Legislative Report

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

Dear Guides:

As I write this article, we are in Governor Dunleavy’s third year of his first term and nearing the end of the first year of the 31st legislature’s statutory limited 90 day legislative session. During the past couple of sessions the trend has been to blow past the 90 day deadline and shoot for the constitutional 120 session that allows for a 10 day extension (effectively 131 days). This year will be no different, special legislative sessions will probably also be necessary as the legislature wrestles with how to appropriate nearly 1.2 billion in federal aid designed to mitigate economic harm from the COVID-19 pandemic. Expect a drawn out, slow paced finale to session as state leaders work to use federal funds to shore up state revenues and pay as large a permanent fund dividend as possible.

Meanwhile incoming President Joe Biden is working hard to undo key Trump administration policies while positioning his next round of appointee confirmation hearings. The Biden administration has already signaled problematic policy priorities for Alaska in the areas of oil and gas production and mineral development on federal public lands. For hunting guides in Alaska who rely on access to federal public lands the jury is still out as to whether extreme voices in the environmental community pushing antihunting agendas will gain traditions. Advocates such as myself who wish to protect hunting opportunities are scrambling to understand the new administrations priorities and meet key players that will be making decisions affecting many hunters way of life and hunting guides livelihoods.

In the courts APHA remains vigilant as we monitor litigation filed to overturn the Alaska National Park Preserve Rule that we fought so hard to implement during the Trump administration. Also in the courts APHA is preparing to file an important amicus brief in Alaska superior court supporting the State of Alaska Board of Game against Dr. Robert Cassell to defend one of the most successful bear management programs in the world (likely the most successful). Cassell vs. Alaska Board of Game pits hunter against hunter as APHA, SCI and the Alaska Outdoor Council oppose Resident Hunters of Alaska in a suit that could spell the end for guiding bear hunters on Kodiak Island. Not only is the thought of overturning the bear management plan on Kodiak distressing for the bear hunters it is also distressing that a wealthy, elite hunter known for sheep hunting would choose to advance such a hurtful argument at a time when hunters should be sticking together.

Hunters only represent around 14% of Alaska’s population at this time. Of course each hunter feeds many non-hunters but the number of Alaskans actually taking the field to take game and feed themselves and their families is a low percentage. This means that as a hunter you are a minority and if you grew up in a rural setting your peers are harder and harder to find both in Alaska and nationally. Minority rights as a buffer to the tyranny of the majority are a tenant of American’s liberal legal and political origins. There are limits to those rights especially where our access and future rely on the use of public lands. Looking ahead to a post Cassell era it will be especially important for hunters to find common ground with each other and work to understand how to best communicate our relevance in an increasingly urban-centric world. I just hope hunting guides on Kodiak and in Alaska will still be a viable part of any hunting coalition in the future.

THOR STACEY

DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS • (907) 723 1494