Title 5 . Fish and Game

Chapter 92 . Statewide Provisions

Section 72. Community subsistence harvest hunt area and permit conditions

5 AAC 92.072. Community subsistence harvest hunt area and permit conditions

(a) The commissioner or the commissioner's designee may, under this section and 5 AAC 92.052, issue a community-based subsistence harvest permit and harvest reports for big game species where the Board of Game (board) has established a community harvest hunt area under (b) of this section and 5 AAC 92.074.

(b) The board will consider proposals to establish community harvest hunt areas during regularly scheduled meetings to consider seasons and bag limits for affected species in a hunt area. Information considered by the board in evaluating the proposed action will include

(1) a geographic description of the hunt area;

(2) the sustainable harvest and current subsistence regulations and findings for the big game population to be harvested;

(3) a custom of community-based harvest and sharing of the wildlife resources harvested in the hunt area; and

(4) other characteristics of harvest practices in the hunt area, including characteristics of the customary and traditional pattern of use found under 5 AAC 99.010(b) .

(c) If the board has established a community harvest hunt area for a big game population, residents of the community may elect to participate in a community harvest permit hunt in accordance with the following conditions:

(1) a hunt administrator representing a group of residents may apply to the department for a community harvest permit by identifying the community harvest hunt area and the species to be hunted, and by requesting community harvest reports sufficient to supply the estimated number of individuals who will subscribe to the community harvest permit; the hunt administrator

(A) must record and maintain a record of the names of residents subscribing to the community harvest permit and the residents hunting license number, permanent hunting identification card number, or birth date for residents under 16 years of age;

(B) must issue harvest reports to hunters who have subscribed to the community harvest permit, but may not issue more individual harvest reports than the sum of the individual bag limits of the number of the residents who have subscribed to the permit;

(C) must request additional harvest reports for a community harvest permit from the department during a hunting season if the number of people subscribing to the hunt exceeds the original estimate;

(D) must collect validated harvest reports from hunters following the take of individual game animals, record harvest information for individual animals taken, and collect biological samples or other information as required by the department for management;

(E) must provide the department with harvest information within a specified period of time when requested, and a final report of all game taken under the community harvest permit within 15 days of the close of the hunting season;

(2) a resident of the community who elects to subscribe to a community harvest permit

(A) may not hold a harvest ticket or other state hunt permit for the same species where the bag limit is the same or for fewer animals during the same regulatory year, however a person may hold harvest tickets or permits for same-species hunts in areas with a larger bag limit following the close of the season for the community harvest permit;

(B) may not subscribe to more than one community harvest permit for a species during a regulatory year;

(C) must have in possession when hunting and taking game a community harvest report issued by the hunt administrator for each animal taken;

(D) must validate a community harvest report immediately upon taking an animal; and

(E) must report harvest and surrender validated harvest reports to the hunt administrator within 5 days, or sooner if required by the department, of taking an animal and transporting it to the place of final processing for preparation for human use and provide the hunt administrator with information and biological samples required under terms of the permit.

(d) Seasons for community harvest permits will be the same as those established for other subsistence harvests for that species in the geographic area included in a community harvest hunt area. The total bag limit for a community harvest permit will be equal to the sum of the individual bag limits established for other subsistence harvests for that species in the hunt area. Seasons and bag limits may vary within a hunt area according to established subsistence regulations for different game management units or other geographic delineations in a hunt area.

(e) Establishment of a community harvest hunt area will not constrain nonsubscribing residents of the community from participating in subsistence harvest activities for a species in that hunt area using individual harvest tickets or other state permits authorized by regulation, nor will it require any resident of the community eligible to hunt under existing subsistence regulations to subscribe to a community harvest permit.

(f) The department may disapprove an application for a community subsistence harvest permit from a hunt administrator who has previously failed to comply with requirements in (c)(1) of this subsection.

History: Eff. 7/1/2000, Register 154; am 7/1/2002, Register 162

Authority: AS 16.05.255

AS 16.05.258

AS 16.05.330

AS 16.05.340