slater of Pelican, Albert Howard of Angoon, Frank Wright Jr. of Hoonah, Larry Bemis of Yakutat, Calvin Casipit of Gustavus, John Smith III of Juneau, Theodore Sandhofer of Petersburg, Louie Wagner of Metlakatla, Michael Douville and Lewis Hiatt of Craig, and Donald Hernandez of Point Baker, who is chair of the RAC.
Wright and Hiatt represent commercial and sport users, while the remaining council members represent customary and traditional (subsistence) users of fish and wildlife species.
At next week’s meeting in Juneau the council will make a recommendation on a wildlife proposal that would prohibit people on federal lands throughout Southeast Alaska (Units 1-5) from hunting in the hours between civil sunset and civil sunrise.
The Alaska Board of Game voted 6-1 against a similar state regulatory proposal during its Southeast meeting in January.
Ten total wildlife proposals are on the RAC agenda for the meeting next week. Six proposals suggest cutbacks in deer harvest opportunities in the Prince of Wales Island-area Unit 2, in the interest of sustaining the area’s deer population.
Unit 2 could face additional subsistence deer hunting pressure this year after the Federal Subsistence Board voted 7-3 last February to designate the nearby Ketchikan area as “rural,” which qualifies all Ketchikan residents to hunt and fish as federally-qualified subsistence users throughout Southeast (Units 1-5).
The council also will hear two proposals that deal with season dates for wolf trapping on federal lands in Unit 2. The size of the wolf population in the Prince of Wales Island area is an important factor in the health of the deer population in Unit 2.
The Southeast RAC had planned to deliberate and make formal recommendations on all of those proposals this fall, but the abbreviated schedule for the December meeting forced the RAC to postpone action on the proposals.
The state Federal Subsistence Board is scheduled to decide on the federal regulatory proposals during its 2026 Wildlife Regulatory Meeting, April 20-24 in Anchorage.
How to tune in
Anyone can participate in the Southeast RAC meeting, beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday and continuing through Friday at the Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall in Juneau. Remote participation is available.
To participate by phone, people can call the toll free number: 1-833-436-1163, then when prompted enter the phone conference ID: 245 785 455#
To join on Microsoft Teams, people can enter the meeting ID: 220 150 997 463 and passcode: P5a8WU2L
All meeting materials are available at https://www.doi.gov/subsistence/regions/se_materials
This story was originally published by the Daily Sitka Sentinel.