How to help shape the rules that govern hunting and fishing in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The Alaska Department of Fish and Game board process can be daunting to newcomers. Especially those learning the processes of how decisions are made at the Boards of Fisheries and the Board of Game, with the meetings coming up in the next few months, it could be helpful to learn how to navigate the process.

The Boards of Fisheries and Game are public panels made of seven members appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Alaska State Legislature. The duty of the boards is to pass all regulations for fisheries or game management based on each of the board’s respective fields.

“That leaves a lot of the less thorny subjects and the management to the department, not putting the department in the hard position of deciding who gets to catch the fish,” Board of Fisheries Executive Director Art Nelson said.

The Boards of Fish and Game considers each region of the state every three years, where new regulations are passed or failed for each region for each cycle.

“Public engagement is incredibly important to the work of the board, we have knowledge of fisheries, but it’s really the people that use the resource that are closest to the resource, live with the resource that know the most about it,” Board of Fisheries member Märit Carlson-Van Dort said.

The process of creating regulations for Fish and Game heavily stems from public input throughout, with four distinct steps.

The first step is to solicit proposals from the public, these proposals are the basis for regulations implemented by Fish and Game, whether it be for hunting or fishing.

“Anybody can submit a proposal to the Board of Fisheries,” Nelson said. “The proposal deadline closes in early April of each year.”

About 280 proposals were received this year, which is on par with previous years, Nelson said. These proposals will be filed into a proposal book that is available to the public in August and are published online.

From there, the second step is public input where government agencies, organizations and the public can provide written comments on proposals for as long as two weeks before regulatory meetings begin.

The third step consists of regulatory meetings, comprising a region of the state, where the board considers each proposal, and the public can testify before the board or through written comment.

“You show up to a meeting, and there’s 200 people there and, you know, the board members up at the table, and it can be really intimidating,” Nelson said. “But you just got to jump in and go with it.”

After spoken and written comments are presented, the board acts on each proposal, voting to either fail or pass each proposal with the possibility of making amendments to them.

The fourth step is the adoption of the regulations, which are filed with the Lieutenant Governor. Summaries of each board meeting are posted on ADF&G’s website after meetings.

If people want to get involved, they can also attend local advisory committee meetings to get familiar with local issues, Nelson said, to get a foot in the door before participating.

Carlson-Van Dort said she encourages those interested to contact individual board members through email, which is listed on ADF&G’s website, or to engage with them at meetings.

“The earlier people reach out to members and engage with members, the better, whether that’s having a cup of coffee, prior to a meeting, or, you know, during a lunch break,” Carlson-Van Dort said.

This year’s cycle of Board of Fisheries meetings will center around the Lower and Upper Cook Inlet Finfish and Kodiak Finfish areas, with the first meeting consisting of a work session on Oct., 13. The Board of Game will be covering the Western Arctic region, as well as the Interior and Eastern Arctic Regions, beginning with a work session on Jan., 25 of next year.

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