Alaska Fish & Wildlife News
August 2013

Southcentral Alaska 2013 Fall Hunting Forecast
Our area biologists offer advice about hunting

Clouds gathered over the Chugach Mountains as I set out with a hunting partner on the two-day hike into our Dall sheep hunting base camp. The skies grew darker as we traversed the upended country of rocky ridgelines and high cirques until late on the second day when we reached camp in an alpine valley. Then the winds kicked up and the weather cut loose in a downpour that drummed nonstop for two days and nights. We had nothing to do but hunker in our mountain tent and watch through the fly as ...   Hunting Forecast Article Continued

Status of Small Game 2013
Here’s a glance at the hunting prospects for 2013.

The long, cold winter of 2012-2013 with its bitter last days and lingering snows has some wing-shooters nervously wondering if this year’s upland game bird nesting season was a bust. Well, pick up your shooting vest and call the dog; state small game biologist Rick Merizon has good news.

“Despite the cold start to the breeding season,” Merizon reports in his summary Status of Small Game Along the Road System 2013, “conditions in June were ideal for grouse ...   Small Game Forecast Article Continued

Hunting videos
Fish and Game has a variety of videos

“Is this Moose Legal”

A 40-minute video detailing how to judge a legal moose, especially with regard to spike-fork-50” antler harvest regulations. This is required viewing for some areas.

A lower resolution, download friendlier version

“Field Care of Big Game Meat”

This 52-minute video will show you a step-by-step method to field dress a moose, no matter how or where the animal has fallen. About 53 ...   Hunting videos Article Continued

Kings in the City
Discovering Ship Creek King Salmon

It’s a fascinating dichotomy.

Rush-hour, vagrants, well-dressed businessmen and women, coffee shops where tattooed hipsters and Carhartt-clad locals mingle with obvious tourists. I’m in the city now, feeling somewhat shy and nervous; confined by literal structure and traffic chaos, obsessing over tidal flux, cured roe and returning kings.

“The city,” a term applied to Alaska’s largest metropolis is a fitting handle for the locale. I’m new to the ...   Kings in the City Article Continued

Don’t Let it Loose!
How Some Invasive Species are Introduced to Alaska

Maybe you saw it on the evening news or your favorite reality television show. This January the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission hosted a Python Challenge in the Everglades that drew more than 1,000 participants and countless observers. The plan: if humans can nearly or completely wipe out entire species by unintentionally overhunting, then maybe invasive species can be eradicated by siccing the hunters on them. The moral of this story is that pets released into the wild can become an invasive ...   Don’t Let it Loose! Article Continued

A Sense of Place
Summer Field Work in Southeast Alaska

I am veiled in spider webs. Marinating in sweat and bug spray, and seasoned with pollen and pine needles. Eight-o’clock in the morning already bears the heat of the afternoon. Sunlight climbs down, limb by mossy tree limb, to play across the tannic pools of the stream my crew and I are mapping. We pause and peer into the glassy water, watching for coho fry. The tiny fish cast shadows against the gravel of the streambed. They are active, feeding, fighting, and defending territories. The ...   Summer Field Work Article Continued

Deer Season Looking up for Southeast Alaska

Deer hunters in Southeast Alaska are looking at a more promising season this fall.

“Deer numbers look pretty good,” said Ryan Scott, a wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

That pretty much sums it up for this year’s deer hunting season, which officially opened for bucks in Unit 1C on Thursday, Aug. 1. Unit 1C encompasses Douglas and Shelter islands, as well as the Juneau mainland and some surrounding areas. The season opened Aug. 1 on Admiralty, ...   SE Deer Article Continued