Right now, and for too long, the Board of Game has been and is beholden to the commercial interests of the big game guiding industry. Case in point is member Nate Turner, a guide with close ties to the Alaska Professional Hunters Association (APHA) who has served two 3-year terms on the board and is up for reappointment and confirmation by the Alaska Legislature for another term on April 15.
Mr. Turner for years now has worked in lockstep with Chairman Ted Spraker to thwart the will of the Alaska public that has continually asked the board to deal with the known problems of unlimited nonresident sheep hunting opportunity. Nonresident guided sheep hunters are taking 60 percent to 80 percent of our sheep in some areas and guided nonresidents average 40 percent of our sheep harvests statewide. This is causing numerous conflicts afield and unfair competition with resident sheep hunters, and has led to restrictions on both unguided resident and nonresident guided sheep hunters in areas like the Chugach.
Mr. Turner has never fully disclosed his guiding and hunt-booking activities and affiliation with the APHA's "Nonresident Hunting Preservation Fund" as he is required to do in his ethics disclosures at the start of every board meeting. On Mr. Turner's website, which is still up as of this writing, he is advertising Dall sheep hunts for the 2016 season for $17,500. He is advertising hunts on his website for other guides. And he promotes and links to APHA's Nonresident Hunting Preservation Fund, which his clients pay into, the sole purpose of which is to prevent what so many Alaskans have been asking the board to do for so long: limit nonresident guided sheep hunting opportunity.
Resident Hunters of Alaska brought this information about Mr. Turner's website to the board at the start of the recent statewide meeting in Fairbanks this March in the form of an ethics complaint. Mr. Turner responded by saying that the information on his website was old, outdated information. He said he really isn't booking and selling Dall sheep hunts for the 2016 season as his website claims. He said he isn't being compensated in any way for booking hunts for other guides. And he said that many other guide members of APHA are affiliated with their Nonresident Hunting Preservation Fund.
And then he said that he didn't think still having his website up with this ostensibly outdated information was inappropriate.
You can view Mr. Turner's price list at his website.
After Mr. Turner's explanation, Chairman Spraker unbelievably found that Mr. Turner did not have a conflict of interest and Mr. Turner was allowed to deliberate and vote yet again on a number of proposals that sought to limit nonresident guided sheep hunters. One doesn't have to guess how he voted. After all, he is affiliated with a fund to preserve nonresident guided hunting opportunities.
The board did take action, however, on two proposals from the Alaska Professional Hunters Association that Mr. Turner was instrumental in helping to pass. For years the guide industry has been trying to find a way to limit nonresident next-of-kin hunters who can hunt a must-be-guided species (brown/grizzly bear, Dall sheep, mountain goat) with a resident relative within second degree of kindred who is not a licensed guide. The guide industry does not appreciate that nonresident relatives of Alaska residents can come up here to hunt a must-be-guided species without having to hire a licensed guide. Plus, it's added competition for the resource.
So what did the guide industry accomplish with Mr. Turner's help? The board passed the APHA proposal that restricted nonresident next-of-kin sheep hunters to only being allowed to hunt sheep once every four years. And then the board passed the other APHA proposal, the end result of which is this new regulation: "Brown bears, mountain goats, and sheep taken by nonresidents that are personally accompanied by resident relatives within the second degree of kindred will count towards the bag limit of both the resident relative and the nonresident."
So now if my nonresident brother wants to come up here to hunt sheep with me, he is limited to doing so once every four years, and we don't ever have an opportunity to both harvest a sheep. Or a grizzly/brown bear or mountain goat.
Meanwhile, a guide can take as many nonresident sheep hunting clients as he can book with absolutely no restrictions on the guide whatsoever.
Many resident Alaskans who are aware of these issues are opposing Mr. Turner's reappointment and confirmation to the Board of Game. The Mat-Su Advisory Committee is unanimously opposing his confirmation. I urge others to join us in opposing Mr. Turner's reappointment to the board. Please contact your legislators ahead of the vote on April 15 and tell them we need more diversity on the board and less guide industry influence.
Mark Richards is executive director of Resident Hunters of Alaska, a group dedicated to a clear resident priority to Alaska's game resources. Contact him at: info@residenthuntersofalaska.org
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