Rural Alaska Etiquette

Not to start an argument but to inform hunters visiting remote Alaska. Trophy hunting is not understood by many rural Alaskans and it makes a lot of people real uncomfortable. Also there have been a number of cases where the meat was abandoned and wasted but the head retrieved. This stirs up a lot of bad feelings among the locals who depend heavily on wild meat. It has resulted in regulations requiring retrieval of ALL meat, often on-the-bone, before the rack or head may be removed from the field.

Air taxis are required to report any hunters who don't seem to have enough of the meat with them. Our enforcement officers now use very small helicopters to check kill sights and the pack route to make sure all meat is recovered. Each year a number of hunters are busted for not meeting the legal requirements. It can mean big fines in the thousands of $, confiscation of guns and gear, one guy got jail time.

So please, be sure you know the regulations and follow them completely. If you don't want all the meat many of the air taxis have connections to dispose of it legally IF YOU TAKE GOOD CARE OF IT. Remember a moose is a big as a horse and caribou can be pretty big too and it can be murder to carry one far over the tundra. Think before you shoot and don't hunt where you can't carry it out.

Come have a good time. My note is to help with the problem. I just sent a note to our newspaper asking for balance after they published an article bashing outside hunters for being wasteful head hunters.