"
And I in no way wanted to dis any of the good teachers on here I know its a tough job in the villages and they have every right to share in every thing they want..I have a daughter in school myself and support them every chance I get."


And some of us even haul our own wood.


Jeff, honestly most of the land is refuge. If I want to hunt refuge land, I think I should be able to without worrying about ticking off the locals. The private land can't be touched. The refuge has been very very tight with allocating permits to any transporters or guides in Unit 18. I tried to float a river up your way a few years ago and the refuge wouldn't allow it.

If you see people on private ground, surely they need to be reported.

Its all good.. I didn't hammered like I thought... above someone said life is boring without dissagreements that is so true. Trapping needs to start soon so we have something else to talk about. Good luck to all of you wherever u are. Even you bethel guys. Keep slaying them nasty little reds. Lol

I think you need to differentiate between guides and air taxi/transporters. The transports work on a volume basis and were frowned upon (call that HATED) by the registered/master guides with a passion. The guides would have maybe half dozen assistants working under them providing a quality hunt for a quality animal. While moose hunting, that usually translated into two, two week long hunts in the course of a season. The meat was always taken care of and utilized either by the guide staff or local folks that welcomed the meat. It was always in the guide's best interest to make certain there was a very healthy population of game in the areas that were hunted. The transporters didn't give a rip, they just wanted to haul as many folks as they could to maximize the income potential. Avoidance of wanton waste was the motivating factor in requiring non-resident ALIENS to hire a guide for any big game specie in Alaska. We always utilized villiage based air services and villiage accomodations when weather caused a transportation delay so we did invest $$ in local economies. I have been a registered giude, subsitence user, and biologist. All user groups need to have input in how wildlife is managed for the continued health of the resource, and the benefit of the user groups.

I didn't know you were a Biologist. I got a question maybe you can answer. The sheep population where I guide declined during the 90's probably do to predation, but maybe there were habitat issues too. The population appears to be slowly building since implementation of wolf control. The last two years I have noticed that they have been expanding their range. In other words dispersing. Does this mean the sheep are dispersal phenotypes? Meaning the population is currently well below carrying capacity?

Dirt you must not have had enough and I am asuming you are talking to me although no one is sure..lol

but let me ask you this...why? does the Bioligist ask "ME" what the animal populations are like on my trapline?
they should already know right?

Newhouse is a biologist. I'd like to know if the sheep population is doing well.

The biologist ask you Jeff because somebody told him you know everything.

I didnt know Newhouse was a Biologist...see I dont know everything

Trapping season can't come fast enough. I see we have found a bone to fight over until then.....

-TJ

Jeff I try to learn wildlife biology so I can tell when a Biologist is full of crap. Like Stringham , Sinnot, Van Ballenberge, Habor(Deceased), Del Frate, Farley and others. It's useful.

My post secondary education was in wildlife biology. The state of Alaska has a regulation that states that no one working as a biologist for the state can aquire a registered guide license! Professional biologists are basically under a gag order from whatever state they work for and cannot comment on regulations for fear of losing their jobs. I have not worked in the state of Alaska as a biologist because I had preferences as to being able to open my mouth when I wanted to, I wanted to guide, and I am a white boy ivory carver (talk about potential for conflict of interest!). To answer Jeff's question, biologists get their information wherever/however they can and make management decisions based on aquired information. I work in close association with the local biologist here in Oregon, not on a professional basis, but on a respected opinion basis. He knows my education level and respects my hands on opinion due to my experience in the field as a hunter/guide/fisherman/trapper.
Dirt, I have kinda been out of the loop about population dynamics in AK for about 15 years now but I know that the Alaska range had fairly serious bout of lumpy jaw in the sheep pop. during the late 80's. Toss a couple deep snow years in with that and the sheep population takes it in the shorts. I don't think it is possible for a sheep population to achieve a level where it threatens the carrying capacity of its habitat. Weather and predation keep them in check. Even in fairly mild winters there is a substantial winter kill. When a population is depressed due to winter kill or disease, predation seriously restricts pop. growth. Given favorable conditions, sheep population grow quite rapidly and will disperse to inhabit a wider range. They don't really migrate but the buggers can travel a looong way for who knows what reasons.

So far it is only rams that I have noticed dispersing. Is this normal? And will the females and lambs follow?

newhouse114.....
i don't want to throw names out there and get kicked off this forum but i can tell you the three guides off the top of my head. one of which offered me meat that smelled rotten. another gave rotten meat to a friend of mine. the last gave a family a whole nasty stink moose in game bags. he said the game bags were what the smell came from but when they opened it up it was rotten. i wouldn't consider that resource management they could have left the animal alone to reproduce rather than have someone else haul it to the dump. blame the locals for wasting the meat not the guides good solution. i won't even go into the guide that blamed locals for shooting moose 40 miles from the village and when asked why there were no snomachine tracks around he couldn't come up with an answer. he knew exactly where these moose were though and it was spring bear hunting time. go figure. resource management? kill moose to get bears? so the bears don't kill moose?

There are unethical people everywhere and I'm sorry, rural people are not exempt from wanton waste. I won't bring it up, but it happened at Point Hope. I don't waste meat and I don't care for anybody, guide, transporter, sport hunter, or subsistence hunter who does.

Did I ever tell you 'bout the time that.......?!!!

Btw, I have been watching this thread with interest. And was smart enough NOT to jump in!

Nolluk, I am not saying that there are no bad apples in the guiding industry. Just like there are bad apples in the native community that abuse the resource. I personally know of several HUNDRED caribou that were killed just for jollies by native youth one year. This happened many years ago and perhaps the problem isn't quite so bad now, but I'm sure it still goes on. The guiding industry needs to police itself and the subsistence users need to do the same. As soon as finger pointing becomes the reason decisions are made, everybody loses. I don't know if the Walker clan is still operating out of Kotz but I know that they "stretched" the rules on a regular basis.

Dirt, The ewes and lambs have a tendency to stay herded up while the bachelor groups of adult and sub adult rams hang together until late September. They seem to wander a lot more, probably trying to find available females that do not have a resident dominant ram. I noticed that the really big rams were often solitary animals that just seemed to appear out of nowhere once the rut got started in late September and October.

Dirt, I think you and I are are talking about the same instance.

Pete.........................Coward!! LOL

On a lighter note ..I had Ptarmagin and Spruce chicken for dinner I had to call the Biologist to confirm that it was in fact a spruce hen
I grew the tater tots in my garden and just pried them out of the frozen ground a few days ago.

What are the worms under the grouse?

No.. thats the guts

Oh wait thats the Rhamen noodles...they be good in soup..use the packet in it too. chicken flavor of course

Those are knee worms from a moose. Jeff don't waste nothin.