LEADING SPOKESPERSON FOR HUNTERS

SCI is the leading sportsman’s advocacy group in the world and together, SCI’s Alaska Chapters lead the effort to preserve the freedom to hunt here in Alaska.  Both SCI Alaska Chapter and SCI Kenai Chapter led the effort to sustain wolf management for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.  Both chapters helped form the Sportsman’s Caucus in the state legislature and both chapters have a representative sitting on the Caucus Advisory Council.  When you join SCI Alaska Chapter, you will become part of an elite fraternity of hunters.  Hunters who care about wildlife and the future of hunting!

Wildlife management decisions should be guided by science, not politics.

URGENT: THE FSB Closed Alaska Moose Hunting Grounds Days Before Season.

One week before moose season opened, the Federal Subsistence Board (FSB) voted by email to close approximately 1,300 square miles of federal public lands in Interior Alaska to non-federally-qualified moose hunters. There was no public meeting and no opportunity for hunters to weigh in before the decision was made.

The closure affects federal lands in Unit 25D, including areas along the Yukon River, Birch Creek, and the Sheenjek, Porcupine, Black, and Chandalar rivers. Hunters who had already planned and prepared for the season were left with just days to determine whether their hunt was still legal.

This is bigger than one closure.

Alaska’s fish and game populations have long been managed using biological data, population surveys, and the expertise of professional wildlife managers. These science-based practices have helped make Alaska a global conservation success story.

Yet Alaska hunters are increasingly seeing federal land closures that restrict access even when state wildlife data supports hunting opportunity. The FSB has taken action affecting hunting access in both GMU 13 and GMU 25, raising serious questions about whether federal decisions are appropriately considering current biological data, public access, and Alaska’s established wildlife management system.

The latest Unit 25D closure raises another concern: process. A decision affecting approximately 1,300 square miles of federal public land was made by email just days before moose season, without a public meeting or an opportunity for affected hunters to weigh in.

Alaska hunters deserve better. Decisions about access to public lands should be transparent, grounded in science, consistent with federal law, and made through a process that gives the public a meaningful opportunity to participate.

ACT NOW.

Contact Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and ask them to review the FSB’s actions, restore a transparent public process, and protect fair access to Alaska’s federal public lands.

Request for Reconsideration

You can also make your voice heard through the federal Request for Reconsideration process. We’ve made it simple: use the SCI AK crafted template to submit your request to the Office of Subsistence Management.

Submit by email to subsistence@ios.doi.gov and cc litigation@safariclub.org and kara_moriarty@ios.doi.gov. 

Submitting by mail?

Office of Subsistence Management
Attn: Subsistence Policy Coordinator
1011 East Tudor Road, Mail Stop 121
Anchorage, AK 99503-6199

Helpful resources: 

August 18 letter to Secretary Burgum and Secretary Rollins  

Decisions affecting non-federally qualified users.

All decisions.

Subsistence closure regulations. 

Request for reconsideration regulations.