No kidding. Only subsistence bear hunting will be allowed in Alaska this spring, per emergency order.
This is insanity gone wild. ADFG is off their collective rocker, telling me I can't hop in my skiff, go to the cabin, harvest a bear, bring it home for food and fur, due to a virus that they want social distancing to defeat!
Pete!!! Get Ted on the phone!!!!!!!!!

I just got done emailing in my opinion on this and hope you will all do the same.

Email

Doug.vincent-lang@alaska.gov


This is what I said

Just learned the spring bear hunt was closed until may 31 for residents and non residents.  In my opinion this is hurting my family and others.  We are able to go out my back door and hunt for bear with out even coming close to another person. But yet you tell me we can't. My freezer is about empty after the long winter and we planned on putting a black bear in there as soon as we could to feed our family . I don't live far enough out to be considered for subsistence and now can't go to Fred Meyer to get meat because the shelves are bare. What do you expect me to do? Will you let me in your freezer?  I would agree to close down the season to non residents but you are hurting a lot of families by closing it to residents. Please reconsider this decision. 

Thank you 

 Dave 




Doug.vincent-lang@alaska.gov

Heck with opinions! This put me over the edge. I'm getting a recall book and signing it. Total disrespect for majority of citizens. Dunleavy had a press meeting yesterday, Tues. A news lady from Kodiak mentioned bear hunting and hunters coming to Kodiak to hunt. She asked about enforcing travel. Dunleavy said they would have an answer today. This hunt ban is that answer. What a crock!
mt

i am sure they did it so fish and game employes would not be exsposed to hunters that might have the china virus. but that being said there is other ways to check animals in and they still get all the info they need from colected animals. so in my eyes there is no exscuse maybe for none residents. i think there is other ways by posibly takeing a photo of the genitals and the skull with a measuring tape and sending them a email with the info they want. but this also burns me up two becouse i just spent time reconferming my zero on my rifle and just bought more shells at sportsmans and just got permison to cross a land owners property to get to where i have to go all just today.

Some people have been collecting bear bait all winter for their chance at a spring bear. Now they are stuck with a pile of bait that will bring the bears to their home unless they take it to the dump. The bears are going to be hard on the moose calves this year. They are used to fattening up on donuts etc when they wake up. Those snackies won't be available so they have to eat something.

Here's the reply I got

This is retarded, they are just using this kung flu as an excuse to go on a power trip. The state next to me shut down their recreational fishing, but left the pot shops open as "essential businesses". Now if you were really concerned about public health and a communicable disease, which would you think would be more likely to cause spread?

Just kill the bear and eat it.

I once heard a tourist ask what do you do with problem bears? the answer was: There are no Problem bears in the 40 mile.

get all your budys and friends or start a movement where we all take bait and guts and dump it all at afg and the state house all at once

AK Viking
I have talked to "Ted" about this a couple of times during the past week. I don't think the Board wanted to go this far with this. Last week they were leaning towards just a closure to nonresident hunters. This was the Governors decision.

Even if the Governor hadn't closed the season it would have been impossible for the hunters coming into the State to comply with quarantine regulations unless they were to fly in at least 14 days before their hunt.

Additionally, with current do not travel orders that prohibit even residents from traveling from town to town within the State even resident guides, hunters and others can not travel around in the State unless their movement is essential.

I don't like this situation at all, but I reluctantly understand it. I can understand the fear of older and generally unhealthy people I know in SW Alaska. They are terrified.

We can't travel willy-nilly from one community to another, already. But were told being outside was fine, just stay 6' apart. Then it's stay home. Do not leave your house. How on earth am I going to catch any virus by hunting bears? It's absurd to say it's ok to go to the grocery store, but not a cabin, tent, or remote beach!
I get the non-resident thing, but residents of Anchorage, Fairbanks, Junea, and Ketchikan are out of luck. The "rest" of Alaska's populace can carry on.

^^^^^
You can still subsistence hunt black bears. Does Juneau qualify?
But to your point; yes it does seem a little absurd that a resident can't hunt bears if they don't have to leave their community to do it.

I think they just poked the sleeping bear. Call and email. I hear they are getting a lot of blowback on this!
I suppose brown bear locking tags would have to be picked up or mailed but sealing can be done via a phone call report with sealing at a later date and baiting permits can be emailed etc.

All this says to me is I don’t have to register my stand or seal anything this year and a lot less competition.

Just curious. . . when do most of you start hunting? Baiting? Can we start baiting prior to June? I don't know other parts of AK, but not many blacks moving a lot before the last week of May.

AV is spot on, its insanity. Our fish game just announced we can now get our license and tags through the mail instead of going in to do it.

There is really no need to get all work up about this closesure or to write letters to whomever. The only thing that has been closed are bears being taken in non-subsistence areas. Those are Ketchican, Juneau, Anchorage,Fairbanks, and Valdez. Also bears that do not have a positive finding of customary and traditional uses, which most bear population have though out the state (there are a few exceptions).
It is not where you live that makes you a subsistence hunter, but where you hunt. So if you live in one of the state's non-subsistence ares, you can still go outside that area and hunt on state land and water ways and most federal lands. So if you live in Juneau you will have to travel outside the non-subsistence area and looks like you could hunt bears even on federal lands under state seasons and bag limits. Bears in units 1-4 both have positive C&T by the state. Anchorage residents will have to travel further, depending on where you live in the non-subsistence area. But same rules apply. If you are hunting outside the non-subsistence area and the bear has a positive C&T, you can hunt them as a subsistence hunter. Furthermore at least in the interior, black bear hunting does not get good till the last week of May to the first week of June.

All Alaskans are eligible to participate in subsistence opportunities regardless of your domicile on state lands and waters.
Save your letter writing for the newly appointed BOF and BOG appointees, they will appreciate it.

Well the state subsistence rules are very murky to most of us. Here is what I could find and I'm not sure what all it even means:


SPECIES & UNIT FINDING AMOUNT REASONABLY NECESSARY FOR SUBSISTENCE USES

Black Bear Unit 1(A), outside theKetchikan Nonsubsistence Area positive 5 - 10Unit 1(B) positive 2 - 5Unit 1(C), outside the JuneauNonsubsistence Area positive 50 - 70Unit 1(D) positive 10 - 20Unit 2 positive 15 - 20Unit 3 positive 15 - 20Unit 5 positive 5 - 10Unit 6 positive 80 - 120Unit 12 positive 40 - 60Units 11 and 13 positive 20 - 50Unit 15(C), outside of theAnchorage-Matsu-KenaiNonsubsistence Area positive 20 - 60Unit 16(B) positive 15 - 40Unit 17 negativeUnit 19 positive 30 - 50Unit 20, outside theFairbanks Nonsubsistence area positive 20 - 30Unit 21 positiveUnit 24 positiveUnit 25 positive 150 - 250

Brown Bear Unit 1(A), outside theKetchikan Nonsubsistence Area positive 2 - 3Unit 1(B) and 3 positive 1Unit 1(C), outside the JuneauNonsubsistence Area positive 1Unit 1(D) positive 3 - 5Unit 4, outside the JuneauNonsubsistence Area positive 5 - 10Unit 5 positive 3 - 6Unit 6 negativeUnit 8 negativeUnits 9(A), 9(C), and 9(D) negativeUnit 9(B) positive 10 - 20Unit 9(E) positive 10 - 15Unit 10 negativeUnit 11 negativeUnit 12 negativeUnit 13 negativeUnit 15(C) negativeUnit 16(B) negativeUnit 17(A) and Unit 17(B),that portion draining intothe Nuyakuk and Tikchik Lake positive 5Unit 17(B), that portion notdraining into the Nuyakuk andTikchik Lake, Unit 17(C),Units 19(A) and 19(B)upstream of and excluding theAniak River drainage, andUnit 19(D) positive 10 - 15Unit 18 positive 20 - 30Units 19(A) and 19(B)downstream of and includingthe Aniak River drainage positive 5Unit 19(C) negativeUnit 19(D) positive 2 - 6Units 20(A) and 20(B), positive 1 - 3outside the boundaries of theFairbanks Nonsubsistence UseArea and Unit 20(C)Unit 20(D), outside theboundaries of the FairbanksNonsubsistence Area positive 1 - 2Unit 20(E) negativeUnits 21 and 22 positive 20 - 25Units 23, 24, and 26 positive 25 - 35Units 25(A), 25(B), 25(C) negative Unit 25(D) positive


I believe there may be some clarification announced sooner rather than later on this.

Seems unlikely its the goal of Dept of fish and game to have people that live in the most affected areas to travel further out into areas that do not have reported cases of the virus? That doesn't make any since at all. If you live in Anchorage you can' t hunt close to home, but you're welcome to travel to areas of the state with little or no report of the virus and hunt there? That also breaks the community travel mandate (#12) I would think?

I'm not sure what to make of all this. But I'm confident as Tom said that more information is going to come out soon.