Current through November 28, 2024
For purposes of implementing
AS
16.05.255(e) - (g), the
Board of Game (board) will
(1)
consider the following criteria when identifying big game prey populations that
are important for providing high levels of human consumptive use:
(A) harvest size: the average annual historic
human harvest meets or exceeds values as follows:
(B) accessibility to harvest;
(C) utilization for meat: a population that
is used primarily for food; and
(D)
level of hunter demand: as reflected by total hunter effort, number of
applications for permits, or other indicators;
(2) consider the following criteria when
establishing population objectives and harvest objectives for each identified
big game prey population consistent with maintaining near maximum sustainable
yield from the population:
(A) effects of
weather, habitat capability, diseases, and parasites;
(B) maintenance of viable predator
populations;
(C) maintenance of
habitat conditions suitable for other species in the area;
(D) effects on subsistence users;
(E) cost, feasibility, and potential
effectiveness of possible management actions;
(F) land ownership patterns within the range
of the population;
(G)
accessibility to harvest; and
(H)
other factors considered relevant by the board;
(3) find that depletion of a big game prey
population or reduction of the productivity of a big game prey population has
occurred when
(A) the number of animals,
estimated by the department, that can be removed by human harvest from a
population, or portion of a population, on an annual basis without reducing the
population below the population objective, preventing growth of the population
toward the population objective at a rate set by the board, or altering a
composition of the population in a biologically unacceptable manner is less
than the harvest objective for the population; and
(B) the population size is less than the
population objective for the population;
(4) determine whether a finding made under
(3) of this section may result in a significant reduction in the allowable
human harvest of the population;
(5) not consider as significant:
(A) any reduction in taking that continues to
allow a level of harvest equal to or greater than the minimum harvest objective
established by the board; or
(B)
any reduction in taking that is intended or expected to be of a short-term and
temporary nature and is necessary for the conservation of the
population;
(6) utilize
active management of habitat and predation as the major tools to reverse any
significant reduction in the allowable human harvest of the
population.
Authority:AS
16.05.020
AS 16.05.050
AS
16.05.255
