The Western Arctic Caribou herd is now estimated to be slightly smaller in size than previously thought. A new photo survey done by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game suggests the herd totals 201,000, a decrease from its previous count of 206,000. The herd is Alaska’s largest that many use for subsistence and sport hunting.
Photo surveys of the herd are done every two to three years. Officials on the Baldwin Peninsula have been carefully monitoring the herd ever since the formation of a working group in 2003. According to Wildlife Division Chief Chris McKee, one of the concerns brought up by the Federal Subsistence Board was an inability to do a photo survey in 2015.
Without this accurate photo count, and amid a history of user conflict in the area, the Federal Subsistence Board passed a special action to keep non-resident hunters out of Unit 23 starting July 1st, 2016.
Amid recent controversy, that special action is now being reconsidered, and the smaller herd count from ADF&G’s new photo survey may impact the board’s eventual vote on whether to sustain, or repeal, the non-resident ban. McKee says his office is responsible for providing an initial analysis of the survey data, which, after several more rounds of committee review, will be molded into a final policy recommendation given to the Subsistence Board.
After everything is said and done, it will then be up to the board to deliberate and vote on the fate of the special action: whether to overturn it, or to continue to keep non-resident hunters out of Unit 23.
