Citing a lack of authority, the Alaska Board of Game on Monday unanimously voted to take no action on a plan to allow a limited moose hunt in a heavily-used Anchorage park. The board decided it did not have the legal authority to approve a proposal to allow people with severe physical disabilities to hunt moose with shotguns and black-powder rifles in Kincaid Park.
The Anchorage Fish of Game Advisory Committee -- made of up citizen volunteers -- approved the hunt plan, but the Matanuska Valley advisory committee did not. Both panels are within Game Management Unit 14. The Susitna Valley committee, which is also in unit 14, did not vote on the Kincaid hunt plan.
Although the proposed hunt would cover only a small part of Anchorage, the Game Board's rules dictate that all advisory committees in the entire unit have a chance to weigh in, and a majority of advisory committees must approve proposals for the board to take action on authorizing hunts. Since the Anchorage committee voted for the proposal with the Matanuska committee voting against, the Game Board decided there was no majority, and therefore, it could not act.
But the Municipality of Anchorage, which has the final say on hunts on city parkland, said the hunt was dead on arrival, anyway.
"We don't support it (the hunt), it's a public park," said Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan.
Kincaid is currently closed to all hunting.
If it had been approved by the Game Board -- a seven-member panel that establishes and modifies Alaska hunting and trapping regulations -- the hunt would have been allowed only for antlerless moose in the fall season. Only female and very young moose are without antlers at that time.
And only people with a verified physical disability of 70 percent or greater, requiring a wheelchair or other mobility device, would be allowed a chance at one of the handful of permits the Alaska Department of Fish and Game may have issued each year.
The Kincaid moose hunt proposal was first made in December 2014 by Ira Edwards, who uses a wheelchair. At the time, Edwards said the hunt could both allow people with disabilities the chance to hunt a moose, and thin the number of Kincaid moose.
Kincaid is a popular outdoor recreation spot of about 1,500 acres next to the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Its maze of trails offers year-round activities that include cross-country skiing, mountain biking and hiking.
But the park is also home to between 20 to 30 moose, according to a Fish and Game study conducted in the mid-1990s. An unofficial count last fall found even fewer moose, about 15 in total.
But tens of thousands of people use the Kincaid Park trails each year. Each year, there are close encounters between moose and people. Once, a junior high school cross-country running race had to be canceled after an aggressive cow moose with calves charged several people.
Fish and Game biologists said recent changes to Kincaid's trail system have increased the number of human-moose run-ins.
"Since the single-track trails in Kincaid Park were opened several years ago we have had the highest report of injuries," said Fish and Game area biologist, Jessy Coltrane. "(Since that time) there have been 10 reported run-ins with moose and mountain bikers, with various degree of injuries."
The limited moose hunt at Kincaid was proposed in an effort to thin the number of animals in the park, and theoretically reduce the moose-human encounters.
But Coltrane cautioned that even if the Game Board and the city allowed a Kincaid hunt, the state would only allow a few permits to be issued to would-be hunters each year, and not the 10 that the initial proposal authorized. Coltrane said that management decisions would not be made to consider the numbers of aggressive moose, but to provide for the maximum sustained yield of the animals.
And Coltrane, who is called out to euthanize injured or aggressive animals when necessary, believes only one thing can affect how people and animals get along while sharing the city's trails and woods.
"Human responsibility and education is required," Coltrane said. "Moose constantly move in and out of Kincaid Park, and we will still (even with a limited hunt) have conflicts, hands down."
Mayor Sullivan said he doesn't believe the current Kincaid moose population presents enough of a danger to people to justify hunting in the park.
"We enjoy the park in its current state," the mayor said. "I just don't see the hunt as needed or practical."