Postmark: Dec 07,94 3:04 PM Delivered: Dec 09,94 9:59 AM
Status: Previously read
Subject: Subsistence News-12/9/94
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Message:
*The more Alaska subsistence can be defined and treated as a social issue involving the conservancy and allocation of resources, rather than as a conflict of fundamental values, the more likely it is that solutions can be reached.
*Even with the election of Tony Knowles as Alaska’s new governor, Subsistence in Alaska is likely to remain in a dual system of state-federal management because of two separate constitutional foundations: the state commitment to equal rights, and the federal governments trust responsibility for Alaska Natives.
*There are many who suggest that Native and rural residents are better served by this dual state-federal system. Under the dual system, federal courts reinforce federal managers following mandates specified under ANILCA.
*Many believe that if a rural preference were adopted by the state of Alaska, state managers would continue to be responsive to sport and commerical interests despite a constitutional exception. Protection for rural residents would then fall to the federal courts for relief.
In December of 1989, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in McDowell vs. State ofAlaska that the rural preference provisions found in the State subsistence statutes violated the Alaska Constitution. The effect of this ruling required the State to delete the rural preference provisions from the statutes. Subsequently, this resulted in a “Finding” by the Secretary of Interior that the State was out of compliance with Title VIII (Subsistence Management and Use) of ANILCA. The Alaska Supreme Court “stayed” the effect of the McDowell decision until July 1, 1990. Many had hoped that the “stay” would allow the State legislature sufficient time to implement a new and acceptable subsistence law.
In the summer of 1990, Governor Steve Cowper called a special session of the legislature to specifically deal with the growing subsistence dilemma. The legislature adjourned on July 8th without passing a new subsistence law.
Consequently, the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior assumed responsibility for putting into effect the procedures specified under ANILCA. The Secretaries set into motion the process and procedures which implement the legislatively mandated rural preference for subsistence management and use of Federal public lands in Alaska on July 1, 1990. Temporary Subsistence Management Regulations for Public Lands in Alaska were published in the Federal Register on June 29, 1990. These temporary regulations defined and implemented a Federal program approved by the Federal Subsistence Board (FSB).
The FSB is made up of six members, five federal land managers and a chairperson. Members of the FSB include the Regional Forester, Regional Directors of the National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service, The State Director of the Bureau of Land Management, and Area Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The position of Chairperson of the FSB remains temporarily filled by Mr. Ron McCoy.
Postmark: Dec 02,94 3:10 PM Delivered: Dec 02,94 3:09 PM
Status: Previously read
Subject: Subsistence News-12/2/94
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Message:
*The Federal Subsistence Board (FSB) recently made a number of fish and game rulings in Alaska, including closing of Kodiak Is. waters to all King crab harvests except those for subsistence.
*The Kodiak closure was made at the request of ADF&G in order to allow King crab populations to continue to recover from years of over fishing.
*The FSB also banned nonsubsistence caribou hunting on federal lands on the north side of the Alaska Peninsula near King Salmon and Naknek. The decision is intended to protect the north Alaska Peninsula caribou herd.
*The Board also adjusted moose hunting in the Kuskokwim River drainage and the lynx trapping in the southcentral and eastern interior.
*Historically, travelers through anothers (clan) territory could kill for food, but not for pelt or profit.
