Postmark: Jun 09,95 7:30 AM Delivered: Jun 09,95 10:05 AM
Status: Previously read
Subject: Subsistence News-6/9/95
—————————————————————————–
Message:
*The Alaska Board of Game recently modified its regulations to conform to last month’s state Supreme Court ruling which overturned the residency preferences in their Tier II subsistence hunts.
*The Board, in a special teleconference meeting, unanimously deleted the regs giving points to hunters based on how close they live to the areas they want to hunt.
*Other changes include modification of two Tier II Kenai Peninsula goat hunts to registration hunts. Unlike the Tier II hunters, those in registration hunts do not have to provide information on their customary and traditional uses to qualify for the permits.
*The court ruling is a result of the lawsuit filed by the Kenai-based Kenaitze tribe. They challenged the non-subsistence zones established by the state, and a Superior Court judge ruled in their favor. However, the State Supreme Court recently reversed that ruling.
*The tribe maintained it was entitled to operate a communal setnet in the Kenai River and the state was not managing salmon stocks in the river according to the subsistence priority required by law.
Postmark: Jun 02,95 8:11 AM Delivered: Jun 02,95 10:02 AM
Status: Previously read
Subject: Subsistence News-6/2/95
—————————————————————————–
Message:
*The 1937 Federal Reindeer Act has recently been determined to only apply to Alaska Natives. A federal judge has ruled in an appeal that the law gives Alaska Natives the exclusive right to raise reindeer in the state. The judgement is the result of and appeal by Tom Williams, a non-Native, of the Seward Peninsula.
*The state of Alaska identifies two “tiers” for limiting wildlife harvests: Tier I limits all but rural residents; Tier II limits rural residents based on direct dependence on the resource, proximity to the resource or local residency; and availability of alternative resources.
*A major problem with the states Tier II harvest is that they are not easily verified. The state lacks the capability to confirm information submitted by many rural and urban applicants.
*Apparently the states Tier II process was never intended to apply to urban hunters, and was designed to serve rural residents when subsistence resources are insufficient to meet their needs.
Postmark: May 26,95 8:44 AM Delivered: May 26,95 10:00 AM
Status: Previously read
Subject: Subsistence News-5/25/95
—————————————————————————–
Message:
*On May 9th, the Alaska State Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution allows for areas where subsistence is not the top priority in fish and game management.
*The court also struck down provisions of the states Tier II subsistence regulations that give a preference to residents living close to subsistence resources.
*The ruling strengthens the state court’s earlier decisions related to subsistence. The ruling also pushes the state even further from the rural subsistence preference required under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) of 1980.
*The ruling makes it virtually impossible, short of a state constitutional amendment, for the state to enact a law that is in conformity with ANILCA.
*Gov. Knowles reacted by saying that the decision reinforces the need for an Alaska solution to the subsistence issue.
