Forgetting the ‘I want, I need’ mentality when it comes to caribou hunts

A few days ago, I ran into an old friend who had just turned 90. “How is life now that you are 90?” I asked.

“Well,” he replied, “things ain’t great. I can hardly see across the room any more. My hearing is so bad that if a bomb went off in the next room, I’m not likely to hear it. On top of that, I can’t remember what I was doing or where I am. But there is one bright spot. I still have my hunting license! And, and ... I just drew a Unit 13 caribou permit!”

There are a number of people who can say they drew a Unit 13 caribou permit. There were a couple thousand drawing permits offered and everyone who applied for a Tier I permit (RC562) automatically received one.

Permit RC562 guarantees you can hunt caribou ... sort of. A bad winter kill or an extremely poor calf crop can limit the number of caribou the Alaska Department of Fish & Game feels can be safely harvested.

In that event, coupled with a good number of caribou close to the highway system, the hunt could shut down because of a high harvest after a few days. In that case, if you planned your hunt for the last weekend in August, no hunting for you.

Hunt 562 also carries the caveat that permit holders cannot hunt moose or caribou anywhere else in Alaska. This provision was put in place to protect cabin-bound locals with no reliable transportation — and to help out guys like my 90-year-old friend.

The theory was out-of-area folks wouldn’t put in for this tag. That theory has yet to work, thus 13,000 caribou hunters, along with their moose tag, descend on Unit 13 in September. The local guy with poor vision has little opportunity.

Locals can apply for and receive a federal subsistence permit for caribou in Unit 13, but there are a lot of motorhomes and four-wheelers to compete with. The drawing hunt for Nelchina caribou has a better feel. Draw hunters can hunt anywhere they choose in Alaska.

This past season, anyone except subsistence hunters could target the Fortymile caribou herd. Despite the herd’s proximity to Fairbanks, the season has remained open. Fish & Game recently authorized hunters another animal in addition to the two caribou already allowed.

A large part of the herd has remained quite near the highway, less than 100 miles out of Fairbanks. The success rate this season has been very good. Friends who have hunted the herd this winter tell me they have taken easy caribou without using any off-road transportation.

It’s hard to understand why the Nelchina hunt is so popular. The area is crowded to the point of saturation. The trails are relatively few in many areas. There is more ATV traffic on the trails than trucks on the highway, at least along the Denali Highway and in the Eureka area. It’s a long drive from either Anchorage or Fairbanks.

RC562 allows one caribou per household. For a family of four, a 600-plus mile round trip could yield 80 pounds of boneless caribou (never mind checking the success rate on the Denali this past season; it was poor).

If you hunted the Taylor Highway or the Steese Highway, you drove farther if you come from Anchorage but there was the possibility of eight caribou for the family. The success rate for the Fortymile herd has been better than fair the past three seasons. The pressure put on Unit 13 by the poorly designed “subsistence” caribou hunt, while not affecting the caribou herd, has absolutely wrecked the moose population near the highway system.

Fish & Game keeps pressure on the predator population to allow the overall moose numbers to reach the upper end of the management range. That has been successful on the surface. However, if you want to know where the moose are, better hire an airplane and look way back off of the road.

Ask the old-timers where the moose used to be. They are not there in today’s world. Wildlife managers will always keep trying to re-invent the wheel. But, what they are doing today was done in a similar fashion 75 years ago.

Who remembers? My 90-year-old friend does. When he was 15 and could still see, he shot caribou for his grandpa. Today, his grandkids don’t have the high-powered equipment to get to the animals well off the road system.

There are ways to make hunting in Unit 13 more equitable. There are ways to allow animals comfort zones nearer to the road system. We must think outside of the box we have been stuck in the past 30 years and be willing to make a few individual sacrifices.

As hunters, we must show we care about the health of the ecosystem — as a whole. Forget the “I want, I need, I must have” mentality. Be willing to drive a little farther to hunt. Buy a darn cow — that’s less expensive than driving to the Denali for a gallon of blueberries. And don’t forget to cut off a couple of steaks for my 90-year-old friend.

John Schandelmeier is a lifelong Alaskan who lives with his family near Paxson. He is a Bristol Bay commercial fisherman and a two-time winner of the Yukon Quest.