Rural Alaska Etiquette

[Dand]

Not to start an argument but to inform hunters visiting remote Alaska. Trophy hunting is not understood by many rural Alaskans and it makes a lot of people real uncomfortable. Also there have been a number of cases where the meat was abandoned and wasted but the head retrieved.  This stirs up a lot of bad feelings among the locals who depend heavily on wild meat. It has resulted in regulations requiring retrieval of ALL meat, often on-the-bone, before the rack or head may be removed from the field.

Air taxis are required to report any hunters who don't seem to have enough of the meat with them.  Our enforcement officers now use very small helicopters to check kill sights and the pack route to make sure all meat is recovered. Each year a number of hunters are busted for not meeting the legal requirements. It can mean big fines in the thousands of $, confiscation of guns and gear, one guy got jail time.  

So please, be sure you know the regulations and follow them completely. If you don't want all the meat many of the air taxis have connections to dispose of it legally IF YOU TAKE GOOD CARE OF IT.  Remember a moose is a big as a horse and caribou can be pretty big too and it can be murder to carry one far over the tundra. Think before you shoot and don't hunt where you can't carry it out.

Come have a good time. My note is to help with the problem. I just sent a note to our newspaper asking for balance after they published an article bashing outside hunters for being wasteful head hunters.

[Daveinthebush]

This is true and I already remember seeing two articles concerning hunters that have left meat and/or removed the antlers before removing all the edible meat.  Our laws up here are quite specific and to many people confusing since the state is so large and the regulations vary.  There are many poor families up here and as suggeted in the previous post, someone will take the meat.  

A reputable guide (not to be confused with a transporter) should know the regulations for the area of the state that he is guiding in and if he wants to maintain his license had better inform the hunters of their legal hunting responsibilities.

It is a tradition in most bush villages to make a offering to the elders of the game harvested.  I remember up in Shaktoolik where a group of hunters traveled 180+ miles by snowmachine just to give all of the caribou to the elders of the village without keeping any for themselves.

 

[Yukon Jack]

Car hunting ain't too awful practical up here.  Most places along the roads have some sort of restriction on them like:  National Park, Permit by Drawing, Tier II, etc...  Now we ain't got but 4 or 5 major roads nowhow, so it makes sense to limit the number of animals that can be taken.  If you have some health problems, a fly in hunt or a float trip is a really good way to go.

Brown Bear is really really good if you get 'em in a berry patch or before the salmon start running.  Yessir.  A berry patch bear roast will put a beef roast to shame any day.  Try one.  If he's been feeding on salmon, it ain't so good, but get 'em early or high up and they are pretty dang tasty.

[Daveinthebush]

You have to read the regulations very carefully up here for each zone in order to know:

A: How much meat you must retrieve.
B: If you have too.
C. Leave the bones in the meat.
D. When you can even retrieve the meat.

Then you must read the general regulations just in case there is something there that isn't mentioned in the different zones.

For instance for black bears, up to a certain date you must take the meat in the spring in Prince William Sound. In the fall you don't have to retrieve the meat.

Basically it is against the law in the entire state to shoot an animal without putting either the meat, hid or feathers to some use.  Goes for crows, magpies, almost everything.  

A few hunters already this year were nailed for retrieving the antlers before the meat.  All meat must be removed from the field first.  But then, if a grizz moves in while your on your first trip and claims the kill------its his!

Very confusing up here so ask the guide, don't be afriad to call the state police either.   All registered guides must pas s a test on the regulations for the area in which they guide!

[Yukon Jack]

Lots of areas up off the Denali Highway (a washed out gravel track of a road for the most part) prohibit the use of 4 wheelers too.
Here's a good point to ponder:  there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 330,000 square MILES of public land available to hunt, fish, trap and just generally run amuck on.

YJ

[Yukon Jack]

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[jdt48653]

i am planing a trip to alaska via b.c. and the yukon.this will be in 2004.
im a prospector.one problem i am incountering is i want to carry a rifle or shotgun for defense. i don`t plan to do any hunting,unless im starving!
canada frowns on the word gun.ive looked up their laws on firearms, and they are so confusing one is not sure what will happen .ive giving up on trying to take a handgun.i would like to rely on more then pepperspray!
if anyone knows of a source on line that explaines the requirements i would appreciate any help.

[Dand]

A friend of mine just retired from AK and thought he would settle in BC.  He spent all of August and Sept driving around BC but never found the right spot.  He was in contact with some wildlife biologists who told him there was no problem with brining in firearms.  Just had dinnner with my friend on a return visit and he never mentioned any problems. I know he had some shotguns along as he did some bird hunting - he probably had some rifles, possibly some handguns too but I'm not sure.

He just returned home yesterday (Montana) but let me know, I might be able to get some phone contacts for you.  We're in contact via email on an intermittent basis.

 you can reach me at dunawaydmb@hotmail.com