SEWARD PENINSULA SUBSISTENCE RAC MEETING 10/23/2019 SEWARD PENINSULA RAC MEETING 2

SEWARD PENINSULA FEDERAL SUBSISTENCE REGIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING

PUBLIC MEETING

VOLUME II

Nome Mini-Convention Center Nome, Alaska October 23, 2019 9:27 a.m.

Members Present:

Louis Green, Chairman Deahl Katchatag Ronald Kirk Leland Oyoumick Charles Saccheus Elmer Seetot

Regional Council Coordinator - Karen Deatherage

Recorded and transcribed by:

Computer Matrix Court Reporters, LLC 135 Christensen Drive, Suite 2 Anchorage, AK 99501 907-227-5312; [email protected]

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Page 137 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 3 (Nome, Alaska - 10/23/2019) 4 5 (On record) 6 7 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So I'm going to call 8 the meeting back to order. 9 10 MR. SEETOT: 9:27. 11 12 CHAIRMAN GREEN: 9:28 -- 9:27. We're 13 going to go around the room here because there's new 14 folks who may be on the line, and there's some new 15 folks in the room here in Nome. So we're going to have 16 introductions and everybody sitting out there in the 17 seating section can come to the mic and put your name 18 over the airwaves. 19 20 So we'll start with you folks, the guy 21 that just sat down first. 22 23 (Laughter) 24 25 CHAIRMAN GREEN: And then we'll go 26 around our table. 27 28 Thanks. 29 30 MR. STONE: Good morning, Council. My 31 name is Jared Stone. I'm a fisheries technician with 32 the Office of Subsistence Management. 33 34 MR. DUNKER: This is Bill Dunker, the 35 Unit 22 area biologist with Fish and Game based here in 36 Nome. 37 38 MR. ADKISSON: Ken Adkisson, Park 39 Service, Nome. 40 41 MR. GUSSEY: Good morning, Walker 42 Gussey. Anchorage Field Office, Ranger/Pilot. 43 44 MR. SEPI: Good morning. Bruce Sepi, 45 Bureau of Land Management, Anchorage Field Office. 46 47 MS. BRAEM: Good morning, I'm Nikki 48 Braem. I'm with the National Park Service in Nome. 49 50

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Page 138 1 MS. MIKOW: Good morning, I'm Beth 2 Mikow with ADF&G, Division of Subsistence. 3 4 MR. SPARKS: Good morning. Tom Sparks, 5 Anchorage Field Office, Bureau of Land Management. 6 7 MS. GERMAIN: Good morning. Sarah 8 Germain, Fish and Game assistant area wildlife 9 biologist. 10 11 MS, HUGHES: Letty Hughes, wildlife 12 biologist for Bering LandBridge here in Nome. 13 14 MS. WORKER: Good morning. I'm Suzanne 15 Worker with the Office of Subsistence Management. 16 17 MS. KLOSTERMAN: Good morning. I'm 18 Megan Klosterman, wildlife biologist with the Office of 19 Subsistence Management. 20 21 MS. VOORHEES: Hannah Voorhees. I'm an 22 anthropologist with the Office of Subsistence 23 Management. 24 25 CHAIRMAN GREEN: And there's folks on 26 the phone, yes, Tina. 27 28 REPORTER: Yes. 29 30 CHAIRMAN GREEN: If you could let us 31 know who you are. 32 33 REPORTER: On line. Ron, are you 34 there? 35 36 MR. BURCH: Good morning. This is Mark 37 Burch with the Department of Fish and Game. 38 39 REPORTER: Ron, are you there. 40 41 MR. KIRK: Yes. Good morning, Mr. 42 Chair. Ron Kirk. 43 44 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Good morning, Ron. 45 Anybody else on the phone. 46 47 (No comments) 48 49 CHAIRMAN GREEN: In the room. 50

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Page 139 1 (No comments) 2 3 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Clarence. 4 5 MR. SACCHEUS: Charles Saccheus 6 representing Elim, Alaska. 7 8 MR. KATCHATAG: Deahl Katchatag, 9 Unalakleet. 10 11 MR. OYOUMICK: Leland Oyoumick, 12 Unalakleet, Alaska. 13 14 MR. SEETOT: (In Native) aka Elmer 15 Seetot, Jr., Brevig Mission. 16 17 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Louis Green, Nome, 18 Pilgrim Hot Springs, Kuzitrin River and -- yeah, I'm 19 kidding. 20 21 (Laughter) 22 23 CHAIRMAN GREEN: On and on. I learned 24 it from you Elmer. 25 26 (Laughter) 27 28 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. So this 29 morning's business, we're supposed to start off here 30 with the 2020 Fisheries Resource Monitoring Program, 31 but I'm going to ask if there's any -- should I ask for 32 public now or after these reports -- probably..... 33 34 MS. DEATHERAGE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 35 My recommendation is that you go ahead and open the 36 floor for any tribal or public comments. 37 38 Thank you. 39 40 CHAIRMAN GREEN: All right, I had that 41 in the right order. Okay. So for public or tribal 42 comments on non-agenda items, I'll take anybody on the 43 phone. 44 45 (No comments) 46 47 CHAIRMAN GREEN: It doesn't sound like 48 anybody's on the phone, anybody in the room -- no. 49 50

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Page 140 1 Moving on. 2 3 Now, we can go to this Fisheries 4 Resource Monitoring Program, who's up. Okay, Mr. 5 Stone. We're going to watch a movie. 6 7 (Pause) 8 9 MR. STONE: Hello, Mr. Chair and 10 members of the Council. For the record my name is 11 Jared Stone and I'm a fisheries technician with the 12 Office of Subsistence Management. My goal today is to 13 present you with a brief overview of the Fisheries 14 Resource Monitoring Program and some of its 15 accomplishments to date. I'll review the funding 16 process, your regional overview, and finish up by 17 requesting Council comments on the projects submitted 18 for the northern region during the 2020 call for 19 proposals. 20 21 This is not an action item and there's 22 no motion necessary for the process. 23 24 The Fisheries Resource Monitoring 25 Program materials begin on Page 230 of your Council 26 books. I'll give you a minute to find those materials. 27 28 (Pause) 29 30 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Go ahead. 31 32 MR. STONE: The Fisheries Resource 33 Monitoring Program is a multi-disciplinary 34 collaborative effort that enhances subsistence 35 fisheries research and provides necessary information 36 for the management of subsistence fisheries on Federal 37 public lands in Alaska. The program encourages 38 partnerships between tribes, rural organizations, 39 universities, and Federal and State Agencies. In 40 addition, it encourages interdisciplinary approaches to 41 conducting research and addressing issues. 42 43 The Office of Subsistence Management 44 administers the Monitoring Program. The program has 45 the intent of advancing projects of strategic 46 importance to the Federal Subsistence Management 47 Program and coordinating information sharing of ongoing 48 and new subsistence research efforts. 49 50

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Page 141 1 Since its inception in 2000, the 2 Monitoring Program has funded more than 450 projects 3 statewide, with a total allocation exceeding $120 4 million. The figures on this slide demonstrate both 5 the allocation of funds and the number of projects 6 funded through the Monitoring Program by the 7 organizations principal investigator. Although not 8 displayed here, some of these funds have been used by 9 the principal investigator organization to subcontract 10 with research partners such as communities, tribes, and 11 other research organizations. 12 13 This slide shows the guideline 14 allocation of funds by region. While this provides an 15 initial target for planning of allocations, they are 16 often adjusted as needed to ensure that quality 17 projects are funded. 18 19 Next, I'll jump into how the funding 20 process actually works. The program divides the state 21 into six regions. These regions correspond to Federal 22 subsistence fisheries areas that generally hold stock, 23 harvest, and community issues in common. 24 25 During the first step of the process 26 the Regional Advisory Councils, with support from OSM 27 State and Federal and State fishery and land managers, 28 ensure that the Monitoring Program focuses on the 29 highest priority subsistence fishery information needs 30 for each region. Councils ensure issues of local 31 concern and knowledge gaps related to subsistence 32 fisheries are identified for priority information need 33 development. Ideally, principal investigators work 34 closely with the Councils in order to develop strong 35 proposals that are responsive to those needs. The 36 Office of Subsistence Management provides technical 37 assistance as needed. 38 39 The second step is requesting new 40 project proposals, which the program does every two 41 years. Submissions must be complete, on time, and 42 address the five criteria outlined in the notice of 43 funding opportunity in order to be competitive. The 44 criteria are strategic priority, technical scientific 45 merit, investigator ability and resources, partnership 46 and capacity building, and cost benefit of the project. 47 A more detailed description of the five criteria can be 48 found on Page 235 of your Council books. 49 50

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Page 142 1 Once a proposal is submitted, a 2 Technical Review Committee evaluates and rates each 3 project proposal package. The Technical Review 4 Committee is a standing InterAgency committee of senior 5 technical experts brought together to evaluate project 6 proposals and ensure that the program is maintaining 7 consistency with its mission. It's the responsibility 8 of the Technical Review Committee to develop the 9 strongest possible Monitoring Program for all regions 10 across the state based on the evaluation criteria. 11 12 During the proposal evaluation process 13 the Technical Review Committee adheres to specific 14 guidelines in order to access how well a project 15 addressed the five criteria. While some agencies may 16 have more than one senior expert on the committee, such 17 as a social scientist, and/or a fisheries biologist, 18 each agency provides a single consolidated review. 19 Agencies also do not score their own proposals. 20 21 The final score for each proposal is 22 based on an assessment of five criteria. 23 24 Once a draft Monitoring Program is 25 developed, it's brought before the Regional Advisory 26 Councils for their input and comments. This is where 27 we are at in the current cycle and we will come back to 28 this in a moment. 29 30 Additional comments on the process and 31 draft 2020 Fisheries Resource Monitoring Program for 32 the northern region will be provided by the InterAgency 33 Staff Committee. These along with the comments 34 developed by the Councils are all provided to the 35 Federal Subsistence Board. The Board takes into 36 consideration comments and concerns generated by this 37 process and endorses the funding plan. Final approval 38 of the funding plan is made by the Assistant Regional 39 Director of OSM. 40 41 So now we'll shift into the overview 42 for the northern region. 43 44 In northern Alaska 49 projects have 45 been undertaken for approximately 11.8 million in 46 funding. You can see from the chart that the project 47 leads have predominately been the state of Alaska, 48 Department, and the Interior agencies. Most of those 49 projects are also included other agencies and Alaska 50

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Page 143 1 rural organizations as research partners. The other 2 category includes universities, non-profit 3 organizations, independent contractors and other non- 4 government organizations. 5 6 For 2020 there is an anticipated 1 to 7 1.5 million dollars available for new projects 8 statewide, and up to $1.8 million for ongoing already 9 funded projects. The available funding amount for new 10 2020 projects is budgeted for each project's first 11 year, not the total project request. 12 13 For the northern region there were four 14 projects submitted for the current cycle. The projects 15 are listed in numerical order by project number. 16 Justifications for the Technical Review Committee 17 scores begin on Page 241 of your Council book and 18 project executive summaries are on Page 245. 19 20 So, once again we're at Step 4 of the 21 FRMP funding process. Today I'm asking you for your 22 comments on the Draft Monitoring Program for your 23 region. There is, again, no motion necessary. What 24 our program is seeking is any thoughts or ideas that 25 the Council has on each proposed project that would 26 make them successful in the event that they were 27 selected for funding. We want to ensure that the 28 selected projects have the greatest chance at 29 successfully answering the Council's information needs 30 as possible. We also want to know if the Council has 31 any specific concerns about the project based on the 32 provided materials. 33 34 Lastly, after the Council has completed 35 commenting specifically on the projects, we are 36 interested in hearing any thoughts that you might have 37 on the FRMP program as a whole. We're always looking 38 for ways to improve. 39 40 Thank you to the Chair. 41 42 I'm ready to take any questions. 43 44 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you for that Mr. 45 Stone. 46 47 Council members. 48 49 Leland. 50

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Page 144 1 MR. OYOUMICK: Yeah, did they figure 2 out what all the die-off was from the fish in our river 3 early on, was that from lack of air or not enough water 4 or something? 5 6 MR. STONE: Mr. Chair, and through the 7 Council. Leland. Thank you for that question. I'm 8 not aware of anything off the top of my mind if 9 research has been done to figure out why exactly those 10 fish are perhaps dying and, you're talking the 11 Unalakleet River. 12 13 MR. OYOUMICK: Yes. 14 15 MR. STONE: I'll need to dig in a 16 little bit more and see if I can find something about 17 that but right off the cuff, I'm not aware of anything. 18 19 MR. OYOUMICK: All the fish that were 20 belly up, they were pretty fish, silver, shiny, and 21 that's a big concern. 22 23 MR. STONE: Through the Council. Yeah, 24 there was some comment this summer and people 25 questioning if the fish were heat stressed and I 26 believe USGS was doing a study looking at the 27 possibility of those fish not being able to spawn due 28 to heat stress and I'm not aware of the results of that 29 project. I think that was in the last two years. But 30 I can dig into that further and find out if there's 31 more information. 32 33 MR. OYOUMICK: And then did that have 34 an effect on them spawning. I'm right from that area 35 but I usually don't go boating that time of the year. 36 37 MR. STONE: Through the Council, yeah 38 the study that was done by USGS was primarily on the 39 Yukon River and the fish that they were finding that 40 were dead actually had a majority of their eggs and 41 spawn still inside and so that means those are pre- 42 spawn mortality events and that would be a good 43 question to find out if those dead fish, indeed, still 44 retained all of their eggs and their milt. 45 46 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay, thank you. So 47 on this study here it's involving the Bering, the 48 National Preserve, it seems like we've got one -- well 49 there's a couple of communities there, but there's also 50

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Page 145 1 other rivers like the Koyuk River that, you know, flow 2 through Federal lands and with their upper limits 3 reaching right into Federal lands, I'm wondering why 4 we're not -- we're only doing the LandBridge area, is 5 that what this is? 6 7 MR. STONE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. When 8 I glance at this, yes, you're exactly right. 9 10 The three objectives listed in the 11 project, one were to document fish species assemblages 12 with the emphasis on Pacific salmon. 13 14 Second, to evaluate genetic variation 15 within salmon species and potential for mixed stock 16 analysis. 17 18 And then lastly, collect age, sex, 19 length on salmon and sample for genetics. 20 21 It looked like there were going to be 22 two years of field study, field work, they were going 23 to use helicopters to travel to 30 headwater target 24 sites, it'd be roughly about 10 field days each year. 25 Then they would also travel to seven unweightable (ph) 26 main stem sites over two years. And those main stem 27 sites, I believe, the major rivers were going to 28 include the Nuluk, Arctic, Serpentine, and this is 29 going to be a hard one for me to pronounce, this is a 30 tough one, Nugnugaluktuk, so I do not see the Koyuk 31 like you mentioned. 32 33 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Nor do I see the 34 Kuzitrin or any of the other rivers that are tied into 35 the Nome area. So you said this is like an ongoing two 36 year thing. 37 38 MR. STONE: Mr. Chair. Through the 39 Council. Yes, it's going to be two years of field work 40 although the project would last for a total of four 41 years by the time that they write up their reports. Of 42 the four project proposals for this region, this one in 43 particular directly addressed a priority information 44 need that this Council identified last year, last fall 45 in Unalakleet, and that was the inventory and baseline 46 data of fish assemblages in major rivers of northern 47 Seward Peninsula tied to subsistence use, including 48 Shishmaref, with the intent to add to the anadromous 49 fish catalog. 50

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Page 146 1 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I do recall that. I 2 recall talking about the other river systems that are, 3 like the Nilukuluk, or actually the Fish River going up 4 into the Darbys and the Bendelebens but that wasn't 5 included so it's all just the northern region of the 6 Seward Peninsula is what this is about. Is there 7 anything in the future that's going to come south or is 8 that something we need to request again? 9 10 MR. STONE: Mr. Chair, and through the 11 Council, that's a great question. You can request that 12 same priority information need that you had identified 13 last year, and I'm looking at now you're talking about 14 the coho salmon abundance estimates for Paragon, Boston 15 and Wagon Wheel Rivers in the Bendeleben Mountains? 16 17 CHAIRMAN GREEN: That was one of the 18 projects we wanted to see. 19 20 MR. STONE: Yep, thank you, Mr. Chair. 21 Through the Council. Yes, if that's a priority 22 information that you feel sincere to keep, I would just 23 recommend keeping it for the next priority information 24 need call and try to find principal investigators that 25 will tackle that project. You know, you can put 26 forward a priority information need but the other end 27 of the story is getting investigators interested in 28 taking on the project. 29 30 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you. Any other 31 Council. Comments. 32 33 MR. KIRK: Mr. Chair. 34 35 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Go ahead, Ron, you're 36 on. 37 38 MR. KIRK: Mr. Chair. 39 40 REPORTER: Go ahead, Ron, you're up. 41 42 MR. KIRK: Good morning. My name is 43 Ron Kirk, I'm from Stebbins and I sit on the Council. 44 I'm looking at Page 244 and you talk about monitoring 45 program and you have Pikmiktalik River, are you guys 46 going to start monitoring -- start a monitoring program 47 in the Pikmiktalik River, I've been asking for that for 48 a couple years now and I finally see it on the book 49 here. Is that part of this project that you're going 50

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Page 147 1 to be doing? 2 3 MR. STONE: Thank you. Through the 4 Chair, and Ron for your question. That was a project 5 that was proposed, and actually not just proposed, but 6 funded, back in 2002, and I'm looking at that list that 7 you're looking at now, the table on Page 244, that was 8 a project that was funded a long time ago, however, if 9 that's something that you still feel warrants 10 additional research, what I would recommend is for the 11 next priority information call, which I believe would 12 be next year in the fall, you could propose a priority 13 information need to address the Pikmiktalik River. 14 15 MR. KIRK: Yes, I'd like to see a 16 monitoring program brought back into the Pikmiktalik 17 River. Like you stated it's been since 2002, and 18 that's too long. The way we're having our climate 19 change and fish dying off I'd like to know the 20 abundance of fish going into our Pikmiktalik River 21 because that's our stock of fish in our neighborhood. 22 That's the fish we rely on for subsistence use. I'd 23 very much like to see ADF&G restart that program -- 24 monitoring program in the Pikmiktalik River. 25 26 Thank you, Mr. Chair. 27 28 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Ron. 29 That's something we can take up. 30 31 Any other Councils have any questions 32 or comments or concerns. 33 34 Elmer. 35 36 MR. SEETOT: Other than this, 37 observations during the past two months with high water 38 in and around the river systems, I noticed that fish 39 species that weren't spawning in certain areas, 40 especially Brevig Mission, Shelman Creek and the local 41 creeks, when we had high water from the south winds, we 42 seemed to see many fish going up Shelman Creek which we 43 never herd of fish going up that river, or that small 44 creek and then depositing their eggs and then I seen 45 other schools of fish that is not usually present. 46 This is from mountain run-off, or from the hillside 47 run-off creek that we use but this is, you know, 48 something very strange. And above the airport in 49 Brevig Mission there's a lake with a small pond and 50

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Page 148 1 then there's a creek that goes down, very shallow, and 2 with all this rain, from the pond there's a trail, 3 there's a fourwheeler trail that goes to the pit and 4 then just driving -- driving through I saw a fish, a 5 silver salmon trying to go up to the Borough (ph) pit, 6 what -- is something strange happening because all I 7 saw was just the tail part on a fourwheeler trail going 8 to nowhere, so with all these high water and pretty 9 much run-offs, they're not really going to a specific 10 stream, you know, that they were born, so that's 11 something very strange. 12 13 The other thing that I had a question 14 on, when you talk about Northwest Alaska for the beaver 15 project, are you talking just only on Federal lands, 16 because in and around Kuzitrin, starting from the 17 Kuzitrin River and then where the -- the red salmon go 18 into Salmon Lake, you know, there's a lot of beaver 19 dams. I am sure that Nome -- Nome people, you know, 20 sees a lot of beaver dams going in and around Pilgrim 21 River, and so that's something that has been happening 22 over the last five, 10 years. 23 24 I had assurance from Norton Sound 25 Economic Development Corporation, when they went to a 26 community meeting that red salmon commercial fishing is 27 off limits. I mentioned that red salmon that go to 28 Salmon Lake feed a lot of people in the communities of 29 Teller and Brevig and now also -- now the majority of 30 -- and that's what has been handed down to us over the 31 years, you know, that there'd be no commercial fishing 32 activity in and around these areas because once you get 33 commercial fishing started then it's pretty hard to get 34 it off the books so that's something that we're 35 constantly looking at -- at -- we look at the fish as a 36 subsistence resource not a money making venture, you 37 know, for our communities. 38 39 Thank you. 40 41 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Elmer. Any 42 other comments, concerns or questions. 43 44 45 (No comments) 46 47 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I don't have any other 48 than what I've already asked. I guess -- when is that 49 cycle that we would -- if we wanted to put something 50

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Page 149 1 together, when is the next cycle? 2 3 MR. STONE: The next cycle -- let's see 4 we had our last cycle fall of 2018, and so our next 5 cycle would be next year in the fall, it'll be the fall 6 meeting next year. 7 8 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Fall of 2020 then. 9 10 MR. STONE: Yes. 11 12 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Elmer. 13 14 MR. SEETOT: With the Bering 15 LandBridge, do you have a baseline of what is in the 16 streams that are within Bering LandBridge because I 17 assume that with warmer waters coming -- or warmer 18 waters already on south side of the Seward Peninsula, 19 reports that pollock that are used to stay in the 20 southern Bering Sea have moved north and then Bering 21 Straits does have a lot of ship traffic that goes 22 through the Strait, are they carrying any invasive 23 species under their hulls because, you know, that's a 24 lot of traffic that is going through the Bering 25 Straits, a very big increase. I would think that it 26 would effect waters in and around the Bering 27 LandBridge, where -- wherever there's water I would 28 think that the streams would be -- streams, creeks, 29 whatever, riverlets, would be overrun with pink salmon. 30 That's what we had seen -- that's what we have seen in 31 and around our small creeks, overrun with pink salmon 32 and -- and wherever there's water I think pink salmon 33 will deposit their eggs and, you know, continue going 34 on to those areas. So we had an abundance of fish -- 35 late fish that usually do not spawn in these streams 36 but, you know, with the high water and with the wet 37 weather during August and September, so our waters have 38 been pretty high in and around Imruk Basin, probably 39 Kuzitrin, probably Agiapuk, so I'm -- I'm assuming that 40 there'll be new species of fish, you know, that are 41 coming in -- into our waters. 42 43 And then there was report of some kind 44 of under water plant, you know, on the southeast that's 45 kind of affecting the salmon run down that way. So -- 46 so invasive species that take a free ride on the ships, 47 you know, I think that's what we need to -- that's what 48 we need to be aware of. 49 50

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Page 150 1 I mentioned something about Bering 2 Straits waters being very shallow and there was 3 possibility of algae blooms in and around these areas 4 and there were reports of walrus washing up because of 5 the bloom that was present in their bodies, you know, 6 after consuming clams so -- so that's something that we 7 need -- I think the biologists for -- the Federal 8 agencies need to figure out the baseline inventory of 9 certain streams because, you know, everything is kind 10 of moving north. 11 12 Thank you. 13 14 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Elmer. I 15 know one of the concerns that this Council has had in 16 the past is about -- and we brought it to the table, is 17 the migration of our Pacific salmon to the region. It 18 seems that there's either no funding or no, what were 19 you saying earlier, somebody that wants to investigate, 20 I don't know, which is the problem; the money, the 21 time, or the investigator; have you got anything on 22 that in your papers, because I know we've brought that 23 up several times. 24 25 MR. STONE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 26 During the priority information needs formation, when 27 -- when you're determining the priority information 28 needs for your region, it's kind of a balancing act. 29 If you pick one or two priority information needs that 30 really makes those priority information needs very 31 specific and very important, but if you come up with a 32 laundry list, let's say, of priority information needs, 33 there's only a handful of investigators in the northern 34 region and they may look at that list and then try to 35 find projects that they feel that they're comfortable 36 tackling and so I guess in the future, you know, really 37 consider that and think about maybe condensing that 38 list so that it's real specific to the needs of your 39 area. 40 41 With that, I'll also say that in the 42 last priority information needs cycle we omitted the 43 Unalakleet River abundance estimates for king salmon 44 just because we knew that that project is already 45 funded and will be funded for the next likely two 46 years. And so in our next priority information need 47 call, I would just make you aware of that and if that's 48 a project that you feel is important to the area, to 49 resurface that priority information need and keep that 50

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Page 151 1 on the list if you choose to do so. 2 3 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Jared. 4 That answered my question. 5 6 Any other questions of Jared. 7 8 MR. KIRK: Mr. Chair. 9 10 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Go ahead, Ron. 11 12 MR. KIRK: If Stebbins was to submit a 13 proposal to have the Pikmiktalik River monitoring 14 program set up again, who do we -- who would write that 15 proposal, would it be the tribal council or the 16 municipality in order to get the Pikmiktalik River back 17 on the monitoring program system? 18 19 MR. STONE: Thank you. Through the 20 Chair. And to answer your question, Ron, I would 21 advise you to really build up partnerships with various 22 agencies, perhaps the Alaska Department of Fish and 23 Game or your tribal council and try to, you know, you 24 can work with us, our office is actually able to help 25 you build and craft those proposals. We can't write 26 the proposal for you but we can offer advice as to how 27 to make your proposal more competitive. And so if 28 that's something that you're interested in doing, 29 trying to maybe have your community put the Pikmiktalik 30 back up and submit a proposal, I would say your first 31 step would be to contact our office and work with 32 either myself or people that work in the northern 33 region, Karen Hyer is the other fisheries biologist 34 that works in the north, and we can sit down and try to 35 network with you and try to find other partners for the 36 project so that the project would be competitive. 37 38 MR. KIRK: Yeah, okay, maybe I'll work 39 with you on this issue because I've been trying to get 40 the Pikmiktalik River back up on monitoring system 41 because that's my subsistence way of life for my 42 village and neighboring village of St. Michael, and 43 also the village further down south, Kotlik, they do 44 come up there and subsistence fish in our river, and in 45 our ocean something when there is closures down there 46 and they need to provide for their families. So I'd 47 like to get that monitoring system back up. 48 49 You can get my telephone information 50

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Page 152 1 from Karen Deatherage there, she has my phone number 2 and maybe you can get in contact with me and I'll work 3 on this with you because I'm very interested in seeing 4 how many fish, what our abundance of fish in our stock 5 of river there. We have two rivers, one is the 6 Pikmiktalik River and right next door to the 7 Pikmiktalik River is the (Indiscernible) River, that 8 also has fresh water. And then I forgot all about we 9 have actually four rivers that have fresh water down 10 here, there's the Pikmiktalik, the (Indiscernible), the 11 Koyuk and the Canal, the fish go in those rivers so I'd 12 like to know the abundance we have in the Pikmiktalik 13 River because we have a lot of chum, coho, and silvers 14 go up that river there. So maybe you can work with me 15 and I'd like to get my rivers back on the monitoring 16 system. 17 18 Thank you. 19 20 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Ron. And, 21 thank you, Jared. 22 23 Anyone else with the Council. 24 25 (No comments) 26 27 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I think that's it. 28 Thank you very much. So we know we need to -- if we're 29 going to put anything together through the Council, it 30 needs to be in there for the next cycle which is next 31 fall, a year from now. 32 33 So that moves us on into Fisheries 34 Partner Program, and I think Hannah's going to give us 35 a little talk here. 36 37 Go ahead, Hannah. 38 39 MS. VOORHEES: Good morning, Mr. Chair. 40 Members of the Council. For the record my name is 41 Hannah Voorhees, anthropologist with OSM. And I'll be 42 giving you a brief update for the other two fisheries 43 programmatic areas, the Fisheries Regulatory Cycle and 44 the Partners for Fisheries Monitoring Program. 45 46 This is not an action item. Neither of 47 these are action items for you, they're just 48 informational updates. 49 50

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Page 153 1 First, I'll give an overview of the 2 Fisheries Regulatory Cycle. 3 4 The Federal Subsistence Board took 5 action on the last regulatory cycle of proposals during 6 their April 2019 public regulatory meeting. The 7 revised regulations have been published in the Federal 8 Register and the new fisheries regulatory guides for 9 the years 2019 to 2021 are now available and I believe 10 you each received a booklet. 11 12 The next call for proposals will be in 13 early 2020 and the Council will have an opportunity at 14 the next meeting to discuss and submit any proposals 15 that they see fit. 16 17 Next, I'll give a brief update on the 18 Partners for Fisheries Monitoring. 19 20 The Partners for Fisheries Monitoring 21 Program seeks to strengthen Alaska Native and rural 22 involvement in Federal subsistence management by 23 providing funding for biologists, social scientists and 24 educator positions in Alaska Native and rural non- 25 profit organizations with the intent of increasing the 26 organization's ability to participate in Federal 27 subsistence management. The Office of Subsistence 28 Management has begun developing cooperative agreements 29 for the 2020 to 2023 Partners for Fisheries Monitoring 30 Program. 31 32 Seven partner organizations were chosen 33 through a competitive process. These organizations are 34 Bristol Bay Native Association, the Native Village of 35 Eyak, the Native Village of Napiamute, Orutsararmiut 36 Traditional Native Council, Qawalangin Tribe of 37 Unalaska, and Yakutat Tlingit Tribe. 38 39 This concludes the Partners for 40 Fisheries Monitoring update. Are there any questions. 41 42 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Council, any 43 questions. 44 45 (No comments) 46 47 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Ron, any questions. 48 49 (No comments) 50

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Page 154 1 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Ron. 2 3 REPORTER: Ron, do you have any 4 questions. 5 6 MR. KIRK: Concerning what, I didn't -- 7 I was on the phone with the airlines. 8 9 REPORTER: Okay. That's okay. 10 11 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I did say you were 12 checking out the airplane. 13 14 (Laughter) 15 16 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay, thank you, 17 Hannah. I don't think there's any questions from 18 anybody. 19 20 (Pause) 21 22 CHAIRMAN GREEN: All right, so I guess 23 that brings us up to the drafting of the annual report. 24 Are we going to go through that with you Karen? 25 26 MS. DEATHERAGE: Yes, thank you, Mr. 27 Chair. This is Karen Deatherage with OSM. And I'm 28 going to briefly read to you what the annual report is 29 and the Council can elect to, at this meeting, draft 30 its fiscal year 2019 annual report to the Federal 31 Subsistence Board. 32 33 The annual report provides the Council 34 an opportunity to address the Directors of each of the 35 four Department of Interior agencies, that's the BLM, 36 BIA, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park 37 Service, and the Department of Agriculture Forest 38 Service in their capacity as members of the Federal 39 Subsistence Board. The Board is required to discuss 40 and reply to each issue in every annual report, and to 41 take action when, within, the Board's authority. In 42 many cases if the issue is outside of the Board's 43 authority the Board will provide information to the 44 Council on how to contact personnel and/or the correct 45 agency. 46 47 So in your packet, in your book on Page 48 256 is the annual report for 2018, fiscal year 2018, 49 that this Council put together and the replies, or 50

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Page 155 1 responses from the Federal Subsistence Board to the 2 concerns that were brought forth by the Council. With 3 the Chair's permission I'd like to recommend that the 4 Council be given a few minutes to review this document 5 to see if there are any additional items or questions 6 they might wish to put into a draft annual report for 7 the upcoming year, and also invite the Council to add 8 any additional issues to the new report for the 9 upcoming year. 10 11 Thank you. 12 13 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Karen. 14 Everybody take your time. What pages are we working 15 off of again, 256, right? 16 17 MS. DEATHERAGE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 18 It begins on Page 256 and ends on Page 260. 19 20 Thank you. 21 22 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you. 23 24 (Pause) 25 26 CHAIRMAN GREEN: It's so nice and quiet 27 in here. 28 29 (Laughter) 30 31 (Pause) 32 33 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So have we had enough 34 time folks. 35 36 (Council nods affirmatively) 37 38 CHAIRMAN GREEN: It looks like it. All 39 right, Karen, where are we at here? 40 41 MS. DEATHERAGE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 42 Members of the Council. This is your opportunity to 43 bring up any issues that you feel you would like to 44 bring before the Federal Subsistence Board for either 45 their response or agency response. And I'll remind you 46 these are issues outside of the regulatory process, so 47 any concerns you might have that you would like for the 48 Board to hear about and/or address. 49 50

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Page 156 1 Thanks. 2 3 MR. SEETOT: Nothing. 4 5 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I haven't got anything 6 right at the moment either, so one of my pet peeves is 7 the idea that I guess I'm still wanting predator 8 management that we wrote about the last time. That's 9 one of my main concerns. Are we going to be able to 10 revisit this again you said, to update it? 11 12 MS. DEATHERAGE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 13 I was going to recommend that the Council, as we 14 continue with the meeting, if there are issues that 15 arise you're more than welcome to say, hey, let's 16 include this in our annual report to let the Board know 17 that we're concerned about this issue. You can do that 18 until the very end of the meeting, so, yes, Mr. Chair, 19 you are correct. 20 21 Thank you. 22 23 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. Thank you. So 24 without further adieu, we can move into maybe Staff 25 reports and take note, if you got anything to bring up 26 or any questions to ask that might result in adding 27 additions to our draft report here, feel free. 28 29 And so who's going to be up first, I 30 got my agenda upside down here. Agency reports are 31 limited to 15 minutes or something here. 32 33 Do we have tribal organizations or 34 tribal governments on line or in the room to make a 35 report. 36 37 (No comments) 38 39 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Hearing none. We'll 40 move on to Native organizations. 41 42 (No comments) 43 44 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Hearing none or seeing 45 none we'll move on to the Comprehensive Unit 22 Muskox 46 report. 47 48 Bill Dunker. 49 50

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Page 157 1 MR. DUNKER: So, Mr. Chair, this is 2 going to be kind of a collaborative presentation with 3 some of our Federal cooperators and things like that. 4 Maybe we could take five minutes and I can get the 5 presentation loaded up and then we can go from there. 6 7 CHAIRMAN GREEN: That's cool. Coffee 8 break. 9 10 (Off record) 11 12 (On record) 13 14 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. I think we have 15 a presentation in front of us here with this muskox 16 population update so ya'll have the floor. 17 18 MS. DEATHERAGE: Bring it on. 19 20 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I just want the rug. 21 22 (Laughter) 23 24 MR. DUNKER: Thank you, Mr. Chair. For 25 the record my name is Bill Dunker. I'm the Unit 22 26 area biologist based here in Nome with Fish and Game. 27 I am joined here by some of our Federal counterparts 28 that we work with cooperatively in the execution of all 29 of our survey and inventory activities as well as the 30 management of hunting opportunity and harvest of the 31 Seward Peninsula muskox population. 32 33 We were asked to provide a pretty 34 comprehensive overview of some of the more recent 35 survey efforts and harvest over the last several years 36 just to provide the Council with an update on the 37 status of the population and where we're at in terms of 38 hunt management. 39 40 I think it's worth noting here that, 41 and I was talking with Tony earlier, he's here with us 42 today, the photo up here on this first slide is 43 actually a picture that was taken by Kate Persons many 44 years ago and was often included as the cover slide for 45 a lot of the presentations that were provided to the 46 Cooperators Group and other entities in the development 47 of a lot of the regulations pertaining to Seward 48 Peninsula muskox. And the reason I wanted to mention 49 that is just to kind of highlight the longstanding 50

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Page 158 1 cooperative relationship that we've had between the 2 agencies going back many years in the history of the 3 Seward Peninsula population. As we were just 4 discussing here, you know, that that working 5 relationship continues to be very productive and our 6 intent would be to continue to do so moving forward. 7 But a big thank you to all the people that came before 8 us and participated in the process to develop the 9 regulations. 10 11 So just as a brief overview here, we're 12 going to touch base on a lot of the biological 13 information that we've gathered from different survey 14 and inventory activities throughout the range of the 15 population, touch on harvest, what it is currently and 16 some of the new guidelines that we're using to evaluate 17 the harvestable surplus in different hunt areas. Get 18 into the permitting process on both the State and the 19 Federal side. And discuss a little bit about survey 20 scheduling. As many of you are aware, we have had some 21 pretty foul weather the last couple of springs that 22 have complicated matters when it come to completing 23 both moose and muskox surveys on the Seward Peninsula 24 and so we've got some justification to share with you 25 folks as to what we're thinking for the near future 26 with respect to different surveys that we have coming 27 up here in the next couple of years. And then also 28 just to briefly touch on the Muskox Cooperators Group. 29 Where we've been, where we might go in the future, and 30 just a brief history of that for folks that are maybe 31 not as familiar with it as others. 32 33 And I'm sorry, I provided everybody on 34 the Council with a copy of the presentation, so if 35 you're having trouble with any of the slides up on the 36 screen, there's a printed version of it there for you 37 to follow along with as well. 38 39 The core of our Seward Peninsula muskox 40 survey and inventory program includes two survey 41 efforts that are done more or less concurrently. We 42 start off with the distance sampling survey to estimate 43 abundance. Typically those surveys are completed in 44 late February or March. They've extended as far as 45 April and started as early as January. But generally 46 the bulk of the effort takes place during that time 47 period when we have, or at least historically, have 48 been able to count on snow conditions being adequate to 49 allow for good sightability when we're completing these 50

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Page 159 1 surveys. That photo there on the right is to sort of 2 give you the contrasting view there. This was a photo 3 that was taken of a group of muskox in 2014 when due to 4 snow conditions the survey was cancelled. As you can 5 see, maybe you can't see, there's a group of muskox in 6 the middle of the photo there, and the model snow 7 conditions that we had that year ultimately resulted in 8 us cancelling that survey effort. And so we're really 9 looking for a very specific set of circumstances in 10 which to complete these surveys to ensure that the 11 quality of the work that we're doing is on par with 12 what we've done historically, and allows for comparison 13 between different survey years. 14 15 Generally speaking the results of the 16 distance sampling survey are the most accurate at the 17 broadest spacial scale, meaning that the estimate of 18 abundance for the population as a whole across the 19 range of the population is our most precise estimate as 20 we start to whittle it down into smaller and smaller 21 areas, the precision of those estimates is less. But 22 we do use the results of the survey to estimate hunt 23 area abundance within the different areas covered by 24 either State or Federal registration permit, and Tier 25 II permits. 26 27 So immediately after completing the 28 distance sampling survey we'll then work with the Park 29 Service, primarily, to complete range-wide composition 30 surveys where we're going out and with an R44 landing 31 near these groups, approaching them on foot and then 32 determining all the different -- or categorizing each 33 one of the animals in the group into one of the age and 34 sex categories that we've got for the population. From 35 that we're able to calculate sex ratios, estimate 36 recruitment and most importantly to determine the 37 proportion of mature bulls in the population. That 38 metric, in addition to -- or in conjunction with the 39 hunt area abundance estimates is what we use primarily 40 to estimate harvestable surplus within the population. 41 And I can certainly talk about that more as we get into 42 the harvest and permitting portion of things. 43 44 But, again, I can't stress it enough, 45 this is a huge undertaking. It's been characterized as 46 one of the largest State and Federal cooperative 47 projects in the state. It involves Staff from all -- 48 most of the Federal agencies, Fish and Wildlife 49 Service, National Park Service, BLM, and then the 50

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Page 160 1 State, obviously, makes a contribution as well in 2 organizing, orchestrating, and executing the project. 3 4 So going back through time, we've got a 5 graph showing all of the surveys that have been 6 completed within the range of the Seward Peninsula 7 muskox population in an effort to estimate abundance. 8 The red bars on the graph here are from a previous 9 methodology. So it used to be that a minimum count 10 survey was completed to estimate muskox abundance in 11 different portions of the range. Beginning in 2010 is 12 when we transitioned to a more holistic approach 13 looking at the population at a range-wide scale and 14 using the distance sampling to efficiently cover all 15 that ground. As the range of the population expanded, 16 our survey efforts followed suit and in order to keep 17 up with the work load we had to evaluate some different 18 methodologies that have worked quite effectively for us 19 over the years. 20 21 So since 2010 we've completed four 22 distance sampling surveys. And generally speaking in 23 the last couple of years, 2015, and 2017, we've seen 24 the population stabilize at just over 2,000 animals, 25 having declined between 2010 and 2012. 26 27 Again, we're also going to glean 28 estimates of recruitment from those survey efforts, 29 both the distance sampling survey and the composition 30 survey and seems in the last couple of years we've kind 31 of returned to what could be considered more historic 32 levels of recruitment within the population. So those 33 are both very encouraging results that we've gathered 34 from the last couple of survey efforts. 35 36 So just to look at this information 37 from the last survey which was completed in 2017, give 38 you a sense of what all those different bars maybe 39 mean, we've got a map here showing the different hunt 40 areas. So, again, when we estimate the abundance at 41 the range-wide scale, which includes all of the areas 42 in green, both the light green and the dark green 43 throughout the range of the population, the 2017 survey 44 estimated abundance within that area 2,353 muskox. And 45 then when we break it down into two areas, the 46 historically surveyed area, or the area in which we 47 have hunting currently under way, we're looking at the 48 dark green color on the map here, in which we estimate 49 the population to be about 1,864 muskox. As I 50

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Page 161 1 mentioned earlier the range of the population has 2 expanded over time, moving further eastward since the 3 introduction of muskox to the Peninsula. We estimate 4 abundance in that area at 473 muskox. And that's that 5 light green area there, that includes the northern 6 portion of 22A and kind of the western portions of 21D 7 and 24. 8 9 So this next graph here shows just 10 another component of what we're able to gather from the 11 abundance surveys and that we're able to evaluate the 12 distribution of animals throughout the range of the 13 population. And we've seen a pretty significant shift 14 in the distribution of those animals from the more 15 northern and westerly portions of the Peninsula, so in 16 1992, as you can see there the majority -- nearly -- 17 over 90 percent of the population was only found in 18 22D, 22E and 23 southwest, and then through time, as 19 the population has shifted its distribution more to the 20 south and to the east we see a less -- a smaller 21 portion of the population in those areas and more 22 animals occurring in 22C, B and the eastern most 23 portions in 22A and 21D. 24 25 So as we mentioned the other component 26 of the survey and inventory program includes the 27 completion of range-wide composition surveys. We have 28 also completed composition surveys at a subunit level 29 prior to 2010. That was the general approach where we 30 would comp -- do complete composition surveys in 22D, 31 for instance, in the same year that we completed maybe 32 a moose survey and were able to gather muskox groups 33 locations through those other survey efforts. Again, 34 since 1010 with the start of the distance sampling 35 protocol we've been able to complete range-wide 36 composition surveys to capture, you know, the more 37 holistic understanding of what the composition of the 38 population is at that scale. 39 40 So we completed range-wide comps in 41 2012, '15, '17 and then last year in 2019 we were 42 unable to complete the range-wide abundance survey that 43 was scheduled for that year but with contributions from 44 the Park Service and Fish and Game, we were able to 45 drum up enough group locations that we were able to get 46 out and estimate the composition of the population 47 which, again, is going to be one of those key metrics 48 that we're using to, both, monitor the status of the 49 population as well as to calculate harvestable 50

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Page 162 1 surpluses and things of that nature. 2 3 I'll touch a little bit more on the 4 significance of the composition information when we get 5 into harvest. But I think the big take-away here is 6 that we've seen modest increases in the bull/cow ratio 7 within the population following years of higher rates 8 of harvest during the time period where we had a 9 registration permit in place throughout most portions 10 of the Peninsula. We've since reduced harvest levels 11 in response to those declines and are seeing the 12 population respond accordingly with an increase in both 13 the ratio and the proportion of mature bulls within the 14 population. 15 16 At this time I'm going to hand it off 17 to Letty to cover some of the Park Service's 18 contributions and their role in some of the survey 19 efforts that we complete. 20 21 MS. HUGHES: Okay. For the record this 22 is Letty Hughes, wildlife biologist for Bering 23 LandBridge, Park Service based here in Nome. 24 25 So the Bering LandBridge, the Preserve 26 is 2.7 million acres and it encompasses much of Unit 27 22E, the Upper Kuzitrin drainage and a very small 28 corner of up in the headwaters of 22B, up in the west 29 area. So -- but for the most part the focus is within 30 22E and 22D area. 31 32 So like Bill had mentioned, you know, 33 muskox like in the 22E area have been moving east 34 further, however, there are still animals there and so 35 muskox are recognized as a Park priority and the 36 resource stewardship strategy. So with that the local 37 Park provides significant contribution with this in 38 terms of -- with the survey work as well. And then 39 moving forward, now that with -- having Staff in Nome 40 there's -- in terms of contribution and moving forward 41 for the future muskox surveys, contribution in terms of 42 whether it's funding source or through Staff support 43 will happen. So with communities such as Shishmaref 44 and Wales and Deering that are in proximity to Bering 45 LandBridge that's why it's extremely important as well 46 that Park Service helps out with this. 47 48 In addition to having the local 49 Preserve here in Nome help out there is -- Park Service 50

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Page 163 1 has an Arctic Network Monitoring Program, and that 2 program is basically -- helps oversee and helps Staff 3 from like local Parks and Preserves who just may not 4 have all of the help or the resources, so that office 5 is based in Fairbanks, however, for muskox, that 6 position for the muskox vital sign biologist has been 7 based, probably in the last six years or so, based out 8 of Kotzebue, and most recently in this last year, since 9 I have worked over at Park Service, I have taken over 10 that monitoring vital sign portion for the muskox so -- 11 and now that is based here in Nome out of the Bering 12 LandBridge office. So for the RAC here that's actually 13 pretty exciting because you have just a little bit more 14 of, you know, of hearing if there's concerns or 15 anything else, but how does it relate to what we're 16 talking about with the muskox is -- is that portion 17 helps out with the composition work of understanding -- 18 getting information for sex ratios, recruitment, 19 proportion of mature bulls, proportion of short 20 yearlings and so, you know, a lot of times that will be 21 through the helicopter work, taking Staff out. And 22 it's not necessarily always just towards on Park 23 Service lands, like this past spring, like Bill was 24 saying, that we did a range-wide composition. The way 25 the sampling design works, there was some groups in 22E 26 in the Preserve area that we did but then we focused 27 the rest going out towards Unit 23 southwest and into 28 Unit 24. You can see over there in the corner there, 29 the right-hand corner. So -- which in terms of going 30 from Kotzebue over there, that was quite a bit of a 31 haul and ferry time to go up there. 32 33 So we will continue to being doing this 34 and like I said it's in work -- close collaboration 35 with ADF&G and BLM in addition to using Park Service 36 biometrician work as well and so it all ties in 37 together. 38 39 And so I'm going to turn it back over 40 to Bill. 41 42 MR. DUNKER: Okay, thanks, Letty. So 43 I'd like to take a moment here to talk about harvest, 44 historic levels of harvest and where we're at currently 45 with harvest. 46 47 Before I do that I think it's important 48 to highlight these two concepts or ideas, both the 49 selective harvest patterns that we've witnessed within 50

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Page 164 1 the years that we've administered muskox hunts on the 2 Seward Peninsula, and then the concept that -- or the 3 idea that those selective harvest patterns might have 4 secondary effects within the population. 5 6 Both of these things are a result of a 7 great deal of collaborative, just thinking about these 8 issues in the Seward Peninsula muskox population, and 9 really resulted in just a gained understanding of 10 harvest and what sort of an effect it can have on a 11 muskox population. 12 13 So one of the things that has been 14 observed through time is this idea of a selective 15 harvest pattern, whereas, when we're setting harvest 16 quotas and applying harvest rates to the population, 17 historically the thinking has been that much like we do 18 with moose, we will, you know, set the harvest rate, 19 calculate a harvestable surplus and then that harvest 20 will be more or less applied to a variety of different 21 age classes within the population. With muskox what 22 we've seen, and this is primarily through discussions 23 with hunters after they've been successful, and Tony is 24 credited with a lot of this work and understanding, 25 having been part of the State hunt since the beginning 26 and talking with a lot of the hunters that were 27 successful in those years, what was identified was this 28 pattern where, for a lot of different reasons, hunters, 29 even though they could harvest, in some instances, any 30 muskox or harvest any bull muskox, what they were 31 primarily focusing on or selecting for harvest were the 32 mature bulls within the population. A lot of that has 33 been attributed to some of the behavioral factors, in 34 that, mature bulls -- and we see this when we do 35 composition surveys, those mature bulls, within a mixed 36 sex group of animals are often the first ones to 37 separate themselves from the herd, maybe do a little 38 bit of posturing to show how big and mean they can be, 39 thinking that they're protecting the herd from a 40 predator, except that we're not bears and wolves, we're 41 a guy on a snowmachine with a rifle, and so when that 42 animal separates itself from the group to posture, he's 43 presenting the hunter with a very efficient shot, nice 44 broad side shot at the animal and so a lot of times, 45 for those reasons, those animals are selected for 46 harvest. Other considerations have been just the 47 overall size of the animal, the big bulls, there's more 48 meat, more qiviut, more horn material for carving, 49 those kinds of considerations, and so you want to get 50

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Page 165 1 the most bang for your buck you harvest one of the 2 larger animals, which tend to be a mature bull. And 3 then other factors, like the value of the animal and 4 whether that be monetary or just in terms of the value 5 of having that meat in your freezer, kind of goes back 6 to the size consideration there. You know the sale of 7 muskox horns is legal and so a lot of folks will 8 actually sell the horn boss after trophy destruction 9 has been completed for use in carvings or making knife 10 handles and those kinds of things. The other factor 11 that has often driven folks to, or influenced the type 12 of animal that people are harvesting is understanding 13 whether or not that animal is legal. In an any bull 14 bag limit, which most of our hunts are, some hunters 15 that maybe are not as comfortable distinguishing 16 between some of the younger age classes of bulls are 17 afraid that they might confuse those animals with cows 18 in the group, but when they look at a mature bull with 19 a large horn boss they can feel confident that they're 20 harvesting a legal animal and therefore select those 21 mature bulls as a consequence. 22 23 So because of all of that, what we've 24 seen is just this higher realized harvest rate on 25 mature bulls within the population. So in an area 26 where maybe we're harvesting four or five percent of 27 the population, what that might translate to in some 28 instances, would be like 30 to 40 percent of the mature 29 bulls from within the population. And one of the 30 reasons that's been concerning and more or less 31 resulted in this gained understanding of the effects of 32 harvest would be that due to the social role of mature 33 bulls their removal may influence other vital rates 34 within the population. And by that we mean that 35 realistically the harvest of bulls and the impacts that 36 it's going to have is going to go beyond simply just 37 breeding on an annual basis. There's an understanding 38 that those animals might play a bigger role in 39 defending the herd from predators and so the absence of 40 those animals within a population might limit their 41 ability to protect calves and other members of a group. 42 It also stems to this idea of group cohesion, in that, 43 the mature bulls within a herd are going to, or within 44 a group, are going to play an important role in keeping 45 the group together sticking to kind of their 46 traditional or defense strategies against predators. 47 Once those animals run they're a lot more susceptible 48 to predation but it seems that if they, you know, stick 49 together and maintain the group they're better able to 50

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Page 166 1 protect themselves and their young from predation. And 2 all of that, more or less, translates into this idea 3 that by removing mature bulls we may negatively effect 4 -- or removing them at such high rates, we may begin to 5 negatively effect recruitment into the population. 6 7 This is an example of the trend that we 8 observed within the population that we believe kind of 9 stemmed from, again, the selective harvest patterns 10 that were exhibited by hunters as well as the secondary 11 effects of that harvest being applied, primarily to 12 mature bulls. So this is a graph showing the 13 composition results from the 22C subunit. And I'll 14 admit that this is one of the areas where this trend is 15 perhaps the most pronounced. There are other portions 16 of the unit where it is less pronounced, and so I use 17 this one as an example. They're not all so obvious or 18 apparent. But generally what we were seeing was that 19 as the harvest increased, the harvest rate on the 20 population increased we saw a decline in the proportion 21 of the mature bulls within the population from, at 22 times, 23 to 32 percent of the population with a ratio 23 of 70 to 80 bulls per 100 cows down to 11 and 14 24 percent of the population in 2011 and 2012, and a 25 substantial decline in the ratio of bulls to cows, 26 which at that time was 21 and 26 bulls per 100 cows. 27 28 So we saw a reduction in the proportion 29 and the ratio of bulls within the population, and as 30 you can see here, there seems to be a corresponding 31 decline in the recruitment rate, whereas we're at, you 32 know, at times in the upper teens for recruitment early 33 on after we experienced these years of higher harvest, 34 you saw a subsequent decline in the recruitment of 35 yearling animals into the population. 36 37 So taking all of that information, the 38 result of it was kind of a rethinking of how it is that 39 we're going to calculate what the harvestable surplus 40 is, taking into account what we know about selective 41 harvest patterns and what we think is happening with 42 respect to the secondary effects of that harvest. And 43 so you can see that beginning in 1995 when muskox on 44 the Seward Peninsula started there was a steady 45 increase in harvest rates through time. As the 46 population grew, we had a couple opportunities to, you 47 know, learn from previous years as far as what the 48 harvest ends up being when you issue X number of 49 permits and all that kind of stuff. And by the time we 50

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Page 167 1 get into the registration permit years, 2008 to 2011 we 2 have a realized harvest rate of somewhere between five 3 and 5.5 percent, and this is the same time period when 4 we started to really kind of see the consequences of 5 that selective harvest pattern on the population, and 6 in the years 2012 to present, the harvest strategy is a 7 response to that gained understanding of harvest within 8 the population. 9 10 So now -- let's see, I think the next 11 one -- yeah. 12 13 So that ultimately led to a lot of 14 discussions among the different agencies that are 15 involved in administering the hunts. There was a 16 publication to this effect that was a cooperative 17 effort between Tony at Fish and Game and the Park 18 Service biometrician looking at all of our composition 19 information over time and the end result of that 20 discussion and those collaborative efforts was a 21 retooling of how we're going to calculate the 22 harvestable surplus of the population moving forward. 23 24 So whereas in years past we took a 25 harvest rate, applied it to the population as a whole 26 and issued permits as a result of that, we now take a 27 little bit more of a holistic approach and acknowledge 28 the understanding that it's pretty likely that a lot of 29 those hunters are going to harvest mature bulls and so 30 we should consider them when we're calculating the 31 harvest quotas for different areas. 32 33 So with that said, our new harvest 34 guidelines and harvest objectives are kind of twofold 35 in that we are going to harvest less than or equal to 36 two percent of the overall population, but also to 37 limit harvest to no more than 10 percent of the mature 38 bulls. 39 40 So going back to our survey and 41 inventory efforts, again, we're going to use the 42 individual hunt area estimates of abundance as well as 43 the proportion of mature bulls within those areas to 44 gain an understanding of what the population of mature 45 bulls specifically is and then base our harvest quotas 46 accordingly so that we aren't over harvesting bulls in 47 any of the individual hunt areas. 48 49 So with that, when we go to issue 50

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Page 168 1 permits, the system that we've used up to this point 2 has included issuing 100 percent of the Tier II -- 3 excuse me -- 100 percent of the quota in a given area 4 as Tier II permits, and then an additional 33 percent 5 of that quota as Federal subsistence permits. As a 6 result of that we've been able to provide opportunity 7 in the areas where we have hunting open without the 8 need to issue emergency closures for either Federal 9 registration permits or State Tier II permits, while 10 also meeting both the harvest objectives, in that, 11 we're at or below two percent and not taking any more 12 than 10 percent of the mature bulls out of the 13 population. 14 15 So this is pretty specific to the State 16 regulatory system, in that, the Board of Game, back in 17 1998 identified the Seward Peninsula muskox population 18 as having a positive customary and traditional use 19 determination, which effectively identifies it as a 20 subsistence resource and management should follow 21 accordingly. 22 23 With that determination, the Board 24 identified, in working collaboratively with the 25 Cooperators Group, throughout this time period, to 26 develop amounts necessary for subsistence which is 27 currently set at 100 to 150 for the entire population 28 with an nested ANS of 10 to 25 muskox in Game 29 Management Unit 22E. The current harvestable surplus 30 for 2019, so this current regulatory year is 33 bulls 31 with four bulls available for harvest in Unit 22E. So 32 as it stands currently, we're below both the range-wide 33 and the nested ANS for the population and as a 34 consequence all of the muskox hunts on the Seward 35 Peninsula are currently administered in the State 36 system as Tier II hunts. 37 38 So this is just a breakdown of the 39 permit issuance for Tier II permits over the last seven 40 years. The total permits on the right, since we issue 41 100 percent of the quota, that's effectively the quota. 42 It's averaged about 36 permits over the last seven 43 years annually, and the breakdown there is -- excuse me 44 -- the breakdown among the different permits is 45 primarily intended to distribute the harvest equitably 46 throughout the range of the population so that we don't 47 have, you know, the bulk of the harvest taking place in 48 one particular area, we're able to distribute it evenly 49 and in accordance with what's available for harvest in 50

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Page 169 1 those specific hunt areas. 2 3 So the Tier II system is something that 4 the Department puts a great deal of effort into on an 5 annual basis. We conduct Tier II outreach in all of 6 the communities within the hunt areas on the Seward 7 Peninsula so this includes everything from Shishmaref 8 in the north down to Koyuk in the east there, as well 9 as some of the communities on the northern Seward 10 Peninsula at times -- including Buckland and Deering. 11 Our intent here is to get out to the communities, 12 answer any questions that folks might have about the 13 process and to facilitate participation in the Tier II 14 application process. And the end result of all those 15 efforts are that, you know, in our opinion, that we've 16 been able to make the Tier II system work for Seward 17 Peninsula muskox hunts. This is a chart showing the 18 distribution of permits among the different communities 19 within the range of the population. And as you can see 20 on the right-hand column there, you know, all of those 21 community names are communities that are within the 22 range of the Seward Peninsula muskox population. Over 23 the last six years we've issued 100 percent of the 24 permits for Tier II muskox hunts to residents of the 25 range of the population. And in addition to that, 93 26 percent of the hunters that have received these Tier II 27 permits over the last six years have been Federally- 28 qualified subsistence users. So when we go into 29 individual hunt areas, in most instances, those 30 individuals that had Tier II permits are also qualified 31 to hunt on Federal public lands within the hunt area 32 for which they have a Tier II permit. 33 34 At this point I'll shift gears here and 35 both Tom and Letty have some information to share about 36 the Federal permit system. 37 38 MR. SPARKS: I brought my muskox hat 39 that Loretta Bullard made for me, so I'll put that on 40 for you guys. 41 42 (Laughter) 43 44 MR. SPARKS: So just a little bit, 45 personally I've been involved with the muskox on the 46 Seward Peninsula when the State and Federal government 47 first came together and the muskox cooperator effort 48 that was done. I, at that time, I worked for the 49 regional Native corporation and both the State and 50

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Page 170 1 Federal entities wanted the private land owners, 2 primarily NANA and Bering Straits to be at the table on 3 an opportunity for people. So I've seen this for a 4 very long time, over three decades. 5 6 And something that Bill said about how 7 we've been cooperating as agencies, I think, is 8 something that, I think we can be really proud of, is 9 that not only do we cooperate as funding and also 10 manpower but also the way we collaborate together on 11 efforts so it's been really good to see that over time. 12 13 I've got a couple of papers that we 14 produced and I think they're over on the..... 15 16 MS. DEATHERAGE: Everybody has one. 17 18 MR. SPARKS: Everybody has one. So 19 with BLM, particularly the last few years, we've 20 administered a small portion of this hunt. As Bill 21 mentioned, the State of Alaska gives out 100 percent of 22 the quota so what we're giving out, I like to explain 23 it as a harvest opportunity for people that may not 24 ever be able to get a Tier II permit. So under the 25 Federal system, if you're a resident of a rural area 26 that qualifies, you only have to be a one year 27 resident, so it does give an opportunity for people 28 that are interested, to harvest and that has happened a 29 couple of times. 30 31 We have had some issues over the years. 32 One that we had some, I don't want to say controversy, 33 but definitely some questions being raised about how 34 many permits we could give out. And we were first 35 advised that we had to give out any -- a permit to 36 anybody who was interested in one. And we had a 37 concern, as agencies, that if there were too many 38 permits handed out, is that there may be an opportunity 39 to effect the biological integrity of some of these, 40 not only groups, but also the population as a whole. 41 So BLM came up with -- in some consultations with OSM, 42 where we would do a draw. And what we do is, anybody 43 who's interested in obtaining a permit, we assemble 44 their names, their addresses and we do a random number 45 we assign to each individual, and then we basically 46 like pick the numbers out of a hat, if you will. 47 48 So we've had some questions over the 49 years about, you know, when do we start that. As most 50

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Page 171 1 of you know the Nome office of BLM has been staffed by 2 myself and I've been there 16 years now at that office, 3 most of the time it's been me, alone. We have had some 4 opportunities over the years to have some employees. 5 We had Brian Ubelaker, over the years and he's left the 6 office. He's now stationed in Anchorage. So we have 7 had some difficulties with a single person office, 8 okay. So we thought we would come up with some 9 protocols and so I worked with Brian on developing 10 these and what it does is it kind of gives you like an 11 idea of when we would start this accumulation of names, 12 how we would do some of our outreach and then also how 13 we coordinate with the Park Service. So it gives you a 14 little bit of, you know, who, what, why, where, when, 15 if you will, of how we're conducting those. 16 17 And then the other thing that's come up 18 over the years, I talked to the Chair briefly about, we 19 have had some allocative issues that have come up. And 20 it's something that, you know, we, as agency people, 21 we're not in the business of allocating a resource so 22 we would like to point some of these things out to the 23 Board and if you'd like to take action on that, I think 24 that would be something that we would certainly be 25 receptive to, and there's a number of them that have 26 happened. And if I could maybe preference this, in 27 that, you know, we, as agency folks, we're not in the 28 allocative business. 29 30 But we have had some instances where a 31 person that drew a BLM tag has also drawn a Park 32 Service tags, and those are for different unit areas. 33 Okay. So all these things are currently allowed under 34 our current regulatory structure. 35 36 We also have had instances where a 37 Federal permit has been awarded to a member of the same 38 household as a State Tier II permit has been. 39 40 And we've also had instances where the 41 individual that drew a State Tier II permit also drew a 42 Federal permit. 43 44 And then we've also had instances where 45 multiple Federal permits have been awarded to the same 46 household. 47 48 These things don't occur every year but 49 they have come up. 50

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Page 172 1 And to put it in kind of maybe a 2 situation where it is denying opportunity and I think 3 that's one of the things that we are concerned about as 4 agency people. If you draw a Tier II tag and you draw 5 a Federal tag, you can only harvest one muskox. If 6 you choose to harvest that as a Tier II on Federal 7 lands you can do that because you are a Federally- 8 qualified user, as Bill was saying, 100 percent are, 9 but then that Federal tag then goes to waste, it's not 10 available for someone else. There's no mechanism for a 11 State Tier II tag to be turned back to the State and 12 then draw again, if you will. So these have come up, 13 and we'd like to present that in the spirit of 14 cooperation with the Board here and also that you folks 15 are tasked with the allocative issues, if you will. 16 17 And I think also in terms of our 18 continued cooperation we certainly intend to do that 19 both financially and also as manpower. We've -- Bruce 20 Sepi, our subsistence biologist, he's been in the 21 aircraft, I've been in the aircraft, Ubelaker's been in 22 the aircraft so we'll try to do that as much as 23 possible. We are, sometimes, only one deep though. So 24 I know Bill would like to see more of us in the 25 aircraft, we do have differing regulatory requirements 26 in terms of, you know, aircraft use. The Federal 27 government has pretty regimented requirements in terms 28 of their Staff in what type of aircraft we can fly in 29 and there are certifications and so forth. But I can 30 assure you, on the part of BLM, is that, you know, we 31 will continue to cooperate. And by and large have been 32 very proud at how we've all been working together to 33 get that opportunity out there. 34 35 So with that I'd be happy to answer any 36 questions if you have any. 37 38 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Go ahead, Elmer. 39 40 MR. SEETOT: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 41 Concerning the muskox count, do you refer to 42 communities when you are planning or -- or when you're 43 planning a count, and then do you ask do you know the 44 locations where these muskox might be in and around 45 your area. Have you asked that to local hunters, local 46 communities. I think that would make your count more 47 easier instead of, you know, where -- we're in the 48 situation now where money -- money is becoming a 49 problem, I guess, you know, in certain places. But I 50

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Page 173 1 was kind of curious if you asked other hunters where 2 these muskox might be. 3 4 MR. DUNKER: Thank you, Elmer. So I 5 guess the simplest answer is more often than not we 6 wouldn't do that and part of the reason that that is 7 the case is the methodology that we're using to 8 estimate abundance. In years gone by when we were 9 doing minimum counts type surveys, where we're going 10 into an area and attempting to count -- account for 11 every muskox that happens to be in there, the distant 12 sampling protocol, it requires a bit of..... 13 14 MR. SPARKS: Reproducability. 15 16 MR. SEPI: Repeatability. 17 18 MR. DUNKER: What's that? 19 20 MR. SPARKS: Repeatability. 21 22 MR. DUNKER: Repeatability, sure, yeah. 23 So we don't necessarily want to know where everything 24 is because when we -- how we go about finding it helps 25 to inform the overall estimate so, let's see I'm trying 26 to think how to best explain this. But -- without 27 going down a real rabbit hole. 28 29 (Laughter) 30 31 MR. DUNKER: Not a bad one it's just a 32 complicated one, I guess, or a longwinded one. 33 34 So the transects and -- actually maybe 35 I'll jump ahead a little bit here. So the transects 36 that are laid out, and I'm looking at the map on Page 37 11 of the packet that I handed out to you, each one of 38 those transects is pretty randomly and arbitrarily 39 located in an area where we're best able to fly it. So 40 in the mountains we tend to run parallel to the range 41 so that we don't have to continuously change elevation 42 as we're flying them, whereas the ones that are out 43 across the flats, you know, we got a lot of 44 flexibility. But what we want to do, is when we're 45 flying those transects we're looking for groups of 46 muskox and then based on the distance from the 47 transect, we use that to calculate sightability, which 48 is what is the probability that we would even see that 49 muskox group, understanding and acknowledging that 50

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Page 174 1 there are certain groups that we're going to miss 2 because they're too far from the transect. We should 3 see all of the groups that are right on the line or 4 very near to it and as we get further away from the 5 line the probability that we're going to see those 6 groups should diminish. 7 8 So if we go out there with preconceived 9 -- or -- yeah, prior knowledge of group locations we 10 can potentially kind of violate some of those 11 assumptions, in that, you know, if we know that there's 12 a group on hilltop X, right, and we're flying by it, 13 and we're five miles out, realistically we would 14 probably miss that one but with that prior knowledge we 15 can violate those assumptions about the sightability. 16 And the sightability estimate is truly what we use to 17 estimate density and then extrapolate that to 18 abundance. 19 20 So the reason that we wouldn't consult 21 with hunters in local areas to get an understanding of 22 where groups are is that it, again, it's going to 23 violate some of those assumptions that we use for the 24 methodology and throw a wrench in the works as far as 25 our ability to estimate abundance at a range-wide 26 scale. 27 28 The flip side to that would be in 29 instances like last year where we just needed to know 30 group locations so that we could go out and do 31 composition surveys. And those are certainly instances 32 where, in the future, we could reach out to local 33 hunters just to get some recon. Because at this point 34 it's not about, you know, the randomness of running 35 into them on the landscape, it's just about knowing 36 where they are. So that would be certainly some place 37 -- an instance where we could use whatever information 38 we can gather and I suppose local hunters would be a 39 resource that perhaps we haven't tapped into as much as 40 we could in the years to come. 41 42 That's a great point. 43 44 And another instance where we have used 45 local knowledge to dictate where we do the surveys is 46 22A. So over the years, again, as that range expanded 47 through time and animals were found further and further 48 east, local observations were integral in identifying 49 those areas as places where we should go look for 50

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Page 175 1 muskox. And so as those local reports rolled in from 2 22A saying, hey, we're seeing more muskox around, we've 3 expanded our survey area accordingly. Similarly, with 4 the expanded portions of 21D, another area where, you 5 know, local people, local pilots, people that are out 6 in the country, they're telling us that they're seeing 7 muskox and so as a consequence we've included those 8 areas into the survey itself. Not necessarily in real 9 time, like when we -- to aid the efforts when we go out 10 in the field, but as a part of the planning process in 11 identifying areas where we should be looking. 12 13 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Elmer. 14 15 MR. SACCHEUS: Yeah, I got a question. 16 17 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Go ahead, Clarence -- 18 or Charles. 19 20 MR. SACCHEUS: Yeah, I have a question 21 about a -- you need a license, right, to hunt muskox in 22 Federal lands? 23 24 MR. SPARKS: Yes. 25 26 MR. SACCHEUS: How about on private 27 land. 28 29 MR. SPARKS: You need a license 30 anywhere you hunt. A hunting license is required under 31 both Federal and State law. 32 33 MR. SACCHEUS: But we own 316,000, 34 that's where the muskox always -- in September, that's 35 when they mate and they always go up, we call that 36 Quick River, maybe 30 miles from here, we own that 37 land, all that land. They go up there every -- in 38 September, they always mate in September and you could 39 hear them all the way when they're bumping heads, them 40 big bulls, you could hear them miles away when they're 41 bump -- and they do amazing things, and if you go close 42 to them they'll all come to you, you just got to run in 43 your boat. But they come in our land and mate and I 44 didn't know if we could go out there and shoot them. 45 46 MR. SPARKS: Yeah, just let me 47 reiterate again you need a hunting license on any lands 48 you hunt on in the state. It's as simple as that. So 49 the other thing is, as far as the Federal subsistence 50

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Page 176 1 regulations and where they apply, there's a map over 2 there on the wall, it's a scaling issue, but all the 3 ANCSA are not considered Federal public lands so they 4 are managed by the State of Alaska, included Native 5 selected lands and State selected lands. So it's only 6 like on that map over there, the color is portrayed in 7 white as far as the lands that are not under Federal 8 subsistence regulations. So I'd encourage you, you 9 know, some of the maps that we see particularly in the 10 regulation booklet, scaling is an issue because the 11 land mass is so large. 12 13 But the Bureau of Land management, 14 we're the title holder for the United States Federal 15 government, and we're the surveyor of record for the 16 United States government, so if you need to have, you 17 know, a scaling issue needs to be a little more, who 18 owns what, you can come to BLM for that information. 19 20 And we brought some maps, too -- Mr. 21 Sepi, brought -- it's a scaling issue again because the 22 subunits are so large, but I mean it gives you an idea, 23 just looking at that, and that's one of the things I 24 think is important as far as our cooperation, agencies, 25 because a lot of the Federal lands are very remote and 26 they're not in close proximity where people can harvest 27 an animal, so it's one thing to keep in mind. 28 29 MR. SACCHEUS: Thank you. 30 31 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Elmer. 32 33 MR. SEETOT: Yeah, you mentioned you 34 calculated the probability of certain animals, why not 35 do the exact count and not deny people of a certain 36 subunit, you know, not to harvest muskox. If you're 37 just calculating, you might be plus or minus five 38 percent. When I want to go from Point A to Point B 39 I'll know exactly how much gas it will take to go over 40 and back, that would -- for me to travel over there 41 safely and back in one place. If you're just 42 calculating the possibility, you're pretty much denying 43 people of a certain subunit opportunity to harvest 44 animals. I have worked closely with -- or National 45 Park Service, Ken Adkisson, when I was one of the first 46 ticketholders to harvest a muskox he went beyond what 47 was required of him to, you know, help me harvest a 48 muskox along with Mr. Sparks himself. Because they 49 were very familiar with the Federal lands, whatever was 50

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Page 177 1 presented before us -- or before me, and I think that's 2 very much -- a lot of great help for State and Federal 3 agencies to kind of prepare something for harvest. 4 5 In order for me to harvest marine 6 mammals I have to be a resident of state of Alaska, I 7 got to be a Native Alaskan just to do that. 8 9 And for the Federal agencies to issue 10 non-resident hunting permits so that probably money can 11 be derived or per the Alaska Constitution or some of 12 the regulations they go by, I think we need to know 13 exactly how many animals are in a certain subunit. 14 Unlike the military, which has kept secrets from the 15 American public for so long, I hope the Federal 16 agencies don't keep anything back from being caretakers 17 of a natural resource because I depend on these 18 resources, not all the time but each natural resource 19 has its own season and we go accordingly. 20 21 And I think if I was a grown adult 22 during the transfer of the muskox, what the State of 23 Alaska did, I think was consultation with the nearby 24 communities or with the State, you know, I would have 25 voiced concerns about bringing such animals, you know, 26 that are in and around our area. So I would think that 27 one of the concerns is that when you're saying you're 28 just going to do a probability, you're also bypassing 29 TEK, knowledge that we know. Give us the exact count, 30 don't give us a probability. With 22A, I would think 31 you would go through that route because there's heavy 32 timber, animals you can't see. 22D, you can fly a 33 plane and see the animals in and around these areas, 34 you can look at mountain tops, I know that they come 35 into Brevig every now and then, they like -- they got 36 heavy hair, I don't think they can withstand the summer 37 temperatures. One other thing is that Port Clarence 38 land -- where the Coast Guard station is, that's a good 39 haven for muskox. We camp right at -- I seen muskox go 40 back and forth between spit and once they pass our 41 subsistence spring camp then pretty much they know 42 they're safe. But that gives us concern because my 43 sister had a dog right along their path and just threw 44 the dog up without any problem. So those are 45 dangerous, or just sitting right outside the tent while 46 the residents of the tent had to crawl underneath 47 through the back. 48 49 So these are some of the concerns. 50

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Page 178 1 Don't give us the probability, give us the exact count 2 so that you don't deny residents of a certain subunit, 3 you know, the opportunity to provide subsistence for 4 their families. 5 6 Thank you. 7 8 MR. SPARKS: Maybe I'll try to respond 9 to that, through the Chair. Elmer. Thank you, first 10 of all for acknowledging Ken, he's been at the muskox 11 table for a very long time, including past Chair of the 12 cooperator group. 13 14 I guess one of the things you mentioned 15 as far as like helping hunters is that we have had a 16 couple instances where hunters were given violations 17 because they were on the wrong lands and that's 18 something, you know, we try very much to educate the 19 hunters in terms of, you know, where they can hunt on 20 Federal lands when they get a Federal permit. That's 21 really not an issue with the State Tier II permit 22 because you can hunt on both State managed lands and 23 Federal managed lands. But if you get a Federal tag, 24 we very much like to sit down with people and ensure 25 that they understand where they're able to go. 26 27 And I think with the survey data, I 28 guess one of the things, and Elmer I appreciate where 29 you're coming from but I know one of the things, if 30 you've talked to a lot of the older Fish and Game folks 31 who have been around, when they first started flying 32 surveys, the did the old IFR, I follow the river and 33 count moose, you know, and it was very effective, you 34 know, they -- a lot of them were career people that had 35 been in particular units for a very long time, decades, 36 and they had a lot of local knowledge. But when those 37 people move on, that knowledge is by and large gone and 38 that very much gets to your comment about the 39 traditional knowledge, is that, to be able to reproduce 40 that is difficult for agencies. So I think over the 41 years agencies have come up with methodologies that can 42 survive those swings of Staff and it's certainly true 43 -- I know in our agency we have a lot of turnover, and 44 I don't really see that in the State too much, you 45 know, I think the longer people stay the better off we 46 all are. But I think the agencies have worked hard to 47 come with some methodologies that will survive. And 48 it's not, discounting, Elmer, your statement because it 49 is something that I know everybody here on the table 50

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Page 179 1 takes to heart in terms of, you know, your knowledge of 2 where those animals are. And also we are very much 3 concerned about any limits to the opportunities that 4 you mentioned. 5 6 CHAIRMAN GREEN: And we don't want to 7 forget Letty's got a presentation to do too. 8 9 MS. HUGHES: Well, and this actually -- 10 this next slide actually follows in with a little bit 11 of what Elmer was stating. So -- and to repeat what 12 Bill and Tom had stated, is, you know, with the Federal 13 muskox permits you have to be on Federal land, you 14 can't go on the State land. So in addition, because of 15 the low population and having -- or on the Federal side 16 muskox having a C&T, Federal public lands are closed to 17 the harvest of muskox on the Seward Peninsula unless 18 you are a rural resident of that community, your 19 principal resident. 20 21 So such as to hunt on Federal lands in 22 22E and Bering LandBridge, you would need to be a 23 resident of Wales and Shishmaref. Deering and 24 Buckland, you would need to be -- for that particular 25 hunt area. So someone from Nome cannot apply for a 26 muskox permit to hunt on Federal lands, just 27 specifically for a Federal muskox permit, up in 22E up 28 in Bering LandBridge because they are not a resident of 29 Wales or Shishmaref. 30 31 So, you know, in terms of providing 32 that -- what Federal lands does is providing that extra 33 opportunity to folks who would not otherwise have that. 34 35 And so I have been with Park Service 36 probably about a year and a half just now, or 37 thereabouts, and so when I came on one of the things 38 was well how can I work on enhancing what Bering 39 LandBridge has been doing for many years with their 40 Park Service muskox permits, so I took the knowledge 41 and training that I had and applied it to doing 42 community visits during, I want to say it was June, and 43 so I went to Shishmaref, Wales and Deering, weather did 44 not work out to go to Buckland, but I made phone calls 45 to Buckland from folks who had applied for and received 46 past Park Service muskox permits. You know going out 47 there to Shishmaref, you can see -- you know I had 15 48 applicants, Wales, 8 applicants Deering, three 49 applicants, you know, and some of these are areas 50

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Page 180 1 where, or, you know, have folks that may not just be 2 that familiar with the muskox season or maybe just 3 haven't, you know, been aware of it, so going out there 4 it was really good. Additionally, notices for 22D 5 Kuzitrin did go out to communities as Brevig, Teller, 6 White Mountain because they're also considered 7 residents, Federal residents who hunt in the 22D 8 Kuzitrin area of Bering LandBridge. 9 10 So giving the breakdown of what those 11 results were and it's similar to how we pick the names. 12 Is you put the names down, and then we do a random 13 draw, just like what Tom Sparks was doing with BLM. So 14 you can see the breakdown for the quota for 22E permits 15 for Bering LandBridge are shared between Wales and 16 Shishmaref. So two folks from Shishmaref -- or two 17 permits went to Shishmaref and this is one of those 18 instances where one of the residents in Shishmaref, 19 holds not only a Tier II permit but also holds a 20 Federal permit, however, that person -- I just used 21 however -- that person cannot -- they can still only 22 take one muskox. So that's one of those instances that 23 Tom was talking about. 24 25 And then the permit that went to Wales 26 went actually to a youth, and actually the other one -- 27 so for Bering LandBridge, one permit went to a youth in 28 Shishmaref and one permit went to youth in Wales. I 29 know there was discussion of that at the last meeting 30 about that. And then one permit went to Deering and 31 Buckland and then two permits went to Nome. 32 33 MR. DUNKER: So one of the things that 34 was discussed at length at the last meeting was the 35 Department and the cooperating agencies decision to set 36 up the survey schedule for the next couple of years 37 with the priority being in the spring of 2020 to do a 38 22D and E moose survey and I just wanted to kind of 39 illustrate some of the justifications that were used in 40 that discussion and the ultimate decision to do so. 41 Having not been able to complete a population survey 42 for moose in that area since 2014, and having failed to 43 complete a muskox survey last spring due to the 44 weather, one of the challenges that we face is trying 45 to do both these surveys in the same year. They are 46 two very large survey efforts, and just to illustrate 47 that there's some information here about the size and 48 the amount of effort that goes into completing each of 49 these surveys. 50

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Page 181 1 So starting with the population survey, 2 again, we're using this distance sampling technique and 3 in an effort to address some of the things that Elmer 4 mentioned, Tom brings up a great point, the 5 repeatability is a big part of why we use distance 6 sampling. It allows us to have comparable results from 7 year to year in spite of kind of a changing cast of 8 characters flying those airplanes and searching for 9 muskox and things like that. Distance sampling is a 10 well established technique that is used throughout the 11 scientific community to estimate abundances of 12 everything from muskox to orangutans, I mean you name 13 it. It's something that we can use for a lot of 14 different things. And what it does, as part of the 15 methodology, is it acknowledges kind of the uncertainty 16 around these things. When we went out in years past to 17 complete minimum count surveys, one of the criticisms 18 that we, as agency personnel, would receive about those 19 is that we weren't able to acknowledge, you know, the 20 animals that we missed and part of that is because we 21 don't have a rigorous statistical method that we can 22 use to estimate the precision of those estimates, or 23 how on target are we. By using the distance sampling 24 method, we're able to kind of provide you guys, as, you 25 know, key players in the development and the execution 26 of hunting regulations in the state with an 27 understanding of this is how good we think we did this 28 time around because we can say this is our estimate and 29 we believe it's plus or minus, and I think in most 30 instances it's plus or minus like 14 percent. And 31 that's an estimate but it acknowledges the uncertainty 32 within it versus going out and doing a minimum count 33 survey where we don't have any way to acknowledge or to 34 determine if, yep, we did it, we got 100 percent of 35 them, we know that for certain, now we go back in there 36 the next year, we find half as many is that because we 37 just missed half of them or because half of them moved 38 into a different area, those kinds of things. The 39 statistical methodology that we use allows us to 40 acknowledge that uncertainty and to be as transparent 41 as we can about the confidence that we have in the 42 survey results. And for a population survey of any 43 type, you know, 14 or 15 percent estimates of precision 44 -- okay, that was Tony, all right -- he's telling me 45 apparently part of the justification for transitioning 46 to distant sampling was at the request of the Park 47 Service and this Council, which is alluding me at this 48 time, but it provides us with a great deal of 49 repeatability and an understanding of what our 50

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Page 182 1 limitations are, and the confidence that we have in 2 the..... 3 4 MR. SPARKS: He should come join us 5 here. 6 7 MR. DUNKER: .....presentation -- or in 8 the project. I don't know if he wants to say anything 9 else. 10 11 MR. GORN: (Shakes head negatively) 12 13 MR. DUNKER: Okay. So, again, a very 14 large effort, all told the Seward Peninsula population 15 survey includes 242 transects, it's over 8,000 miles of 16 transects that are flown in a SuperCub or a SuperCub 17 type aircraft. And for context, it's basically one way 18 from Nome to Argentina, so it's a lot of flying. It 19 requires a true Air Force to get accomplished. We've 20 got Park Service personnel, Park Service pilots at 21 times, ADF&G personnel, charter pilots from throughout 22 the state, often we'll have six, seven, eight aircraft 23 flying lines in different portion of the Peninsula as 24 weather allows. So it's a huge undertaking. All told 25 it takes about 35 Cub days and we've done that in a 26 week and we've also done that in two months. So it's 27 very weather dependent and it's a big challenge that we 28 face orchestrating this effort. 29 30 Following the completion of the survey, 31 again, we're going to transition into the composition 32 surveys. 33 34 Typically we're going to categorize 35 approximately like 1,200 to 1,300 animals within the 36 population and, again, that's in an effort to estimate 37 the proportion of short yearlings within the population 38 to give us an idea of what recruitment is as well as to 39 determine both the ratio and proportion of mature bulls 40 within the population that we use for hunt management. 41 Again, that's done cooperatively, primarily with Fish 42 and Game, and the Park Service contributions and 43 usually takes about seven days for us to cover all the 44 different hunt areas within the range of the 45 population. 46 47 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So you were talking 48 about this distance -- what'd you call it again..... 49 50

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Page 183 1 MR. DUNKER: Distant sampling. 2 3 CHAIRMAN GREEN: .....distant sampling. 4 So, you know, back in the '80s and '90s I used to do a 5 lot of flying and reindeer herding in the SuperCub 6 myself up in the Shishmaref area and the herd owners 7 would -- they had -- from the past they knew, on their 8 maps they knew where to look and so with these agencies 9 doing this consistently, don't you have some sort of a 10 pattern where you've seen them before and it's kind of 11 an area to look for, I mean the idea, what I'm getting 12 is, that you would expect that there would be something 13 there that was there for several years in the past. I 14 mean that's the same thing we were doing with the 15 reindeer, you know, we knew where to basically look, 16 and we didn't miss a lot. 17 18 I'm just wondering how that works. 19 20 MR. DUNKER: Certainly as we've done 21 these surveys through time, you know, you identify 22 certain portions of the range where we tend to find a 23 lot of muskox, we get that from the estimates 24 themselves in terms of what the distribution among 25 these different areas is, but, again, the distant 26 sampling protocol doesn't require any prior knowledge 27 about the distribution of animals. What we want to do 28 is use those transects as just a guideline for us to 29 fly from which we're able to observe animals and then 30 based on those observations and the probability of 31 detection that we calculate for all of the groups 32 collectively we're able to estimate density along those 33 transects and then extrapolate that outward to the 34 entire area as a whole. 35 36 And, again, the big benefit there is 37 that the distant sampling methodology allows us to have 38 repeatable results and to account for animal movements 39 for the instances where, yeah, they lived on that ridge 40 top for five or six years and we could always go back 41 and find muskox there, you know, now they moved down 42 the ridge somewhere and now we pick them up on the next 43 transect and it informs our understanding of 44 sightability and then in turn the abundance estimates 45 themselves. 46 47 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thanks Bill. So the 48 other question I would have is collars with specific 49 groups. I haven't heard anything about collaring. 50

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Page 184 1 MR. DUNKER: So the Department has been 2 collaring primarily adult female cows since about 2008. 3 And there are times when those are very useful for the 4 population survey efforts. One of the instances where 5 we've used those collared animals, and usually we're 6 trying to maintain a sample of maybe 30 or 40 adult 7 female muskox on the air at any given time, we have 8 used it, you know, boy the snow conditions are a little 9 questionable right now, should we launch, should we 10 hold out for more snow, should we cancel the surveys, 11 all those considerations that we're making as we're 12 planning the survey, well, let's go look at some groups 13 of muskox, so we're able to go out radio track the 14 collared animals, see where they're hanging out, what 15 are the snow conditions like there, is it comparable to 16 previous efforts. So we're able to kind of gauge and 17 evaluate whether or not it'd be appropriate for us to 18 complete these larger survey efforts. 19 20 There have been other instances where 21 we go into an area and the number of observed groups 22 that were seen along these transects just doesn't jive 23 with our understanding of, you know, what we believe to 24 be in the area and those usual haunts, right, the 25 places where we've historically found muskox, for some 26 reason they're absent in those areas. We're able to 27 kind of go out and check our work. The interesting 28 thing in that case, I think it was in 2015 in 22B west, 29 you know, the number of animals that we observed on 30 transect seemed off, you know, so we went out and we 31 radio tracked and sure enough we missed a handful of 32 groups. When we go back and compare the minimum count 33 estimate from that year including the groups that we 34 observed on transect and the ones that we observed 35 through radio tracking efforts, it was comparable to 36 the estimated abundance that we calculated through the 37 distance sampling protocol. So it was an opportunity 38 and we've used the collars in that manner in years past 39 to kind of check our work as we've gone through the 40 process of completing these surveys and they're 41 certainly useful and informative. But everything that 42 we've been able to glean from those efforts has 43 suggested that our distance sampling protocol and the 44 methodology that we're using to estimate abundance is 45 effective, allows for repeatability, and takes into 46 consideration the uncertainty that we have around 47 estimates of abundance and that's a reality of wildlife 48 management that applies, not only to muskox, but to 49 moose and bears and caribou and everything else. It's 50

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Page 185 1 important for us to be able to characterize the 2 precision of our estimates. 3 4 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thanks. I could see 5 the need to do the same thing over and over because 6 consistency gives you the information. It's like, 7 well, science is based on facts, and trial -- over and 8 over and over doing the same thing to find out what 9 changes are in there. 10 11 So during these surveys, are predators 12 documented when they're sighted, in say areas where a 13 herd of muskox isn't there, is there anything 14 indicating that say wolves have moved in or bears have 15 moved in. I know that growing up out there in the 16 sticks that when there's bears in the area there's no 17 moose and vice versa, sometimes. So I was just 18 wondering on these surveys if you're registering the 19 counts on predators out in the field. 20 21 MR. DUNKER: So with the muskox survey, 22 just given the flight level that we're at I'd say that 23 the likelihood that we're able to effectively observe 24 predators like wolves and we're doing these surveys in 25 February and March and so bears are just not present at 26 that point in time, the flight level for observing 27 wolves is not ideal. Although any observations of 28 wolves, wolverines, you know, just noteworthy wildlife 29 sightings are recorded by the observers as they're 30 completing these things, the transects. 31 32 Moose surveys on the other hand, we're 33 typically at a lower flight level and we document wolf 34 observations during those surveys and are able to glean 35 from that, at least a rough idea of, you know, wolves 36 observed per hour as a metric that we can monitor 37 through time. 38 39 Interestingly enough with the 40 composition surveys and the map on Page 11 here just 41 kind of gives you an example of group locations that we 42 gather during these distance sampling surveys that we 43 will then use as the base for sampling the population 44 to estimate all these composition -- all the 45 composition information, be it proportion of mature 46 bulls, recruitment, those sorts of things. One of the 47 things we've seen is that typically these observations 48 are pretty accurate, within a couple of miles for 49 weeks, and sometimes months after the fact, these are 50

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Page 186 1 very sedentary animals during late winter and so we 2 find a group of muskox, you know, north of the Fish 3 River Valley, Fish River Canyon -- well, you go back a 4 month later, guess what they're still there or they're 5 nearby. We have noticed at times when we're doing 6 composition surveys and we're revisiting these groups 7 where we've seen these kind of larger scale movements, 8 and a lot of times we've been able to attribute that 9 movement to some sort of predation event, you know, 10 there's a bear in the area now, the muskox group is no 11 longer in the area. So a lot of interesting 12 observations but not necessarily quantitative in nature 13 where we're able to estimate predation rates or 14 abundance or anything like that for the bears 15 themselves, just kind of noteworthy anecdotal 16 information, in that, we sometimes see these large 17 scale movements in response to predation events or what 18 we think to be predation events or harassment by 19 predators. 20 21 CHAIRMAN GREEN: We've heard a lot 22 about, over the years, this migration south and east, 23 is there -- does that have anything to do with the food 24 sources or is it predation or is there anything that 25 you noted that would contribute to that type of what 26 they do. 27 28 MR. DUNKER: So, Mr. Chair. We've been 29 able to document that it's taking place. Answering the 30 question of why it's taking place is a much more 31 challenging undertaking. It's worth pointing out that 32 we're making steps to potentially answer some of those 33 questions related to habitat quality and other just 34 information gaps and our understanding about muskox. I 35 think we've got -- Brynn Parr is our research 36 biologist, she's hired on within the last couple of 37 years and her primary focus is on muskox. She's got a 38 couple different projects going -- underway, both here 39 on the Seward Peninsula looking at population 40 demographics -- or population dynamics, and then 41 there's some other work that's being taken -- undergone 42 in Unit 18 looking at habitat conditions and metrics 43 that we could potentially identify for those types of 44 things. And so we've got research Staff, that's a new 45 thing for us, and hopefully in the future we'll be able 46 to better answer those sorts of questions, the why -- 47 you know, why is the population declining, why is the 48 range shifting, why is the distribution different, but 49 at this point, you know, we don't have a real clear 50

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Page 187 1 understanding of what might be driving that shift in 2 the distribution of animals. 3 4 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So the total number in 5 your estimation, what was the total number in the past 6 when it turned on the hunt and what is it today, in 7 comparison? 8 9 I was on the Advisory Committee for 10 Fish and Game and I remember when we started doing 11 that, I was kind of against it but I -- I don't recall 12 the numbers -- back in the day, Tom and I were on there 13 at the same time. 14 15 MR. DUNKER: So you're talking about, 16 you know, at what level do we start to consider 17 hunting? 18 19 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Yeah, at the beginning 20 and where are we at now? What are we sitting at now as 21 far as estimated total? 22 23 MR. DUNKER: So the estimated total 24 abundance for the entire population throughout its 25 range is 2,353 as of 2017. The green map show in the 26 different areas, and it's in your packet there and I 27 can flip back to it, shows the estimate for the 28 expanded portion which includes 22A and 21D and 29 portions of 23 and 24 that are not included in the 30 current areas for the population. The estimated 31 abundance in that area is 473. Now, we were talking 32 about, you know, observations of muskox groups 33 informing the Department and other agencies about the 34 distribution of animals and our need to adjust survey 35 efforts accordingly. When people in Unalakleet, and 36 Shaktoolik, primarily started seeing muskox in those 37 areas these sorts of questions came up, like when do we 38 start considering starting a hunt. And through a 39 variety of different discussions with local 40 representatives from those communities, the Southern 41 Norton Sound Advisory Committee and discussions with my 42 predecessor, Tony, they basically identified 200 to 250 43 muskox as kind of a biologically and socially 44 acceptable level that we should achieve prior to 45 initiating hunting. 46 47 So I think at the time, and early on, 48 we were only looking at like 75 muskox in that area. 49 So the recommendation at that time was, well, let's 50

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Page 188 1 just wait, allow them to establish themselves for, you 2 know, an extended period of time, allow those numbers 3 to increase before we initiate hunting. That was -- 4 specific to that 22A area, we're basically meeting 5 those objectives for that area specifically at this 6 point. And then for the area as a whole, with 400 7 muskox we would estimate a harvestable surplus within 8 that area of about 9 muskox. 9 10 And we do have a proposal that will be 11 considered by the Board of Game during this coming 12 Board cycle to open muskox hunting in that expanded 13 area of the range where we previously did not offer 14 muskox hunting. The Department -- I can't remember our 15 specific position, but there's a harvestable surplus 16 and so we'll be, you know, having the discussions at 17 the AC meetings and upcoming Board of Game meeting 18 about the prospects of initiating a hunt in that area 19 in response to having more or less achieve that level 20 of abundance within the area. 21 22 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. So thank you. 23 This is all about subsistence, this is all about, on 24 our level here, to provide. I don't know how many of 25 you are in this room that got to see the original 36 26 let loose but I was one of those people. And I seem to 27 think there was another one, wasn't there one like in 28 1980 or something -- okay, how many was it. 29 30 MR. SPARKS: I don't recall off the top 31 of my head, Louis, sorry. 32 33 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Shame on you. 34 35 (Laughter) 36 37 CHAIRMAN GREEN: No -- you've been 38 involved in this so -- so anyway I guess that brings 39 the question up of, you know, we've had this cycle 40 where we're doing good and then all of a sudden we 41 decided we could do Tier I and then things started 42 coming down, predation gets involved and we're down, 43 down, down, are we just studying what's going on to see 44 what this herd's going to do overall or is there ever 45 any thought about another transplant or two. It would 46 seem to me that something like that would be -- it 47 might even at least be a conversation. 48 49 Okay, so your turn. 50

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Page 189 1 MR. DUNKER: So, to date, completing 2 another transplant is not something that I've heard 3 previously discussed at any level at this point. 4 5 I guess I'll kind of leave it at that I 6 suppose. I don't really have much more to add other 7 than that. 8 9 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay, thank you. I 10 just know that that -- when that second transplant was 11 conducted it seemed like it helped boost the herd. 12 When it got to the point where we decided we could hunt 13 them -- go ahead, Tom. 14 15 MR. SPARKS: I mean having been 16 involved in this as long as I have been I can tell you 17 that my observation is is that as there's a surplus and 18 there's a recognition that there could be a hunt, that 19 kind of led the cooperators group, like, well what 20 types of hunts may be available and to also recognize 21 that that population is pretty unique and there were a 22 lot of competing interests at the time. There were not 23 only big game hunters that were interested, there were 24 also a lot of tourism involved, groups that wanted to 25 view muskox, but I think the agency's ability to 26 respond to changing conditions is something that we 27 should be proud of. 28 29 I know you may, you know, everybody's 30 got different opinions about that, but, you know, I've 31 seen this shift between say like Tier I, Tier II, 32 Federal/State regimes working, and I think over time 33 it's given a lot of opportunities to subsistence 34 harvest, and I think we're very -- you know on the 35 Federal level we have mandates to do that and so I 36 think it's worked rather well over time. 37 38 I have not heard of any other 39 transplant and I don't know that BLM, on a lot of the 40 Federal monies that come in, that fund the State 41 agencies through the acts and others that -- that's 42 where that money comes from, I don't think that we 43 would have a position on that currently. And I have 44 not heard that. I have heard of some proposals for 45 sheep in the mountains just to our north here and I 46 have mentioned that to a few biologists, locally, and 47 also on our Federal level and there seems to be a 48 consensus that there's maybe not the habitat to support 49 that. But I didn't have -- that's the only thing I've 50

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Page 190 1 heard in my years as far as some transplant effort. So 2 I think maybe we'll wait and see if that's something 3 that someone would like to propose. 4 5 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So having said that -- 6 or asked the question -- thanks. Another question that 7 comes to mind is I know the Russians got some of the 8 transplanted over there from here, back in the day, and 9 I think back in the '70s also, but, anyway, do we know 10 anything about what they're doing over there with their 11 herd, any kind of knowledge of what they've done over 12 there. I've heard that they were pretty good at doing 13 what they did with them so I'm asking if we know 14 anything about it at this level. 15 16 MR. DUNKER: So I'm not entirely 17 familiar with the goings on in that particular portion 18 of kind of the range of muskox worldwide, in the last 19 couple of years we've had our area biologist down in 20 the Bethel area, he deals a lot with the Nunivak Island 21 and Nelson Island muskox management in that area, he's 22 participated in a meeting of sorts involving people 23 from around the world that deal with muskox and do work 24 on different populations of muskox. So there's 25 certainly an exchange of information. I don't have any 26 of it at my fingertips right now, but the Department 27 is, you know, tapped into kind of the goings on of 28 other muskox managers and other populations throughout 29 the range of the species as a whole, and I don't think 30 it would be that difficult to kind of steer you in that 31 direction, I just don't have it immediately available. 32 33 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I was just curious, 34 thanks. 35 36 MS. HUGHES: I can speak a little bit 37 on kind of what's on the Bering LandBridge is doing, so 38 no information to provide on that, however, you know, 39 there is the Beringia Federal Park over there, to not 40 be confused with how it's ran as a National Park in the 41 United States. So the communication of having, you 42 know, populations that share the same waters or air 43 ways, or sharing the information of what is your -- you 44 know, what are your muskox doing and so forth, that, 45 you know, has been started. It's very slow to develop 46 a relationship with just another country that, you 47 know, where it was, and then for whatever reasons kind 48 of fell off to the side. So within the Bering 49 LandBridge office that has taken place through Bering 50

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Page 191 1 LandBridge Staff actually, you know, putting that foot 2 forward and starting discussions with the director over 3 there, and in addition to what Bill was saying about 4 the muskox network which is a huge international work 5 of either Alaska folks, in Russia and across nation, so 6 they actually had just met over in Sweden a few months 7 back. But periodically emails and stuff do come out 8 talking about that. 9 10 So what we can do on the Bering 11 LandBridge side is, you know, take your question and, 12 you know, carry it on to the Director over there of the 13 Beringia Park and just say, you know, this is the 14 request and start working on that conversation. 15 16 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Letty. 17 I've been hogging the mic here because I had a whole 18 list of stuff. 19 20 Elmer, did you have something. 21 22 MR. SEETOT: Agencies representing 23 management of muskox, is there a clearing house of -- 24 when you guys get together, you know, information put 25 in one area so that you guys can share that information 26 or is that kept within the agencies, okay, I know 27 something about muskox I'll keep it to myself, ADF&G 28 have their own little stuff. When you're looking at 29 muskox in a certain area, do you look at the condition 30 of the area where they are at, like their food 31 availability, shelter, water. 32 33 The reason I ask is that we're in close 34 proximity to Russia. What Russia does on the other 35 side we don't know, but they're not reporting radiation 36 leaks from the military, you know that there was a 37 nuclear submarine accident on that side, which wasn't 38 really publicly recorded, or we know about the 39 Chernobyl nuclear reaction over there, many things on 40 the Russian side we don't know about, but I'm assuming 41 that there's contaminants in the air that come through 42 the low pressure system and unknown number of lows, you 43 know, come into our area, I'm thinking they're carrying 44 contaminants from there and dumping them to our lands 45 or whatever, wherever, wherever the plants grow, 46 wherever the ungulates feed on, whatever we tramp on, 47 stuff like that. Any baseline studies on that. 48 49 I know that Kawerak Reindeer Herders 50

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Page 192 1 and maybe Bureau of Land Management had range 2 transects, you know, where they fenced off certain 3 areas due to see -- you know, what the vegetation -- 4 you know, would be undisturbed. So that's something -- 5 with the extreme weather conditions, we really don't 6 know what's bleaching out of the ocean bottom, coming 7 this way, look at our system right now, pollution, 8 pollution in the Pacific Ocean about the size of Texas, 9 yet, we're not really looking at these items, we're 10 just talking about the management regulation of 11 animals. We need to look at the other side, what they 12 feed on, is there plastic. They say there's plastic in 13 our water, stuff like that. 14 15 And I think that we can talk about, you 16 know, without really feeling guilty about such things 17 but I think we need to look at the whole system 18 nowadays. Thirty years ago I don't think it was much 19 of a problem because most of the agencies were pretty 20 much working together and now it's just him versus us, 21 we versus them; stuff like that, and it should not be 22 so. But for our animals, you know, in order for our 23 resources to survive, we need to find out what's 24 killing our fish, what's killing our birds, natural 25 disasters that come into -- being you have a full time 26 person that is on weather related stuff, they talk 27 about climate change, what does it do, what is exactly 28 climate change. These are some of the questions I have 29 a vague idea about, but for those that, you know, study 30 these disciplines, they know exactly what's happening 31 so that's something that I think we as an Advisory 32 Council to the, you know, the big Board, that we should 33 know some of these things that are happening in our 34 area. 35 36 Like our former Governor, Ms. Palin 37 said, I can see Russia from here. I can see it when I 38 go to -- I can see it when I go outside of Wales, when 39 the clouds are on top there, they get out of there 40 because winds are coming. So there are things that I 41 know about, certain people don't know about, you know, 42 just through extensive reading or just through 43 television screening, many of the things that I might 44 know, you know, might not be disseminated to the public 45 so that's information that needs to, you know, come out 46 in the open and I think if we all work together, you 47 know, everything's fine. 48 49 And with that I'll close. 50

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Page 193 1 Thank you. 2 3 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Any other Council 4 members -- I don't know, Ron, are you still on the 5 phone, just want to check in on you. 6 7 MR. KIRK: I'm still on, Mr. Chair. I 8 have a question for -- concerning muskox. I'm all for, 9 you know, people getting permits and going after them 10 for subsistence and carving and all the other uses of 11 the muskox, the animal itself. My concern is 12 population-wise, what is drawing the muskox to the 13 people, you know, to the villages or to the city of 14 Nome. You know you hear a lot of dogs being mauled by 15 muskox, you hear of..... 16 17 REPORTER: Whoops, Ron, are you still 18 there. 19 20 (No comments) 21 22 REPORTER: I think his line dropped. 23 24 CHAIRMAN GREEN: His call was obviously 25 dropped, let's see if he comes back on here. Is that 26 you Ron. 27 28 (No comments) 29 30 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Anybody else in the 31 room here have any questions or comments. 32 33 MR. SEETOT: He was asking why the 34 muskox goes to the Nome area, I mean closeby. 35 36 CHAIRMAN GREEN: That was the question, 37 yeah, and I guess we'll let you have at it, Bill. 38 39 MR. DUNKER: Yeah, I'd be happy to 40 touch on that. It's certainly a management challenge 41 that we face here in the Nome area as well as some of 42 the other communities within the region. Perhaps I 43 could wait for Ron to get back and then in the meantime 44 we could finish up. We have a handful of additional 45 slides of information and stuff. 46 47 I'm on the composition survey here. 48 49 The biggest thing I wanted to convey to 50

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Page 194 1 folks is that we've got these two large survey efforts 2 both the..... 3 4 MR. KIRK: My phone cut off. 5 6 (Laughter) 7 8 MR. DUNKER: The population survey and 9 the composition surveys themselves require a great deal 10 of man hours and..... 11 12 MR. KIRK: Mr. Chair. 13 14 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Ron, we're going to 15 come back to your question here but they're going to 16 continue on a little bit, but we'll come back to your 17 question. 18 19 MR. KIRK: Okay. 20 21 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So you were wondering 22 why the muskox are homing in around human population I 23 take it. So we're going to go back to Bill and let him 24 continue and then we'll come back to your question. 25 26 Thanks. 27 28 MR. KIRK: Thanks, Mr. Chair. 29 30 MR. DUNKER: So, again, we've got the 31 composition surveys and the abundance survey. We 32 typically refrain from attempting to do a 22D and E 33 moose survey in conjunction with the composition and 34 the population survey for Seward Peninsula muskox. The 35 map here on Page 12 just kind of gives you an idea of 36 the survey area involved with 22D and E population 37 estimate survey for moose. It's a very large survey 38 area. All told it includes 1,200 of these survey 39 units, they're five square mile boxes. The sample size 40 for that survey itself typically includes somewhere 41 around 400 to 450 survey units, each one of those takes 42 15 to 45 minutes of flying within them to count all the 43 moose in that area, which is then used to estimate the 44 density of moose throughout the survey area and 45 subsequently the abundance of moose within that area. 46 47 Similar to the Seward Peninsula muskox 48 survey, we figure that project takes anywhere between 49 30 and 40 Cub days to complete. So another very large 50

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Page 195 1 survey effort, it's cooperative in nature as the Seward 2 Peninsula muskox survey and inventory activities. 3 We'll have contributions from the National Park 4 Service, as well as the Bureau of Land Management 5 involved in that, and it's just unrealistic for us to 6 complete those surveys during the same timeframe due to 7 the size of each. And there's also other survey and 8 inventory projects that take place throughout the 9 region, a lot of which use the same Staff and primarily 10 survey pilots. That's probably the biggest hold up for 11 a lot of the work that we do, is having individuals 12 that are experienced and qualified to fly these low 13 level surveys for wildlife in our region. You know 14 there's a handful of operators that we typically rely 15 on pretty heavily during these times of year when we're 16 trying to complete surveys. And that includes both 17 activities here on the Seward Peninsula as well as in 18 the Interior portions of the state and Kotzebue Sound 19 region as well. So it's a large coordinated effort 20 both, within a given year as well as between years, to 21 ensure that we have the Staff and the time available to 22 complete a wide array of different survey and inventory 23 activities. And as is becoming more and more the case 24 for Region 5, for folks here in Unit 22, and 23, we've 25 added a number of research Staff to our team here in 26 Nome and they're exploring a lot of these different 27 questions that have been poised over the years about 28 our moose populations, about our muskox populations. 29 And they're projects are also now kind of in the hopper 30 and we're working on those as well, 31 32 And so, it's, I guess, just a very 33 large coordinated effort to get all this work done and 34 sometimes it's just not feasible for us to do certain 35 survey work in the same work, due to just the limited 36 timeframe, the limited availability of Staff, the 37 complexity and the amount of work that needs to be done 38 to complete these things at a level that is acceptable 39 for us and it allows us to make comparisons between 40 previous survey efforts. 41 42 So when we compare two surveys with the 43 very similar requirement in terms of time and Staff, 44 you know, we have to look at and prioritize things a 45 little bit. When we look at the Seward Peninsula 46 muskox population we last completed a survey in 2017, 47 at which time we identified that the population is 48 likely stable, potentially growing, remains to be seen, 49 but for the time being it's a positive indicator to 50

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Page 196 1 have those two surveys back to back with relatively 2 consistent results showing a stable trend, or 3 suggesting a stable trend. 4 5 We've also seen through our composition 6 survey efforts over the last couple years, in 2017 and 7 2019 a return to more historic levels of recruitment 8 within the population, also an encouraging sign. And 9 as part of that collaring project where we're 10 monitoring adult female cows within the population, we 11 have some understanding of the mortality rates within 12 that component of the population, and during the time 13 period between 2010 and 2012 when we saw dramatic 14 declines in abundance, that coincided with a spike in 15 the mortality rate on adult female cows. Whereas, 16 historically or normally, adult female survival on an 17 annual basis is somewhere in the order of 85 to 90 18 percent, during those couple of years where we saw the 19 declines we've seen spikes in mortality upwards of like 20 20 to 25 percent. We haven't seen that in the last 21 several years and it's just another piece of 22 information that we're able to look to to provide some 23 insight on what the trajectory of the population what 24 might be, what the status of the population is, and 25 that lower mortality rate compared to years when we 26 experienced declines is just another positive metric. 27 28 We've also got -- seen modest growth in 29 the proportion of mature bulls within the population, 30 increases in the bull/cow ratio. We're monitoring that 31 through both range-wide composition surveys during 32 years that we've completed abundance surveys as well as 33 in years like in 2019 where we were unable to do the 34 abundance survey but we're still able to kind of keep 35 our finger on the pulse of what's going on and complete 36 that range-wide composition survey. Again, just one 37 more kind of positive metric moving forward that makes 38 us feel comfortable with postponing further survey 39 efforts until the spring of 2021 and focusing our 40 efforts in Unit 22D and E in the coming year, where 41 we've got real concerns about the moose population and 42 we want to have the most current information available 43 when we transition to registration permits, 44 potentially, in the 22D remainder hunt area and are 45 looking to evaluate just that population as a whole 46 with respect to harvest, abundance, the trajectory of 47 that population. 22D is really the squeaky wheel on 48 the cart right now, and a place, where we've all, as 49 cooperating agencies have identified that we need to 50

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Page 197 1 focus our efforts there and that the muskox, though, 2 vitally important, we feel comfortable holding off 3 until 2021 to complete that work. 4 5 The last couple of things. 6 7 We just wanted to make mention of and 8 acknowledge the efforts that were put forward by the 9 Seward Peninsula Muskox Cooperators Group. Tom, being 10 a part of that whole process from the get-co, and Ken 11 as well, Tony, and some of you folks as well that have 12 been, you know, a part of this process of developing 13 regulations and providing regulations to the Federal 14 Subsistence Board and the Board of Game, the 15 cooperator's group gets a lot of credit for the efforts 16 that they made to get us where we are today and to 17 establish this cooperative working relationship that is 18 so important to the success of the program. 19 20 Some of the strengths of the 21 cooperators group, for those that are maybe not 22 familiar with it or the efforts that they made, really, 23 they represented a wide array of different stakeholders 24 with a variety of different viewpoints. So we had 25 representatives from tribal organizations, local 26 communities, Federal Subsistence Board -- or excuse me 27 RAC members, AC members, people from all different 28 walks of life that had a vested interest in the future 29 of the Seward Peninsula muskox population. Their 30 viewpoints were allowed to be shared with other people 31 and to be discussed accordingly. So through that 32 process they were able to provide recommendations to 33 the Board of Game and the Federal Subsistence Board and 34 one of the things that really made that group 35 particularly successful was the structure of those 36 meetings, in that, they had some clearly defined 37 objectives going into them. They had, over the years, 38 an array of just really excellent facilitators that 39 allowed those discussions to take place and I think, 40 you know, the end result of that is evident in that the 41 actions and recommendations that were made by the 42 cooperators group, most of them were ultimately adopted 43 or factored into the decisions on both the State and 44 the Federal side to create the regulations that we 45 follow today. 46 47 And, lastly, you know, again, with the 48 wide array of stakeholders, one of them was, for the 49 public to have an opportunity to participate in the 50

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Page 198 1 process and then provide input on the direction that we 2 should be going as managers with that population. 3 4 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Bill. 5 Appreciate the information you just gave me about this 6 cooperative group. Reflecting on Tom's comment about 7 at this table, we're supposed to allocate, where are 8 these people. Where's the WACH group representatives 9 at the table here presenting to us. Where is this 10 muskox cooperative group. If we're the ones that are 11 talking about allocations and bring that to the Federal 12 Subsistence Board don't you think that these folks 13 should be at the table. They're kind of, what did you 14 say, the public, bring it to the table. 15 16 So, thank you. 17 18 MR. SPARKS: Mr. Chair. I'd just make 19 a comment on that. The original group was trying to 20 address the overall goals in terms of management, and 21 at the end of that plan it was -- at that time the 22 Federal government had just started with hunting 23 regulations and so with the back of that plan, there 24 was a series of, you know, it could go under State Tier 25 II, Tier I, and it could go Federal, and so the 26 allocative issue wasn't there other than an overall 27 goal of a harvest regime that would allow for a 28 continued growth of the population. So the original 29 cooperator plan addressed the question of like how many 30 could be harvested, but as far as like who would 31 harvest it and then under what regime, it was silent 32 under that. But over the years as the hunt was 33 implemented, that group was very effective in providing 34 advice, like Bill had said, to the Federal Subsistence 35 Board and the State Board of Game. And I know that the 36 Board of Game has had other advisory boards that have 37 helped them and the Federal Subsistence Board has done 38 that as well. So that may be an effective group that 39 could help guide your decisionmaking when it comes to 40 allocative issues. 41 42 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Tom. Any 43 other Council questions or comments at this point. 44 45 (No comments) 46 47 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Are we at the end 48 here, just so..... 49 50

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Page 199 1 MR. DUNKER: We're going to call 2 it..... 3 4 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I asked a lot of 5 questions earlier and I think I kind of slowed 6 everything down and I'm kind of thinking that we're 7 getting to the end. But, anyway, go ahead. 8 9 MR. DUNKER: Yeah, just to kind of 10 build on Tom's comments there. You know the 11 cooperators group, the history speaks for itself, it's 12 been a very effective tool that has been used at times 13 when they've needed to address very specific questions 14 pertaining to the management of Seward Peninsula muskox 15 hunting and other considerations, like wildlife 16 viewing, continued range expansions, those sorts of 17 ideas that came about through that process. 18 19 Moving forward and into the future, you 20 know, we have a very effective regulatory structure in 21 place on both the State and the Federal side that 22 provides us with the flexibility that we need to 23 respond to the current biological situation and 24 administer hunting opportunity in accordance with 25 what's feasible. 26 27 Now, any future cooperators meetings, 28 would likely require some pretty clearly defined 29 objectives to address very specific instances, or 30 questions related to the management of muskox. And 31 those situations would really require -- only require 32 the cooperators group if they're not able to be 33 addressed through kind of the regular channels, whether 34 it be the Federal Subsistence Board or the Board of 35 Game. I think when we go back through time, those 36 entities kind of serve as a good test of whether or 37 not, you know, the issue that this RAC or the local AC 38 or other entities are looking to address requires the 39 cooperators group, you know, issues of amount necessary 40 for subsistence and the transition from Tier I to Tier 41 II, or rather Tier II to Tier I, was a great example 42 where, you know, that question was poised to the Board 43 of Game and the Board said, you know what we need to go 44 back, we need to kind of get the cooperators group 45 involved to help us to address this. I think that 46 would probably be the way that future meetings come 47 about as a result of changes that groups like this, and 48 the ACs and things of that nature want to see happen, 49 and the acknowledgement that, you know, perhaps those 50

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Page 200 1 issues would be best addressed in a larger setting that 2 allows for public input and allows for all these 3 viewpoints to weigh in on it, and allow the, you know, 4 the Federal Subsistence Board and Board of Game to kind 5 of identify instances where they need some help or they 6 need a recommendation from a group of that sort. So 7 something for this Council to keep in mind, moving 8 forward, you know, that identifying some clear 9 objectives that you feel would need to be addressed by 10 the cooperators group could then be considered by, you 11 know, the rest of the cooperators, and a future meeting 12 may or may not come out of that based on, you know, 13 discussions amongst cooperating agencies, with the 14 Board of Game, with the Federal Subsistence Board and 15 those other entities. 16 17 So that's the last slide. 18 19 (Laughter) 20 21 MR. DUNKER: I have more but I'll leave 22 it at that I guess. 23 24 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. So I guess 25 maybe my question just threw a blanket over everything. 26 My point was if these folks have information, which I 27 base my decisions on at the table, I like to have 28 everything, I like to know what's what and if they're 29 getting something that we're not getting at this table, 30 to me, to make a decision, it'd be -- for consistency 31 sake throughout the whole thing, everybody's on the 32 same page idea, I would think that it would be 33 effective -- we would be more effective if some of 34 those folks were sitting at the table, not necessarily 35 having a cooperators meeting but bringing their 36 knowledge to the table so that we could hear it. 37 38 Today, I'm looking in the crowd here 39 and I'm looking for a fisheries guy and I don't see one 40 from the State -- okay, you're here, okay, okay, I 41 don't know everybody in the crowd here right now -- so 42 thank you, we got you, you saved yourself. 43 44 (Laughter) 45 46 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So anyway my idea of 47 best information is how I can make the best 48 determination of what my decision is going to be. And 49 I'm like that on other boards, and I like to think that 50

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Page 201 1 my thought about that is good for everybody at the 2 table. 3 4 Yeah, I like to be right all the time, 5 maybe I'm not quite right here to some people, but the 6 fact of the matter is the best information at the table 7 is the easiest way -- it's easier to make a decision. 8 So I guess that's why I made that comment. 9 10 And thank you for your presentation. 11 12 I did have one question about, you 13 know, you were talking about 22E, 22D moose, I'm going 14 to -- just a question about the ANS determination. Are 15 you basing the whole 22 as a whole unit on ANS, I just 16 want to be clear or can you be taking those -- that 17 specific area and those two subunits and creating one 18 there, because that's a problem area right now. 19 20 I guess that's a two layered question. 21 22 MR. DUNKER: Nope, that's pretty 23 straightforward, I think. 24 25 The C&T determination for moose is for 26 Unit 22 as a whole and the ANS is a unit-wide amount 27 necessary for subsistence so it's -- the range is 250 28 to 300 moose available for harvest. Over the last, 29 boy, I can't remember the date range here exactly, but 30 we generally hover right around 300, I think, the long- 31 term average is like 311, so we are just at the -- 32 above the upper end of the ANS for moose on the Seward 33 Peninsula, and so as a unit-wide ANS they're not broken 34 up by specific subunits at this time. 35 36 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I guess kind of 37 understand that a little bit, I'd rather see it brought 38 down into a specific area, like you're talking about 39 with 22D and 22E to see where it -- what's good for the 40 herd and what's good for the subsistence and just 41 bringing in the whole thing, it kind of reminds me of 42 the Nome subdistrict on fisheries, where we got all 43 these rivers, there's some rivers of concern that 44 aren't getting any fish but we're lumping everything 45 together and saying we're getting 224,000 salmon in 46 here so we're good to go commercial fishing, we're good 47 to do whatever, so that leaves some of these rivers 48 blank. So to me I'm thinking the same thing with the 49 moose, if we're thinking it's okay all over, and we're 50

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Page 202 1 managing this area that's a problem under that type of 2 a management, it would seem to me that we would want to 3 be more specific about that area when we make decisions 4 on how we manage that herd in that area. 5 6 So I don't know, maybe I stuck my shoe 7 in the mud here. 8 9 MR. DUNKER: Well, just if I can in 10 response to your comments there, Louis, you know, where 11 we -- the ANS, as it pertains to my role and our role 12 as managers of the resource, is not going to dictate 13 how we manage that population. And maybe I can explain 14 a little bit more, in that, our primary objective is 15 always to maintain harvest at sustainable levels and to 16 focus on the biology of the population and manage 17 accordingly so that we can maintain a healthy 18 population of moose, muskox, caribou, whatever the case 19 may be. The amount necessary for subsistence would 20 dictate, primarily, allocative decisions with respect 21 to whether or not we administer a hunt as a Tier II 22 hunt, a Tier I hunt or in excess of -- at any level 23 above the ANS to provide for a variety of uses to 24 include subsistence, non-local, non-resident harvest, 25 if it's appropriate. 26 27 So we will continue to focus on the 28 biology. Any of the decisions related to ANS and 29 allocative decisions that may stem from changes to the 30 ANS would ultimately be a Board decision that they 31 would need to take up at a meeting and address through 32 that venue, I suppose. 33 34 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Bill. 35 Anybody else at the table here. 36 37 (No comments) 38 39 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I can't be the only 40 one scratching my head all the time. 41 42 (Laughter) 43 44 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Ron, you had a 45 question. We probably should come back to addressing 46 it. 47 48 REPORTER: Ron, can you say your 49 question. 50

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Page 203 1 MR. KIRK: Yeah, I had a question 2 concerning muskox coming down to the Icyview area 3 between their natural habitat and coming down -- see my 4 concern is school starts in August and we have kids 5 getting ready for cross country and there are students 6 running around, running between Nome belts and the city 7 of Nome preparing for their cross country and then all 8 of a sudden we have muskox coming down and if they feel 9 threatened by these students running right next to 10 them, you know, they're going to go on the defensive 11 and they're going to defend their young ones and their 12 cows and calves and my concern is a young muskox bull 13 attacking one of the students thinking that, you know, 14 he's being threatened by that student that's running by 15 and then here comes another student right behind him 16 and the next thing you know that muskox is thinking 17 that there's a bunch of predators going after him and 18 he's got to defend his family so I'm concerned about 19 that issue there. 20 21 And I want to know why they're coming 22 down from their natural habitat up there, is it because 23 of the feed or predation or what. I'm concerned about 24 the students and the people that live in Nome and their 25 animals, their dogs, you know, man's best friend, 26 they're being attacked by muskox, the man's best 27 friend, they may attack students that are preparing for 28 cross country running. 29 30 That's my concern there, Bill. 31 32 Thank you, Mr. Chair. 33 34 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Ron. There 35 you go, Bill, and then we're going to break for lunch. 36 37 MR. DUNKER: Okay. Very good. Well, 38 Ron, thank you for bringing this issue up, it's 39 obviously one that I spend a great deal of time 40 throughout the summer months dealing with and thinking 41 about. A couple of things that I think we need to 42 acknowledge as part of the issue related to muskox, a 43 nuisance muskox, whatever you want to call them, you 44 know, is that though we make the distinction between, 45 you know, our backyard and muskox habitat, the line is 46 a lot more blurry. You know we live in and amongst 47 muskox habitat and so it's not entirely out of the 48 question for those animals to, you know, be in close 49 proximity to people and their residences. 50

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Page 204 1 The other thing to keep in mind is 2 that, you know, conflicts with wildlife are a situation 3 that is faced by Alaska residents throughout the state. 4 These same sorts of issues with wildlife occur in the 5 Nome area just as they do in the Anchorage Bowl, in 6 Fairbanks, in Juneau. Some of them are -- they're 7 different, depending on where you go, you might be 8 dealing with different species, whether it be black 9 bears getting in garbage cans, moose with calves on the 10 sides of bike trails in Anchorage, the list goes on and 11 on and it's a reality of life in Alaska and that we 12 often times are, by necessity, need to find a way to 13 coexist with wildlife. 14 15 We do a great deal, on the State side 16 to help local residents, whether they be, you know, 17 Teller, Deering, Nome to address as best they can and 18 be prepared for instances where they have encounters 19 with wildlife. Staff are available throughout the 20 summer months to respond to instances or complaints 21 that we receive from the public or the Nome Police 22 Department about muskox that potentially pose a threat 23 to people's property or their safety. We're 24 continuously doing outreach with local pet owners, dog 25 mushers, to encourage them to take the steps that they 26 need to take in order to protect their property from 27 muskox and by doing so, do their part to protect the 28 resource itself. 29 30 We've started to, in the last several 31 years, make a more concerted effort to conduct outreach 32 within the schools. We've made it a point of going 33 every year and talking with the fourth and fifth grade 34 classes, so that those students and their friends are 35 aware of what they should be doing if they encounter 36 muskox. We relay just basic safety information, just 37 as we do with bear safety elsewhere in the state, 38 really just kind of drum that into the kids early on so 39 that they know the best way to behave in the event that 40 they have an encounter with a group of muskox. 41 42 So I guess certainly making some 43 efforts to just continue to conduct outreach and 44 educate the public on ways that they can coexist with 45 these animals as we would anywhere else in the state. 46 47 And as far as, you know, the why, 48 again, that's always a very hard question to answer. 49 There's been any number of different theories related 50

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Page 205 1 to habitat and predation. Whether we'll ever be able 2 to identify a smoking gun, necessarily, for the 3 immediate cause of some of these issues is debatable. 4 In my opinion, it's probably a combination of a variety 5 of different factors that all come together and result 6 in these sorts of issues. 7 8 I lost my train of thought. 9 10 (Laughter) 11 12 MR. SPARKS: Pretty winded. 13 14 MR. SEPI: Yeah. 15 16 (Laughter) 17 18 MR. DUNKER: Pretty winded, okay. 19 20 (Laughter) 21 22 MR. DUNKER: I'll leave it there then. 23 It's certainly something we take seriously and we'll 24 continue to, you know, try and build a better mousetrap 25 here and address these issues as they come up. 26 27 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Leland. 28 29 MR. OYOUMICK: Having heard all what 30 you just said, in the event that they have no choice 31 but to shoot one, how do you keep out of trouble just 32 because you're trying to defend yourself. 33 34 MR. DUNKER: So there is a regulation, 35 a State regulation that allows for the shooting of 36 animals and it doesn't -- it's not specific to muskox, 37 it can cover moose and bears and everything in between, 38 that allows people to kill animals in defense of life 39 and property, a DLP shooting, right. And so in the 40 event, you know, an individual has an encounter with a 41 muskox and there's, you know, an immediate threat to 42 themselves or their property, they have the legal right 43 at that point to destroy that animal, so long as 44 they've taken, you know, the appropriate steps to 45 prevent that situation from happening in the first 46 place. You know if the simplest solution is just to 47 leave the area, well, then we would expect that people 48 do that before they shoot an animal. You know like a 49 bear getting into a garbage can, we're going to bang 50

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Page 206 1 some pots and pans, secure our garbage better, and 2 then, you know, in the future if it continues to be a 3 problem, now you've taken the necessary steps, and it 4 would be justified dispatching an animal that continued 5 to poise a threat. 6 7 There is a requirement that all the 8 salvage requirements be met. 9 10 So for bears, they require that the 11 person that killed the animal salvage the hide and the 12 skull and turn it over to the Department. 13 14 For ungulates, muskox, moose, that kind 15 of a thing, the requirement is that you salvage all 16 edible meat, that would get turned over to the 17 Department and then the Department typically will make 18 that meat available to charitable organizations. 19 There's some local churches that run soup kitchens, 20 food banks, the senior center. We've donated meat to 21 entities such as that that have stemmed from DLP 22 shootings or some other instance where there was an 23 animal taken out of season and not harvested legally, 24 or whatever the case may be. 25 26 MR. OYOUMICK: One more question. Do 27 they have an acceptance for like when people have 28 potlatches for funerals or something like that. 29 30 MR. DUNKER: So there is a -- it's a 31 funerary and mortuary moose harvest, or wildlife 32 harvest where we can allow for the take of certain 33 animals in certain areas for funerals and memorial 34 events for folks that have passed away so long as it's 35 in compliance with sustainable harvest, it's something 36 that we can authorize. 37 38 MR. OYOUMICK: You would have to apply 39 for it first? 40 41 MR. DUNKER: Yeah, I think it's in the 42 12 months after, you know, an individual has passed 43 away, you can contact the Department and we can work 44 with tribal organizations or entities of that sort to 45 submit the request and authorize hunters to go and 46 harvest an animal for a memorial service or a funeral 47 event or potluck associated with something of that 48 nature. 49 50

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Page 207 1 MR. OYOUMICK: Thank you, I was just 2 curious. 3 4 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Elmer, did you have 5 something. 6 7 MR. SEETOT: Yeah, I had a little bit, 8 something like -- I think there is no interaction from 9 the State Department employees, one, I think in 10 following the Constitution, do not harass the animals 11 from the start. I think that's where your problem 12 started with the Nome Icyview area, too many non- 13 consumptive uses, photography, animal lovers, stuff 14 like that. Once they get accustomed to that then the 15 other animals will sense it within the herd and they 16 will continue to do that over the years. I would think 17 that they were -- they were saying something about 18 spring feed or the food that they eat, I think it's 19 pretty much all over. 20 21 But one other thing, what might be, 22 smelling the predators within their vicinity, I know 23 that we had a couple young moose, yearlings that ran 24 through Brevig Mission, one is that I think that they 25 sensed the bear was in and around our area. I know 26 that there are some bears that came into the community, 27 no action was taken on them, almost like two year olds, 28 no activity, I think from Brevig at least for 29 harvesting grizzly or brown bears, so that -- that's 30 kind of past -- over the years I was able to sample 31 bear meat during my younger years, but, overall, from 32 what I seen in our community no harvest of bears within 33 that. But if you do deter the animals from making a 34 habit of going into the community, you got to interact 35 with them right from the start, not display mollycoddle 36 with these -- just to appease, you know, other people 37 that do use the resource. I came face to face with a 38 muskox about four feet. I was assuming it was a moose 39 and I was just looking, I looked mad, my hair stood up, 40 I just kept trying, I just walked, walked out of that 41 brush, once I walked out of that brush, I was running, 42 running my heart out, because I know how destructive 43 those animals are with their horns, and with their 44 hooves. I've been up and close with these animals more 45 than -- more than I can say that, you know, I had a 46 close experience, but these are animals to be 47 respected. Any kind of predator, whether it be bear, 48 whether it be wolf, anything like that needs to be 49 respected along with the animals that you harvest. 50

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Page 208 1 So that's pretty much what it is, I 2 guess, if you don't respect them, then I don't think 3 they'll respect you and then vice versa, things will 4 happen. 5 6 I better quit before I put Tom to 7 sleep. Thank you very much. 8 9 (Laughter) 10 11 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Elmer. So 12 in following that, the questions about dealing with a 13 muskox in your yard. A little humor here. 14 15 I had a friend of mine, kidding around 16 with me, said, yeah, the bigger you are, the harder you 17 fall, and I said would you mess around with a guy that 18 would fight with a muskox with a stick, and he said 19 heck no, and I said, well, I'm that guy. 20 21 (Laughter) 22 23 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I ran one off in my 24 yard but I would recommend that if anybody's going to 25 use a stick, make sure they got a baseball bat by the 26 door so when they run out they got something that will 27 not break in half. I had one attack my two dogs in my 28 yard in Icyview at about two in the morning, about two 29 weeks later, I think it was the same young bull, that 30 got taken care of down the street by another resident 31 of the Icyview community and that was the end of that 32 animal. 33 34 So there's other ways. 35 36 There's two different ways to look at 37 it. 38 39 Thanks. 40 41 Okay, Tom, go ahead. 42 43 MR. SPARKS: I just wanted to make a 44 real quick comment, this is the first time that I've 45 been going to these meetings, anyway, where we've sat 46 together as agency folks and I know that sometimes 47 there's a lot more questions than -- we were asked to 48 do something with the muskox, you know, that was 49 something that you had requested, your Board, and so I 50

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Page 209 1 don't know if we're going to have an opportunity later 2 on to talk about, you know, specific agencies, but we 3 did produce a flier, the Anchorage Field Office, that 4 you've got, and if you've got any questions I'll be 5 around this afternoon, after lunch. 6 7 But if you like this type of format, I 8 think anything that we can do to -- you know, that 9 works for us, or works for you folks, I think we're 10 more than happy to do that. So I just wanted to make 11 that comment. 12 13 Thank you, Mr. Chair. 14 15 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you for your 16 comment. And that's much appreciated, the way it's 17 going on here right now. It's generated, I think, a 18 better conversation. 19 20 So with that, I got nobody else here 21 raising their hands to do anything, maybe we should go 22 to lunch. 23 24 MS. DEATHERAGE: An hour? 25 26 CHAIRMAN GREEN: At least an hour, 27 yeah, so it's 1:00 o'clock. 28 29 MR. SEETOT: 2:00 o'clock back. 30 31 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Yeah, 2:00 o'clock 32 back, and see if we can't get through this today. 33 34 (Off record) 35 36 (On record) 37 38 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So do we want a 15 39 minute intermission so everybody can..... 40 41 MS. DEATHERAGE: No. No. No. 42 43 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I got her. 44 45 (Laughter) 46 47 CHAIRMAN GREEN: We're going to have a 48 fellow named Tyler Lewis do a presentation on -- a 15 49 minute presentation on emperor goose. 50

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Page 210 1 (Laughter) 2 3 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Gotcha. 4 5 (Laughter) 6 7 REPORTER: Tyler, are you on line. 8 9 (Pause) 10 11 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay, we have a 12 presenter on the phone named Tyler Lewis for this 13 emperor goose presentation. 14 15 MR. LEWIS: Okay, can everybody hear me 16 okay. 17 18 REPORTER: Yes, go ahead with your 19 report. 20 21 MR. LEWIS: Okay, thanks everybody for 22 letting me take up a little bit of your time. 23 24 I just wanted to give you some 25 background about some emperor goose research we're 26 doing at Fish and Game. I'm based in the Anchorage 27 office. And some of this is hopefully going to take 28 place in the Seward Peninsula in the coming years so I 29 just wanted to kind of plug you guys into what we're 30 hoping to do and give you a little background on what 31 we're trying to accomplish. 32 33 So just as a little bit of 34 introduction, my name is Tyler Lewis. I'm the 35 waterfowl biologist for the statewide waterfowl program 36 at Fish and Game in Anchorage. And I'm going to talk a 37 little bit about this research project we've been -- 38 well, it's been going on now for about two years and 39 this project first came about out of some changes to 40 harvest regulations for emperor geese in Alaska and 41 there were some concerns about their population status. 42 43 You guys are probably familiar somewhat 44 with the background about emperor geese and harvest, 45 but beginning in the 1980s spring survey counts of 46 emperor geese primarily on the Alaska Peninsula and 47 Yukon Delta, they declined from over 100,000 birds in 48 1982 to less than half that within a five year 49 timeframe. And that was a pretty alarming decline and 50

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Page 211 1 that prompted complete closures of harvest in Alaska, 2 that included a fall/winter general hunt closure in 3 1986, or more commonly just known as the sport harvest, 4 and then the spring and summer subsistence harvest were 5 completely closed in 1987. And both those harvests 6 remain closed for 30 years. During that period, 7 though, the population of emperor geese rebounded very 8 slowly, but by 2017 some management objectives had been 9 reached and we were able to reinstitute harvest and, 10 again, that included a fall/winter harvest. This is a 11 small harvest with a quota of a thousand birds kind of 12 spread throughout Western Alaska and a reopening of 13 that spring subsistence harvest. 14 15 However these survey counts are still 16 ongoing and we're not out of the weeds yet. The most 17 recent survey data from Yukon Delta this last summer 18 dipped below one of our management objectives and we 19 expect that there'll be some restrictions to harvest 20 quotas for 2020, some light restrictions, probably most 21 likely geared towards the fall/winter sport harvest. 22 But this is a little bit of a trend over the last few 23 years and some concern and so we're hoping that some of 24 the research we're doing here will be able to provide 25 some insight into what's going on. 26 27 If we could change to the next slide, 28 please. You should see a list of four different 29 topics. Are we good there. 30 31 REPORTER: Yes, go ahead. 32 33 MR. LEWIS: Okay. So what we're doing 34 is we've got a research project that's going to utilize 35 satellite telemetry to give us a better understanding 36 of life history of emperor geese. The four main topics 37 that we're hoping to get some insight into are listed 38 here. 39 40 The first and our primary interest is a 41 better understanding of annual and seasonal survival 42 rates of adult females. That is, in other words, we're 43 interested in the proportion of birds surviving from 44 one year to the next as well as the proportion 45 surviving from one season to the next within a year. 46 And we're mainly interested in this because adult 47 survival tends to have large effects on rates of 48 population change in emperor geese. It's likely the 49 main driver of their population numbers so whether 50

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Page 212 1 we're seeing populations going up or down. So most 2 importantly, if we understand rates of survival in 3 different seasons, for example, how well birds survive 4 from winter to spring, then if there's some concerns 5 about population status, we have a better understanding 6 of which seasons of the year are having the greatest 7 influence on survival, and that can help us kind of 8 pinpoint some management strategies over which time of 9 the year. 10 11 A second interest of ours from this 12 study is looking at population linkages with Russia. 13 This is really an unknown and cloudy part of the 14 emperor goose life history, mainly for political 15 reasons, we just don't know what's going on over there. 16 But we anticipate that a proportion of our birds will 17 use Russia annually to undergo their flightless wing 18 molt. That's about a 30 to 50 day period of the year 19 where they drop all their feathers, they're flightless 20 and this seems to occur, for the most part, on the 21 northern Siberian coast. So we're a little bit -- we 22 want to get a little bit of more awareness of what 23 habitats are using there and what their survival is 24 during that season. 25 26 Third topic I've got listed here is the 27 winter distribution of emperor geese. This is, again, 28 not real well known, and that's mainly because emperor 29 geese wintering at really remote sites, out the 30 Aleutian Chain and the Alaska Peninsula and, again, 31 even into Russia and the Commander Islands and some of 32 those remote areas. So we know very little about how 33 emperor geese distribute through the winter and 34 linkages between these wintering areas and summering 35 areas. 36 37 And the fourth topic here and the one 38 which is most pertinent to you and, which I'll focus on 39 for the rest of the talk here, is trying to better 40 understand the status of emperor geese on the Seward 41 Peninsula. And, specifically, we would like to 42 understand the extent to which emperor geese that breed 43 on the Seward Peninsula represent a distinct 44 population, or, in other words, do the Seward Peninsula 45 birds, do they mix widely with the rest of the emperor 46 goose population, or are they kind of functioning as a 47 separate and unique population. 48 49 So we'll go to the next slide please. 50

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Page 213 1 So there are two primary breeding areas 2 for emperor geese in Alaska. You should see a map now 3 of Alaska with two stars showing those breeding areas. 4 The first one is the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta and that's 5 really the majority of breeding birds in Alaska, 6 probably about 95 percent of our Alaska breeders, 7 approximately 100,000 birds, and really all of the 8 research on emperor geese and our knowledge is pretty 9 much restricted to this area. Outside of the Yukon 10 Delta, the other significant breeding area for emperor 11 geese is on the northern side of the Seward Peninsula. 12 There's not a lot known about numbers of this 13 population but it's small in comparison to the Yukon 14 Delta, it likely numbers around 1,200 maybe up to 2,000 15 birds and it's probably about five percent or less of 16 the Alaska breeding population. 17 18 Some recent research that we've done 19 and others have done, indicate from birds from the 20 Yukon Delta, when they migrate through to Russia or in 21 northern directions in general, that they bypass the 22 Seward Peninsula and for that reason that suggests that 23 birds that we're seeing on the Seward Peninsula are 24 birds that are locally produced on the Seward 25 Peninsula. So the big population of birds, the Yukon 26 Delta birds, in terms of seeing them, and harvesting on 27 the Seward Peninsula, they're probably for the most 28 part unavailable. 29 30 So, again, what we would like to do is 31 use satellite telemetry and we would like to put 32 satellite transmitters in a sample of emperor geese 33 breeding on that northern Seward Peninsula population 34 and what we hope is that data from some of these birds 35 will inform population delineation of emperor geese. 36 Again, are emperor geese that breed on the Seward 37 Peninsula, are they operating as a distinct population 38 or is there a lot of mixing with other populations. So 39 by answering these types of questions that will help us 40 define an appropriate geographic scale for population 41 monitoring and for harvest management with a species 42 that's been really tricky to manage from a harvest 43 perspective. 44 45 So next slide please. 46 47 So we should see a slide now with four 48 pictures and what we'd like to do again is get data 49 from satellite transmitters on the Seward Peninsula and 50

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Page 214 1 we would be able to compare that with comparable data 2 that we're currently collecting from the Yukon Delta. 3 So we now have some information from Yukon Delta birds 4 that we can share with you to give you an idea of the 5 process of how we deploy transmitters and the types of 6 data that we receive. 7 8 This last summer, in 2019, we put out 9 30 satellite transmitters on the Yukon Delta, we did 10 that during the nesting season in June of 2019. And 11 just a little background about how we accomplish this. 12 First is that we go out and search for nests on the 13 ground. That upper left picture you can see an emperor 14 goose, a female sitting on a next. Once we find nests, 15 that's how we can trap the birds, and that's really the 16 only way we can get our hands on them, is trapping them 17 on the next, so we set a trap around their nest. It's 18 a bonnet trap, it's a spring-loaded trigger trap that 19 goes over the female when she's sitting on the nest and 20 you can see a trap being set in the upper right 21 picture. Once we've trapped a female then we take her 22 back to a veterinarian at camp and the veterinarian 23 will implant a transmitter into her body cavity, you 24 can see a picture of what our transmitters look like in 25 the lower left, and then after that's been done and 26 we've held the bird for awhile, allowing the bird to 27 recover, then we release the bird back to the next 28 site. In that last picture there, it's hard to see, 29 but that's a female emperor goose with a transmitter in 30 her and you can just see at the back end of her, just 31 right above the trail, the antenna projecting out above 32 the tail, so that's what -- basically all you see once 33 the bird has the transmitter in it. 34 35 So next slide please. 36 37 Now you should see a map showing the 38 Western Alaska and the Siberian Coast along the Bering 39 Sea, so just to give you an idea of our types of data 40 we're getting here, so we, again, deployed 30 41 transmitters on the Yukon Delta this last summer. So 42 few things we've learned. First, since we deployed 43 those in June, on 30 birds we've had 100 percent 44 survival of those birds since that time. So that is 45 great from the perspective of it it validates or 46 trapping and our veterinarian procedures for implanting 47 these transmitters. These birds seem to be handling 48 that really well and really successful. And it seems 49 like we've got healthy birds that we've been putting 50

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Page 215 1 transmitters into. 2 3 So just to give a little bit of 4 background about what these birds did. So a lot of 5 these birds departed and as we anticipated they went to 6 Russia to undergo the flightless molt. This specific 7 map shows where these birds were, our 30 birds during 8 the first week of August, and you can see that the 9 majority of them were on the northern Siberian Coast 10 and that's where they went, again, to undergo the 11 flightless molt, and then there were about eight or 12 nine birds that remained on the Yukon Delta, and those 13 are probably females that were raising broods, and then 14 in that case they'll undergo their flightless molt with 15 their brood at the breeding area. 16 17 So of interest to the Seward Peninsula, 18 is that, when these birds left the Yukon Delta to go to 19 Russia is they migrated to Russia via St. Lawrence 20 Island. They stayed on St. Lawrence Island for several 21 days. We had no birds transit through the Seward 22 Peninsula. So, again, this suggests that the birds 23 that we're seeing on the Seward Peninsula are "Seward 24 Peninsula birds", or birds that are produced in that 25 region. So last I checked, these transmitters, most of 26 these birds have since left Russia and they're now down 27 on the Alaska Peninsula around Izembek Lagoon, Nelson 28 Lagoon, in that vicinity and likely going to start 29 spreading out along the Aleutian Chain. And so each of 30 these transmitters will last for three to four years. 31 So it's a great time span and we'll get to learn about 32 each individual bird because of that battery life of 33 the transmitter. 34 35 So next slide, please. And you should 36 see a map of the northern Seward Peninsula. 37 38 So what we would like to do this coming 39 summer is repeat the sampling effort that I described 40 for the Yukon Delta on the Seward Peninsula and deploy 41 some satellite transmitters on the Seward Peninsula. 42 And kind of in anticipation of this coming up, we first 43 needed to figure out where emperor geese were on the 44 Seward Peninsula. After talking to other agencies, 45 colleagues and people, we discovered that there's just 46 not a lot of detail out there about where emperor geese 47 occur on the Seward Peninsula and in what numbers. So 48 with that in mind, over the last two summers during 49 June of 2018 and 2019 we've flown an aerial survey 50

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Page 216 1 along the northern coast from Wales over to Espenberg 2 and a little bit south of Espenberg looking for emperor 3 geese and that's what you're seeing here, is a map of 4 our sightings of emperor geese, presumably of breeding 5 emperor geese. So this was a great success. We didn't 6 even know if we'd really be able to find them aerially, 7 so we learned a lot during these surveys. We learned a 8 few hot spots of emperor geese, we learned that they're 9 concentrated along those Barrier Islands on the 10 northern side. We learned that they're almost 11 exclusively found along the coast, that you see very 12 few emperor geese once you start getting inland. And 13 two areas, in particular, kind of stuck out, you can 14 see them in there, as hot spots for emperor goose 15 activity, and that was the Barrier Islands around Ikpik 16 Lagoon between Wales and Shishmaref and then the Kupik 17 Lagoon area just to the east of Shishmaref, between 18 Shishmaref and Espenberg. Both of those areas seemed 19 to have the highest concentration of emperor geese. 20 21 So next slide please. 22 23 So just now to give you an update on 24 our tentative plans moving forward. So our tentative 25 plan for the summer of 2020 would be to deploy 26 approximately 15 to 20 satellite transmitters on the 27 Seward Peninsula, the northern Seward Peninsula and we 28 would probably target those Barrier Islands that have 29 the highest concentrations of emperor geese. Our 30 trapping could only occur during the nesting period, 31 that's really the only time we can get our hands on a 32 bird, we need that nest to be the predictable site 33 where we can trap the birds. So our trapping would 34 occur during the nesting period, which is traditionally 35 the first two to three weeks of June, although this 36 last summer with everything accelerated, with the 37 temperatures that might have been a little bit late, 38 they might have started nesting, we're guessing in late 39 May, so it could even been swept back to late May. Our 40 transportation to these sites would be by fixed wing 41 plane, likely out of Kotzebue although we're also 42 toying with the idea of getting boat support to get us 43 out to the Barrier Island sites. And then once we're 44 there we'd have a small camp set up of six to eight 45 people for, again, about a two to three week period, 46 and we would be searching for nests and trapping birds 47 in those nests. And this would all be occurring by 48 foot basically walking around looking for nests with a 49 little bit of probably small boats to transport people 50

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Page 217

1 around from site to site. So that would be our on the 2 ground activity. 3 4 And then next slide please. 5 6 And then just again to reiterate what 7 we're hoping to accomplish with these research efforts 8 is, again, these are the main questions specific to the 9 Seward Peninsula. First and foremost is to understand 10 how distinct this Seward Peninsula population is and 11 how much mixing there is with the Yukon Delta birds 12 further south. We'd like to understand where Seward 13 Peninsula birds over winter, are they spreading out or 14 are they all going to the same site. We'd like to 15 understand if they return to the Seward Peninsula each 16 summer, or do some of these birds go breed on the Yukon 17 Delta. And then we'd like a better understanding of 18 what dates these birds are present on the Seward 19 Peninsula and how those line up with harvest dates and 20 other subsistence dates that we currently have set up 21 on the Seward Peninsula. 22 23 Then next slide please. 24 25 And then last slide, that's it, that 26 was kind of an update of what we have going on up there 27 and what we've been doing with emperor geese so I'll 28 leave it at that. This is my contact information. 29 Again, I'm in the Anchorage office. This is phone 30 number and email, anybody please feel free to contact 31 me if you've got questions or advice. 32 33 And with that thank you for your time 34 and for including me in your program today and I'm 35 happy to field any questions if anybody has any 36 questions. 37 38 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Tyler. 39 This is Louis Green. Anybody from Council have any 40 comments or questions. 41 42 (No comments) 43 44 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Hearing none, thank 45 you for that presentation. 46 47 MR. LEWIS: Okay. Well, thanks for 48 including me. 49 50

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Page 218 1 CHAIRMAN GREEN: You're welcome. Have 2 a good day. We're down to reports here from National 3 Park Service first on the list. 4 5 (Pause) 6 7 CHAIRMAN GREEN: You're on. 8 9 MS. HUGHES: Okay. Hello. For the 10 record I'm Letty Hughes, wildlife biologist for Bering 11 LandBridge Preserve here based in Nome. 12 13 So kind of go through a little bit of 14 what has been occurring through like the wildlife side 15 and outreach for Bering LandBridge here, and kind of 16 some of the future plans. 17 18 So you've already heard plenty through 19 the muskox overview, so I'll talk a little bit about 20 seabird die-off in the Bering Strait region, more so of 21 what Park Service has been doing in the Bering and 22 Chuckchi Seas. So this has been, you know, a huge 23 collaboration with Fish and Wildlife Service, with Gay 24 Sheffield, with Fish and Game, so I mean it's coast, 25 and Kawarek has also helped out with this as well. 26 27 So this year's die-off was pretty wide 28 spread in the Bering Sea, from the Bristol Bay region 29 to the northern Bering and southern Chuckchi Seas along 30 the coast of Alaska and the Chukotka Peninsula of 31 Russia. So local communities, scientists, State and 32 Federal agencies have all contributed to reports to 33 this. I think there is a report in your book. There's 34 also, from September, there's not one yet for October 35 but there's one from September on the back table that 36 Sasha has put together of just kind of incidents and 37 where they're at and current updates. So most of the 38 birds that were affected this year were short-tailed 39 shearwaters and that's a species that's typically found 40 off shore and comes from like the Southern Hemisphere 41 to forage in the Bering and Chuckchi Seas, they're not 42 a species of birds that you're going to see when you're 43 just generally walking out along the beach or the 44 tundra. So that's the majority of the type of birds 45 that were out there. But also we were picking up and 46 hearing reports of puffins, murres and auklets were 47 also reported. 48 49 So with that being said, Bering 50

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Page 219 1 LandBridge and other biologists from Park Service did 2 some aerial and ground surveys to do carcass surveys 3 along the Bering LandBridge, and so we did that. We 4 did pick up fresh carcasses of puffins, murres, 5 shearwaters and so that way they can go to Fish and 6 Wildlife Service and they're being tested. 7 8 One of the initial results throughout 9 this sea bird mortality that's, you know, is starvation 10 is the cause of death for the birds in the Bering and 11 the Chuckchi Sea. In other parts of Alaska, such as 12 Southeast, the exposure to saxitoxin, which is like 13 associated with the paralytic shellfish poisoning has 14 been documented in that area. That has not been 15 documented in the birds out in this area, as of yet, 16 right now the thought is still starvation. But Fish 17 and Wildlife Service is still doing their analysis of 18 these birds. 19 20 So, you know, what is coming of that is 21 there's definitely a huge need and desire to understand 22 more and exactly how wide spread this is. We had some 23 folks from Fish and Wildlife Service that was doing 24 some, oh, I guess ship science work through the Russian 25 waters and they just came in and reported to Park 26 Service that just the amount of dead birds that they 27 saw in the Russian waters, so the plan is that we know 28 we need to get further funding and work with the 29 Russian side, like the Beringia Park to understand 30 exactly what's going on on their end and what their 31 subsistence users, what are they seeing in terms of 32 seabird mortality, and also just not seabird mortality 33 but also marine mammal mortality. So when we've done 34 our aerial surveys, a lot of our marine mammal -- the 35 surveys have also been -- we've been marking down when 36 we see marine mammals, whether it's been walrus or 37 whales. So we flew from Shishmaref to Ikpik this fall 38 and, I mean you got to a ways where you weren't even 39 around and we were coming across walrus that were -- 40 not fresh carcasses but they had been there, you know, 41 for a little bit but it was more than normal, same 42 thing with some of the whales that we saw washed up. 43 So it is something that we, you know, are furthering, 44 and know that we need to take this a little bit further 45 to understand what's going on. 46 47 And so we have the support of Fish and 48 Wildlife Service to also go forward with this as well. 49 So we're working on coming up with a funding source so 50

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Page 220 1 we can take it wide spread, and, so hopefully next time 2 we meet in the spring I'll be able to provide some more 3 information on that. 4 5 Another project that we have coming -- 6 a couple projects we have coming up is so as Bill 7 mentioned earlier, there's the Unit 22D and E spring 8 moose survey that is largely staffed by ADF&G but there 9 is a great deal of collaboration with Bering LandBridge 10 Staff on that and so that will just continue to go 11 forward. 12 13 There's also a brown bear survey that 14 is scheduled to take place in late May, early June of 15 this coming year. And that will cover a large portion 16 of Bering LandBridge and central Seward Peninsula. The 17 last survey that was done was in 2015 and so we will -- 18 it's going to be a replicate so that way -- just like 19 we were talking about with the muskox, we're using the 20 same area, same method, same design and that way we can 21 compare it to the 2015 brown bear results. So that 22 survey work will, like I said take place in the later 23 part of May so by the time the spring meeting comes 24 around we will not have any results to give on that but 25 I'll be able to update you on, you know, where we're at 26 in terms of planes and Staff and logistics. 27 28 With that being said, Park Service did 29 hire a brown bear biologist, who will be based in 30 Fairbanks, his name is William Desay, and so he's 31 coming on in a couple days but he's really the large 32 portion of, you know, the Seward Peninsula brown bear 33 survey. So BELA Staff will be working with him pretty 34 close so we can pull this survey off in addition to 35 working with Unit 22 ADF&G Staff folks as well. So 36 once again it takes a lot of effort to be able to pull 37 this off when you need to make sure that all bears are 38 out of the -- pretty much out of the den, and before 39 leave out occurs, and then you just can't see those 40 bears. 41 42 And then the other project that we're 43 hoping we will start later this year but it's all going 44 to be based on whether or not funding is awarded, was 45 the Bering LandBridge fish proposal. That is also in 46 large cooperation with fisheries Staff with ADF&G 47 because a lot of those waters, while the headwaters are 48 in the Preserve, then you start going down to the 49 middle and lower and the mouth and that's over into 50

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Page 221 1 State land. So it involves a great deal of Fish and 2 Game fisheries and also some Park Service fishery folks 3 to get that completed. So if that is awarded that will 4 start in late July, early August. 5 6 So to touch on some educational 7 outreach that Bering LandBridge Staff has been doing. 8 Shishmaref had invited Staff to partake in Inupiaq Days 9 and so Katie Collin land her crew went out other and 10 spent a few days working with folks on an adaptations 11 and soundscapes to the school. And we had received 12 funding to put on a junior day with the Native Village 13 of Shishmaref. So Staff went out there for a couple 14 days to talk to folks about coastal research projects, 15 the needs and concerns of folks from Shishmaref in 16 addition to putting on like -- you know, being a 17 biologist for the day, you know, work with a biologist, 18 learn about the tundra, learn about, you know, any of 19 the coastal work. So that worked out really well. 20 21 And then the last one I have is Bering 22 LandBridge and ADF&G put together, developed a story 23 map on the Western Arctic Caribou Herd and that was 24 taken forward to the Western Arctic Caribou Herd 25 meeting back in December for their support and so -- 26 and they liked it and so it's actually received -- I 27 want to say it's been like over 1,500, almost 2,000 28 views in the last month for this story map. So I 29 realized after all this it would have probably been 30 really good to show it up on the board, so I have a 31 note that come this spring we will bring that story map 32 up so that way the Council can see it. 33 34 So that's all I have at the moment 35 unless there are further questions. 36 37 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Letty. 38 Anybody on the Council here. 39 40 Deahl. 41 42 MR. KATCHATAG: Did you check out the 43 Norton Sound area for dead birds and seals and whale? 44 45 MS. HUGHES: Yeah, through the Chair. 46 So Fish and Game, Brendan Scalon, he's with sportfish, 47 when he's gone to Unalakleet and so forth, he has been 48 walking the beaches, looking for dead carcasses, any 49 reports. I could follow up with Sasha in Fish and 50

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Page 222 1 Wildlife Service to see if there's been any other 2 surveys to, you know, report back, but I'm not aware of 3 any other ones. 4 5 MR. KATCHATAG: I'm asking because 6 there was a lot of dead birds between Unalakleet, maybe 7 even St. Michael all the way to Cape Darby, and also a 8 lot of fish floating up the shore and a lot of seals 9 that went up on land and just died. Then there was a 10 couple of whales that were spotted. 11 12 MS. HUGHES: So I'm making a note here 13 and I can pass that on to Fish and Wildlife Service and 14 ask if, you know, if they've done any aerial surveys 15 and if they've received any carcasses and birds from 16 that area. 17 18 MR. KATCHATAG: They were told this 19 past summer when we spotted them on shore washed up. 20 They should know about it. 21 22 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Anyone else have any 23 questions or comments or concerns. 24 25 (No comments) 26 27 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Ron, are you on line, 28 do you have anything. 29 30 (No comments) 31 32 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Ron, can you hear me. 33 34 (No comments) 35 36 CHAIRMAN GREEN: It seems like he's 37 gone right at the moment. 38 39 I don't have any questions about any of 40 the information you've passed on here, so, thank you. 41 42 Nikki. 43 44 MS. BRAEM: Good afternoon. My name's 45 Nikki Braem. I'm the cultural anthropologist with 46 Bering LandBridge. It's one of the couple of hats I 47 wear there. I'm also the research permit coordinator. 48 49 Real brief update. 50

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Page 223 1 When last we met in Unalakleet, we 2 talked about two possible projects, one was a beaver 3 trapping workshop to be held in Shishmaref. 4 Unfortunately our Staff member that was going to do 5 that left the Park Service before that workshop 6 happened. So when we talk with the tribal government 7 for our annual consultation that we do every year, 8 we'll see if there is still interest in that kind of 9 activity and plan accordingly, I guess. 10 11 Also we discussed how we were planning 12 to do some TEK work with Shishmaref prior to starting 13 our -- if we do some biological studies, the fisheries 14 studies she mentioned of the five major rivers in the 15 Preserve, we would be doing some TEK work with the 16 Shishmaref folks, kind of prior to and in tandem with 17 that, just to inform the study a bit. 18 19 We just concluded a project that began 20 in 2016 with the Native Village of Wales, went (In 21 Native) sort of spearheaded a project to document 22 Inupiaq place names at Wales. Unfortunately he passed 23 away, I believe in 2016, in fact, so the project began 24 before I came on board but the researchers got in touch 25 with Larry Kaplan of the Alaska Native Language Center 26 in Fairbanks to come on board and help out and then 27 they also went back to Wales on two more occasions to 28 document as many Wales dialect place names that still 29 could be found. So that just got finished up and 30 they'll be sending maps back to Wales for the tribal 31 government to distribute. 32 33 We also secured funding for a 34 comprehensive subsistence harvest survey in Buckland, 35 which took place in the spring of this year. Buckland 36 is the community that is -- maybe not as closely 37 affiliated with Bering LandBridge but there is 38 certainly some use of the Bering LandBridge, certainly 39 historically, so it's the kind of survey that's done 40 typically once every 10 years. They don't repeat them 41 very often. And the Division of Subsistence at Fish 42 and Game does the work. They're the ones equipped to 43 do that work, we just facilitate it. 44 45 Coming up, we anticipate possibly doing 46 something similar, making funding available to that 47 kind of survey in Teller or Brevig Mission. Of course 48 this is all contingent on community approval. If they 49 -- you know, these are voluntary surveys and the way 50

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Page 224 1 things if the community doesn't want something like 2 this to happen, it doesn't happen, we don't bother. 3 4 And that's it for me this time, unless 5 you guys have any questions for me. 6 7 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Nikki. 8 Anybody on the Council here have any questions, 9 comments or concerns for Nikki. 10 11 (No comments) 12 13 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Again, I'll ask if 14 Ron's on. 15 16 (No comments) 17 18 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I think Ron's not on. 19 And thank you, Nikki. Thank you, Letty. 20 21 I think Thomas is up next. 22 23 BLM. 24 25 And that other guy. 26 27 (Laughter) 28 29 MR. SPARKS: Thank you. Bruce Sepi is 30 our..... 31 32 33 MR. SEPI: Bruce Sepi, BLM. 34 35 (Laughter) 36 37 MR. SPARKS: Bruce is our subsistence 38 biologist there at the Anchorage Field Office. 39 40 Well, I think we said quite a bit this 41 morning about muskox. Again, I would like to bring 42 your attention to some of those allocative issues that 43 the Board may want to address that we discussed 44 earlier. 45 46 Just staffing changes, I alluded to it 47 this morning. Brian Ubelaker, who was stationed here in 48 Nome requested a transfer to Anchorage and we helped 49 him with that so that position is still -- he's the 50

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Page 225 1 wildlife biologist, that position is in Anchorage. So 2 we hated to see him go, particularly me, all alone 3 again at the office, but we'll continue to march 4 forward. 5 6 I did pass out, earlier, just a little 7 flier and I'll just briefly touch on some things and if 8 there's something that you're interested in and want 9 some more detail, I'll certainly be happy to discuss 10 those. 11 12 We have the last land use plan for our 13 field office. Our field office is about 24 million 14 acres. It's the largest field office in the United 15 States. The Bering Sea Western Interior land use plan 16 is the last land use plan in that area. We have five 17 land use plans that cover our field office. We 18 completed all the public comment, or public hearings, 19 and are about ready to produce the draft and once it's 20 produced it'll be a 30 day comment period and there's 21 also a Governor's consistency review that'll be done 22 and there's a website reference there for those of you 23 that are interested in that. That plan is a very large 24 level -- the land use plans pretty much address how we 25 go about permitting the various activities that BLM 26 does. We're, again, a multi-use agency within the 27 Interior Department. 28 29 We hosted an archeological event there 30 at our Campbell Creek Science Center. 31 32 And then with the reindeer grazing, 33 we're continuing to do surveys out on the reindeer 34 ranges and we went to Koyuk and Shaktoolik this last 35 year. 36 37 And we've cooperated with the Natural 38 Resource Conservation Service with some enclosures that 39 were placed around the Seward Peninsula, particularly 40 around the Nome area. 41 42 We did a number of studies with 43 aquatics, the piqluiq char studies and that was a 44 continuation of a study that was started with the 45 Fairbanks office of the BLM. 46 47 We have been working, in cooperation 48 with OSM, and the Department of Fish and Game, Native 49 Village of Unalakleet, and NSEDC on the weir in 50

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Page 226 1 Unalakleet and we also established a river gauge there 2 in Unalakleet. And we have a publication that we 3 wanted to highlight with the sockeye salmon migrating 4 into Salmon Lake. 5 6 And for some wildlife we've been 7 conducting breeding bird surveys along the Unalakleet, 8 and Bruce is -- one of the longest ones that I'm aware 9 of, Bruce has been heading that up for many years. 10 11 MR. SEPI: Actually this is the 26th 12 year of doing breeding bird surveys on the Unalakleet 13 River and the Anvik actually, too, but Brian Ubelaker 14 had started them on the Nome road system during his 15 time here and he's going to continue that, come up here 16 in June to do those. I don't know if anybody heard on 17 the news, it made national news, that North American 18 bird populations have declined by 25 to 30 percent over 19 the last 50 years, well, those breeding bird surveys 20 are the things that track that sort of thing so they do 21 provide useful information. 22 23 MR. SPARKS: And then we also issue 24 moose permits in Unalakleet and we had 65 issued and 25 three which were filled for this past regulatory year. 26 27 And then the muskox permits, last year 28 we issued six and two were filled. We issued six again 29 this year but we haven't had any harvest as of today. 30 31 And then we continue to collaborate 32 with our partners on the Western Arctic Caribou Herd 33 Working Group. 34 35 MR. SEPI: I can interject there a 36 second. That meeting is going to happen in Anchorage 37 December 10th through 12th. The Board, of which Member 38 Gray is on, has asked to make that meeting a day 39 longer, at least start mid-day on the 10th, meaning 40 that members would have to come on the 9th. But just 41 letting everybody know that in the past we've had a day 42 where just the Board members get together and agencies 43 and then they have the meeting for two days, where this 44 year it's going to be more like two and a half days. 45 So BLM is getting that contract together to make that 46 happen. So just be aware it's happening December 10 47 through 12 in Anchorage, if you've got issues with 48 Western Arctic Caribou Herd. 49 50

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Page 227 1 Thanks, Tom. 2 3 MR. SPARKS: And we have several 4 hazardous material areas that we're working on clean 5 up. Some around Salmon Lake that were on State 6 selected lands that are part of the Salmon Lake 7 settlement agreement between the State of Alaska, 8 Bering Straits Native Corporation and the Federal 9 government. And there is an old cleanup outside of 10 Buckland, it's an old uranium prospect along the Darby 11 Mountains. And then there's some areas on State 12 selected lands on the north side of the Kigluaik 13 Mountains there by Canyon Creek that requires us to do 14 some clean up as well. 15 16 And with recreation, we did some 17 inspections for the special recreation permits we give 18 for big game guides, we did near McGrath and Unalakleet 19 and also up in the Squirrel River area and outside of 20 Koyuk as well. Just have little numbers there, the 21 current special recreation permits, we have six guides 22 that are permitted in Unit 22 and we have five 23 transporters and two guides in Unit 23. 24 25 For land and realty, BLM has made a 26 recent recommendation to the Secretary of Interior to 27 lift what was commonly known as the 17(d)(1) 28 withdrawals, the Seward Peninsula has got two areas, 29 this is coming up this year, that would allow some of 30 those lands to be available for State selection and it 31 would also open some of those lands for mineral entry 32 as they've been closed since those withdrawals. But 33 that is something that we recommend to the Secretary 34 and that's a Secretarial decision. 35 36 We did a number of right-of-way 37 compliance exams along our field office as well. 38 39 So short and sweet, and I know you 40 heard a lot from us this morning but we'd be happy to 41 entertain any questions that the Board may have. 42 43 Thank you. 44 45 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you. On that 46 hazardous materials, you had that first listing on 47 there was unauthorized occupancy cabins at Salmon Lake, 48 what was that? 49 50

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Page 228 1 MR. SPARKS: You may be aware that the 2 Federal government had small tract sales available 3 during its history and so Salmon Lake was divided, 4 surveyed, basically for small tract sales and there 5 were a number of what, our terminology, unperfected, so 6 people entered those lands and built structures on them 7 and during the land transfer, the State of Alaska 8 requested that we move those remnants of those 9 buildings on some of those lots that are scheduled to 10 be conveyed to the State of Alaska and we've been 11 working on those for a number of years. 12 13 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Would some of them be 14 there at the mouth of Grand Central River? 15 16 MR. SPARKS: Near the mouth, yes. 17 18 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Yeah, there's two. 19 20 MR. SPARKS: Yes. 21 22 CHAIRMAN GREEN: And then where would 23 the third one be? 24 25 MR. SPARKS: It's by Fox Creek. 26 27 CHAIRMAN GREEN: At the mouth there, 28 too. 29 30 MR. SPARKS: Fairly close. 31 32 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you. 33 34 MR. SPARKS: You're welcome. 35 36 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Did somebody say 37 something -- Ron. 38 39 (No comments) 40 41 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Oh, I thought I heard 42 a noise there. 43 44 (Laughter) 45 46 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. I don't have 47 anything. 48 49 MR. SPARKS: Just a thing to add, 50

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Page 229 1 overall, we had a very intensive fire year this year. 2 The Swan Lake fire was very difficult for our agency 3 and our partnering agencies and we had a number of 4 lightening strikes this year on the Seward Peninsula, 5 unprecedented lightening strikes. We had a very large 6 fire northeast of Koyuk, we took some action on that. 7 But just to let the Board know that it was a very 8 challenging year for us in terms of our fire response, 9 just the shear number of fires that we had in the 10 state. 11 12 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you. 13 14 MR. SPARKS: You're welcome. 15 16 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I think that's it. On 17 to the next, ADF&G, Luke Henslee's name is on here. 18 19 MR. HENSLEE: Hello, Mr. Chair and 20 members of the Council. For the record my name is Luke 21 Henslee. I am a fishery research biologist for 22 Commercial Fish Division of ADF&G and I'm here to give 23 the highly anticipated report from fisheries. 24 25 (Laughter) 26 27 MR. HENSLEE: And I'll be focusing on 28 the operations of Unalakleet River weir, and 29 specifically chinook salmon escapement. 30 31 So I'll give you a really quickly a 32 brief history of chinook enumeration in the watershed. 33 North River tower has been in operation since, I 34 believe, 1984, and on the handout that you should have, 35 that's in Table 2 on the back of the sheet. And so 36 North River was used as an indicator stream for a long 37 time so enumeration from that river was used to inform 38 management decisions for the entire watershed. And 39 you'll notice that in 1997 and 1998 there were some 40 telemetry studies performed in Unalakleet River that 41 indicated that about a third of chinook salmon in the 42 watershed traveled up the North River to spawn so it 43 was kind of a loosely held belief for several years 44 that about a third of chinook were going up the North 45 River to spawn. And that didn't -- that wasn't used to 46 project total escapement in this system, it was just 47 kind of something to inform managers they kept in the 48 back of their mind. However, some doubts about that 49 led to the creation of Unalakleet River weir in 2010, 50

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Page 230 1 and those escapement estimates are on Table 1 on the 2 front of the page. And once we started getting those 3 estimates we realized that that one third proportion 4 was not something that replicated itself every year. 5 So like I said fortunately we had never used that 6 proportion to publish any estimates because as you can 7 see from that last column on the table it's not a very 8 good representation. 9 10 And one major change in weir operations 11 I should mention is that last year we actually 12 increased the spacing between the pickets in the weir 13 from 3.2 centimeters to 4.3 centimeters and this was to 14 allow pink salmon to pass through the weir while 15 enumerating -- still being able to enumerate chum and 16 chinook salmon because in 2017, as an example, 6.1 17 million pinks moved through the weir and were counted 18 by Fish and Game technicians so we made the decision to 19 try to mitigate that spacing the pickets a little 20 further apart and so because of that we no longer have 21 reliable estimates for pink salmon at the Unalakleet 22 main stem, but it's been an overall trend in the region 23 and even statewide that pink salmon populations are 24 increasing as can be indicated, the North River tower 25 still enumerates them and they had two million pink 26 salmon last year, 1.5 million the year before and 27 roughly a million before that. So those populations 28 are really ramping up. And this had the added benefit 29 at the weir, it was easier and more efficient to 30 capture and sample kings without having all those pinks 31 clogging up the works. 32 33 This last summer operations started on 34 June 21st as soon as water was low enough. And that is 35 about a week later than we usually like to put in but 36 the heavy snowfall last year kept those water levels 37 really high. And then operations ended August 2nd, 38 which is about a week earlier than normal, and that was 39 due to a high precipitation event, the waters came up 40 and we had to take the weir out. 41 42 So as far as escapement this year 43 numbers are still very preliminary but we see that 44 6,641 kings escaped through the weir this year. 10 45 percent had passed by June 27, and then we had a really 46 exceptional escapement day, there was 2,122 kings that 47 passed the weir in one day on June 29th and I seen 48 videos of it, it's really something to see because that 49 exceeds the entire years escapement through the weir 50

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Page 231 1 for 2010 to 2017, that's more than passed through the 2 weir through the whole season. 3 4 So that kind of obscured our 25 percent 5 mark and we see that we hit the 50 percent escapement 6 mark by June 30, 75 percent of the total chinook had 7 passed by July 7, and 90 percent of our total had 8 passed the weir by July 10. 9 10 If we combine this with, again, 11 preliminary escapement estimates from North River, we 12 have a combined escapement -- oh, I'm sorry -- if we 13 also combine that with the commercial harvest, our 14 total returning population can be estimated to be about 15 10,859. And, again,that's really preliminary. I'll 16 talk about the harvest again in a moment. I will say 17 right now we don't yet have sportfish or subsistence 18 harvest data. 19 20 So compared to other years this last 21 year was double the next highest escapement in weir 22 history, which was 3,326 last year. And then when we 23 combine it with North River escapement it's almost 24 double the next highest total escapement year in weir 25 history, which was 4,739 in 2015. So escapement has 26 been increasing. 27 28 Last year we sampled 266 king salmon 29 for age, sex and length, we haven't aged all the scales 30 yet but I can tell you that 42 percent of those sampled 31 chinook were females and the average length was 645 32 millimeters from mid eye to fork of tail. I can tell 33 you the age structures from last year which was pretty 34 typical age structure in recent years, so 0.3 percent 35 were 1:1, and I should mention really quickly that the 36 first number is the years that the fish spent in fresh 37 water and the second number is the amount of years the 38 fish spent in saltwater. So 0.3 percent was 1:1. 19.9 39 percent was 1:2. 65.6 percent was 1:3. 14.6 percent 40 was 1:4. And 0.7 percent was 1:5. And, again, this is 41 a pretty typical age structure for the Unalakleet River 42 basin. 43 44 This year some fishery biologists from 45 around the state gathered to assess some escapement 46 goals throughout the state and they determined that we 47 do not have enough data to form an escapement goal for 48 Unalakleet River weir. But for your information North 49 River does have an escapement goal and it is between 50

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Page 232 1 1,200 and 2,600 king salmon. 2 3 And then briefly I'll overview the 4 harvest for 2019. The commercial harvest was 906, 5 which is about three times higher than the five year 6 average. The processor this year was paying $3 a pound 7 there's a total ex-vessel value of 30,393 for 8 commercially caught chinook salmon. 9 10 Subsistence household surveys were 11 completed about two weeks ago and we have yet to 12 analyze that data. But I can tell you that the five 13 year subsistence average is 745 fish and that has been 14 a pretty stable number for the past 10 years. 15 16 Sportfishing was open for the first 17 time in the drainage since 2010 and we do not have any 18 preliminary estimates for that harvest. 19 20 And then I'm going to go ahead and nip 21 in the bud some of the mortality events that were 22 observed this year in the region. And I will say that 23 we did -- Department employees received an InterAgency 24 memo a couple months ago about some of these morality 25 events that have been reported all around the state and 26 there has been an effort to compile observations 27 throughout the region and there's actually work on a 28 statewide report for these mortality events that should 29 be coming out sometime next year so it's something that 30 the Department recognizes and takes seriously. 31 32 I'll talk just really briefly about 33 some of the mortality events in the Norton Sound that 34 were reported and observed and specifically pink salmon 35 seemed to be affected in the Norton Sound. This was 36 confirmed by several observations. Let's see, cause of 37 die-offs as of right now is not entirely understood but 38 it's likely attributed to high water temperatures, high 39 concentration of fish, especially pink salmon and the 40 potential for oxygen deletion, so basically those warm 41 temperatures don't dissolve as much oxygen and also the 42 high population numbers deplete that as well. And that 43 has been attributed to these mortality events. We have 44 reports of tributary water temperatures in excess of 20 45 degrees celsius, average river temperature at the 46 Unalakleet River weir this year was 14 degrees, which 47 is about three degrees higher than five years ago. 48 49 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Can you tell me those 50

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Page 233 1 temperatures in English. 2 3 MR. HENSLEE: In Fahrenheit, man off 4 the top of my head, I don't know if I can convert it 5 off the top of my head. 6 7 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I'm hearing all these 8 metric numbers and I'm going -- I wasn't one of those 9 guys that adapted to the metric system. 10 11 MR. HENSLEE: It's warm, that's like 12 room temperature, yeah. 13 14 MS. DEATHERAGE: Bruce here has some 15 insight. 68 degrees fahrenheit for 20 degrees. 16 17 MR. SEPI: 21 is, I believe 70 degrees. 18 19 MR. HENSLEE: Yeah. 20 21 MS. DEATHERAGE: 14 at the 22 Unalakleet..... 23 24 MR. STONE: 14 degrees is 57 degrees 25 fahrenheit. 26 27 MS. DEATHERAGE: You go. 28 29 MR. HENSLEE: Yeah. So, yeah, take 30 away that three degree increase since 2015 at the weir 31 site. 32 33 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you. 34 35 MR. HENSLEE: So that has largely been 36 believed to be the culprit for those mortality events 37 but like I said there's going to be a more 38 comprehensive statewide report coming out, hopefully 39 next year. 40 41 And I think that is about everything I 42 have right now, and I'm free to take questions. 43 44 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Leland. 45 46 MR. OYOUMICK: Are you establishing a 47 DNA for that river or all the DNAs the same or does the 48 rivers, all the fish in the different rivers, do they 49 differentiate. 50

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Page 234 1 MR. HENSLEE: That's a really good 2 question and actually genetic baselines have been 3 established for a lot of the systems in that area. I 4 know that chinook and chum, in particular, and I 5 believe coho do have some genetic baselines 6 established, however, we don't currently have the 7 resolution to be able to distinguish populations at 8 that detailed of a level. There is some unpublished 9 work right now that indicates that we might have a 10 level of detail that could differentiate Yukon bound 11 chinook salmon from Norton Sound chinooks, but like I 12 said it's unpublished and there's some work to be done 13 on it. But I can also tell you that in partnership 14 with NSEDC, ADF&G is going to be collecting some 15 genetic samples in the coming years, mostly on chum and 16 coho. 17 18 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you. Leland. 19 20 MR. OYOUMICK: One more question, are 21 you aware of the hatchery thing, where they're doing in 22 Unalakleet with NSEDC, I think, it is in the -- I just 23 wondered if you knew about that. 24 25 MR. HENSLEE: I know a little bit about 26 it. I know that NSEDC has, I believe, either this year 27 or last year started an enhancement project similar to 28 some that they have up here in the Nome area and 29 they've been attempting to stock South River Unalakleet 30 and that's been something that's been kind of 31 speculated about for a lot of years and it's been a 32 question of why South River has virtually drawn no 33 chinook to spawn in that river, it's still kind of 34 unknown why that is. I think the most prevailing 35 theory is there's just a lot of debris in that river 36 and it's difficult for chinook to migrate up. But I'm 37 not sure of a lot of the exact specifications of the 38 project but, yeah, I do believe NSEDC has been working 39 on an enhancement project on South River for chinook. 40 41 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you for the 42 answers that you could give. I know the South River 43 project's been going on for quite awhile. It goes back 44 five, six years maybe. The hatchery project going on 45 there or some sort of a -- Jim Menard was here the last 46 time and I asked him about it and he said there was 47 supposed to be something coming up, the run should be 48 returning by next year and we should know something and 49 so you don't have any information on that? 50

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Page 235 1 MR. HENSLEE: Oh, specifically on the 2 South River, no, I don't. And you'd really have to 3 inquire with NSEDC, I think, for some particulars about 4 that. To my knowledge, which is not extensive, it's 5 only been in the last few years that they've been 6 actually actively running that enhancement program in 7 the South River but I could be wrong about that. 8 9 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Well, I just happen to 10 know that there are -- I know one of the people that do 11 the egg collections and it's been going on for awhile 12 and also there is something like that, of the sort, in 13 Nome going on and nobody seems to be able to answer 14 anybody's questions about it so it's getting my 15 curiosity up, what are we doing with South River if you 16 sat here and told us that there's a problem with the 17 watershed, why are we taking eggs from a different 18 system and putting them in the South River. And then 19 here in Nome, what are we doing here in Nome with a 20 hatchery circulation system in Nome and the public 21 doesn't know about it. 22 23 Yeah, so. 24 25 MR. HENSLEE: Yeah, that's all NSEDC 26 operations and I'm not trying to be allusive or throw 27 them under the bus, I'm just saying that in all of 28 those operations Fish and Game is not collaborating 29 with those projects. 30 31 CHAIRMAN GREEN: But it's our resource. 32 It's our resource and we can't get an answer. I'm 33 sorry I'm not trying to pick on you so, I understand 34 where you're at. 35 36 MR. HENSLEE: No, it's okay. 37 38 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So we have asked in 39 the past about it so it behooves me to be asking that 40 question again of the supervisors. And Fish and Game 41 is in charge of that hatchery stuff because Sam Raybung 42 is the main guy on hatcheries. So maybe passing that 43 information on to your folks over there in the office 44 that we'd like to have some kind of a report at the 45 next meeting. 46 47 Thank you. 48 49 MR. HENSLEE: All right, thank you. 50

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Page 236 1 MR. KATCHATAG: Mr. Chair. 2 3 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Go ahead. 4 5 MR. KATCHATAG: On your king salmon in 6 Unalakleet, you put your weir in when? 7 8 MR. HENSLEE: This year it went in June 9 21. 10 11 MR. KATCHATAG: Okay. There was kings 12 being caught long before that and how did you get your 13 numbers for this past year when we know -- when we know 14 there's a lot of kings going up long before you put the 15 weir in. 16 17 MR. HENSLEE: Yeah, so we normally like 18 to have the weir in at the beginning of June to try to 19 catch the front end of that rum and unfortunately this 20 year, just high waters sort of prohibited that. As you 21 probably know the weir is several river miles from the 22 mouth and so usually we're able to catch the front of 23 the run even if we're in a little late because it does 24 take those fish some time to get up to the weir. But 25 right now in this region we informally operate under a 26 one percent rule, which basically says that if we 27 enumerate the first one percent of the run -- if the 28 first day of enumeration accounts for less than one 29 percent of the total run then we consider the entire 30 run to have been enumerated, and that was the case this 31 year. But you will notice on the handout that I gave 32 you, there's some superscripts next to some years where 33 we weren't able to enumerate the entire run, and this 34 was not one of those years, we estimate that we did 35 enumerate the entire Unalakleet chinook run. 36 37 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Anybody else here at 38 the table have any questions of Mr. Henslee. 39 40 (No comments) 41 42 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I don't know if, Ron, 43 I'm going to give you a chance again if you're there. 44 45 MR. KIRK: No, I'm back Mr. Chair. 46 47 (Laughter) 48 49 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay, go ahead. 50

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Page 237 1 MR. KIRK: Mr. Henslee, I've said it in 2 the past and I'm going to say it again, you best put a 3 weir to count king salmons going up river but I've said 4 it before and I'm going to say it again, fish swim 5 under the ice. They come a lot sooner than when you 6 put your weir in. If you put your weir in the first of 7 June, maybe you should put it in almost maybe middle 8 part of May, or ending of May, that's when the fish 9 hit. 10 11 Thank you, Mr. Chair. 12 13 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Ron. 14 Karen. 15 16 MS. DEATHERAGE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 17 I'm going to speak, hopefully with the permission of 18 Mr. Katchatag, he would like you to explain what 19 enumerate means when you're discussing how you come up 20 with the numbers for these fish coming through the 21 weir. 22 23 Thank you. 24 25 MR. HENSLEE: Sure, thank you for that. 26 And, yeah, I should explain. So enumerate is basically 27 a fancy word for count. So the weir is designed to 28 count every fish that comes through it. So we have 29 technicians on site who are visually identifying fish 30 traveling through the weir and counting them on 31 clickers. And, yeah, we make every effort to get in as 32 soon as we can and usually we're just hindered by high 33 water levels so we -- we usually put technicians out on 34 site in preparation for installing the weir and they're 35 constantly calling us with water level updates and as 36 soon as the levels get close we scramble everybody out 37 there and so I can say with a lot of confidence that as 38 soon as it's possible to put that weir in it goes in. 39 40 All right, thank you. 41 42 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Five minute break 43 while we're changing hands here at the table. The boss 44 said so. 45 46 (Off record) 47 48 (On record) 49 50

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Page 238 1 CHAIRMAN GREEN: We got some folks from 2 ADF&G who want to let us know about some proposals that 3 are coming up for wildlife. So it's up to you Bill, 4 you have the floor. 5 6 MR. DUNKER: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 7 8 MS. DEATHERAGE: Could we get -- you 9 guys -- Leland, round them up. 10 11 (Pause) 12 13 CHAIRMAN GREEN: All right, Bill. 14 15 MR. DUNKER: Mr. Chair. Would you like 16 me to get rolling here. 17 18 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Yep. 19 20 MR. DUNKER: Well, I apologize for 21 throwing a wrench in the works here. My intent with 22 sharing the information that we've passed around was to 23 make the members of the Council aware of some of the 24 proposals that have been submitted to the Board of Game 25 for this coming Board cycle that pertain to Unit 22, 26 specifically. 27 28 There are some that we have really 29 covered in detail, particularly Proposal 33, to modify 30 the seasons and require a registration permit for moose 31 hunting in Unit 22D remainder. We had submitted a very 32 similar, actually identical proposal, to the Federal 33 Subsistence Board which you guys supported with all the 34 amendments yesterday. 35 36 So with that said, the proposals will 37 be discussed in great detail at the upcoming Board of 38 Game meeting January 17th through the 20th right here 39 in this room in Nome and the public comment period for 40 these proposals is open until two weeks prior to the 41 start of the meeting so January 3rd would be the last 42 opportunity to turn those in. They can be submitted on 43 line, or in writing and there's also the opportunity to 44 provide public comment at the meeting itself if, you 45 know, folks feel strongly about a particular issue and 46 want to voice their opinion directly to the Board of 47 Game, that's also an opportunity. 48 49 CHAIRMAN GREEN: January what? 50

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Page 239 1 MR. DUNKER: January 17th through the 2 20th. 3 4 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. January 17th 5 through the 20th and what's the deadline for comment? 6 7 MR. DUNKER: January 3rd. 8 9 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. 10 11 MR. DUNKER: And so all of this 12 material that we're going to go over here, the Board 13 proposal book is available on our website on alaska.gov 14 under the Board of Game section so if you're looking 15 for this stuff there, that'd be a good place to start, 16 or if you're looking for this stuff in general it's 17 going to be there. 18 19 Our Department analysis and 20 recommendations, kind of similar to what OSM would 21 prepare for Federal proposals will be made publicly 22 available in the near future, we're awaiting just some 23 other final reviews at headquarters and with the 24 Commissioner and then we'll be making those analysis 25 and recommendations available to the public. So Sarah 26 and I have the draft ANRs for some of these proposals 27 with us here today and can do our best to answer 28 questions specific to some of these proposals. 29 30 Louis, do you want to go one by one or 31 what do you want to do? 32 33 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Yeah, go one by one 34 and if Council has any objections, I mean they can make 35 it on the record, agreeing with or against. So I'd at 36 least like that liberty at this time because we don't 37 have any other time. 38 39 Thank you. 40 41 MS. GERMAIN: Okay. This is Sarah 42 Germain, assistant area biologist. So the first 43 proposal is No. 30, the taking of muskox by proxy. And 44 basically this proposal would allow muskox in Tier II 45 hunts to be proxy hunted by eligible hunters. 46 47 Currently proxy hunting is only allowed 48 for caribou, deer, emperor geese, and what they're 49 trying to do is open it up for muskox in Tier II hunts. 50

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Page 240 1 So this would apply to Unit 22 and wherever there's a 2 Tier II situation for muskox. 3 4 So I guess -- I'm not sure if you want 5 me to just read the proposal or tell you any other 6 information but I'll leave it at that for now. 7 8 Thank you. 9 10 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I'll just let you go 11 ahead and read through it and then that way everybody 12 at the table has an understanding. I know it's going 13 to take a little bit longer but just kind of then 14 everyone will hear it. 15 16 MS. GERMAIN: Okay. So, again, through 17 the Chair, this is Sarah Germain. 18 19 So this Proposal 30, taking of muskox 20 by proxy was submitted by our Northern Norton Sound AC 21 team. And the issue that they would like the Board to 22 address is -- so this proposal seeks to allow proxy 23 hunting in Tier II muskoxen hunts in Unit 22B through 24 22E. The trophy value is destroyed in the field, 25 subject to permit conditions. These hunts are allowed 26 for the harvest of meat, horn and fiber by Alaskan 27 residents. These products are distributed throughout 28 the community and because the harvest rate is high 29 there is rarely excess permits about the harvestable 30 surplus. Families and communities have missed 31 opportunities for harvest when the permitholder becomes 32 disabled for whatever reason. 33 34 And our draft comments, the Department 35 is neutral on this proposal because it has not 36 identified biological concerns associated with muskox 37 harvest in Region 5, however, the Department asks the 38 Board to defer this proposal to the 2021 statewide 39 meeting when proxy hunting regulations will appear on 40 the call for proposals. The Board may also want to 41 consider if all muskox hunts should be eligible for 42 proxy authorizations or if we should just limit proxy 43 authorizations to Tier II hunts only. 44 45 Thank you. 46 47 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Sarah. Are 48 there any comments by Council on this. 49 50

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Page 241 1 (No comments) 2 3 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I, for one, don't have 4 a problem with proxy hunts. I see it's Tier II, but 5 any hunts as far as I'm concerned is okay in my book 6 when it comes to proxies. 7 8 Go ahead, Karen. 9 10 MS. DEATHERAGE: Mr. Chair, thank you. 11 If the Council decides they would like to send in 12 comments on this then I would ask that the Chair 13 entertain a motion and get Council approval and, I, 14 will in turn, send the comments on your behalf to the 15 Board of Game for any proposals you choose. 16 17 Thank you. 18 19 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. So to go along 20 with this proposal here I would like to have a motion 21 in favor of it, so I need a motion and a second so we 22 can vote on it and move on. 23 24 MR. SEETOT: Mr. Chair. I so move. 25 26 MR. OYOUMICK: I second. 27 28 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Elmer. 29 Thank you, Leland. Any discussion at all. 30 31 (No comments) 32 33 MR. KATCHATAG: Question. 34 35 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Question's been -- oh, 36 yep, we got discussion. Go ahead, Elmer. 37 38 MR. SEETOT: I think this proposal, we 39 talked about but it wasn't exactly in proposal form 40 because most of our hunts in the community, it's not 41 contingent on who's authorized to hunt, we know who the 42 hunters are within the community, especially marine 43 mammal hunting, they're very proficient. We try to 44 make it efficient so that I, myself, who provides the 45 gas or other financial means, can expect something, but 46 usually in these conditions it all depends on where the 47 game is and stuff like that. But that's what we have 48 been trying to push for in the past year, was getting 49 someone to hunt for -- in place of the permitholder and 50

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Page 242 1 that would kind of make the hunt more efficient and 2 then also probably -- where the quota is it can be met 3 through that way because one's that fill out the 4 permit, necessarily, doesn't mean that they have the 5 financial means to go after the animal, or, in fact, 6 any mechanical transport, you know, to that area. 7 8 Thank you. 9 10 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Elmer. 11 Anybody else. 12 13 14 (No comments) 15 16 CHAIRMAN GREEN: All those in favor of 17 this motion say aye. 18 19 IN UNISON: Aye. 20 21 CHAIRMAN GREEN: All those against, 22 same sign. 23 24 (No opposing votes) 25 26 CHAIRMAN GREEN: We're on the record 27 stating we agree with this. 28 29 MS. DEATHERAGE: Thank you. So I just 30 want to make it clear that the Council supports 31 Proposal No. 30 to the Board of Game. 32 33 CHAIRMAN GREEN: On to the next one. 34 35 MR. DUNKER: So Proposal 31 seeks to 36 establish a registration permit hunt for muskox in 37 Units 21D, 22A and 24D. The proposal was submitted by 38 the Middle Yukon Fish and Game Advisory Committee, the 39 proponent there in Kaltag. 40 41 The Department is currently neutral 42 with regards to the proposal because of its allocative 43 nature. Muskox in Units 21D and 24 immigrated to this 44 area from the Seward Peninsula muskox population, as a 45 result the Department recommends animals in this area 46 be considered a part of the Seward Peninsula muskox 47 population. 48 49 The Board will need to address the 50

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Page 243 1 absence of a C&T finding in Units 21 and 24 and the 2 Department recommends the Board consider expanding the 3 existing C&T finding for Seward Peninsula muskox. 4 Addressing that C&T issue will help guide what type of 5 hunt to hold in the area. 6 7 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thanks. Is there any 8 comments here or any questions by the Council. 9 10 (No comments) 11 12 CHAIRMAN GREEN: This hasn't been -- 13 you're saying the State's neutral on this? 14 15 MR. DUNKER: Yeah, Mr. Chair, so we've 16 identified that there's -- well, we were talking about 17 it earlier, there's approximately 473 muskox in this 18 area kind of in question. We've identified that there 19 is a harvestable surplus. It's based on harvest rates 20 that we're applying elsewhere in the unit intended to 21 maintain bull/cow ratios at historic levels. And with 22 that said, we figure we've got about 9 bulls available 23 for harvest in this area. The 22A portion of this is 24 already included in the Seward Peninsula muskox C&T 25 determination and, therefore, would fall under the ANS 26 that's been outlined for that population. The portion 27 that's in question is the 21 and 24 section, and that's 28 the part where we've advised the Board to address the 29 lack of a C&T determination in that area. 30 31 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So I guess it's up to 32 the Council to either vote for or oppose it or take no 33 action. 34 35 (Pause) 36 37 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So, no action. 38 39 MR. SEETOT: We can flip on it. 40 41 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Flip on it. 42 43 MR. SEETOT: No action, yeah, I would 44 go with no action. 45 46 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Are we going to do a 47 vote here. Do we need a vote? 48 49 MS. DEATHERAGE: Mr. Chair. If you do 50

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Page 244 1 not elect to send comments to the Board of Game on this 2 particular proposal, you do not need to vote to put it 3 in the comment letter. 4 5 Thank you. 6 7 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. So 22A is 8 already under our influence here but the other ones 9 aren't. 10 11 MR. SEETOT: Yeah. 12 13 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So I think we can skip 14 to the next one. 15 16 MS. GERMAIN: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 17 For Proposal 32, we have hunting seasons and bag limits 18 for caribou. Basically this proposal is just trying to 19 extend the current open season for caribou, about 50 20 miles east to the Nuluk River, drainage in 22E. So 21 this was a public proposal. Currently the Alaska Board 22 of Game does not allow caribou hunting west of the 23 Singigyak (ph) River drainage due to domestic reindeer 24 herds possibly being in the area. The concern is 25 domestic reindeer may accidentally be harvested in this 26 area. The proponent of this proposal believes the 27 differences are distinguishable as the breed is shorter 28 in height, heavier in weight, darker and in most cases 29 is equipped with ID tags. These characteristics make 30 reindeer easy to identify from caribou. 31 32 So as far as this proposal we are 33 neutral -- let me see if I can find my justification -- 34 oh, thank you -- so the Department is neutral on this 35 proposal because it has not identified biological 36 concerns associated with caribou in Unit 22. The 37 adoption of this proposal may increase opportunity for 38 hunters when overwintering caribou are concentrated in 39 the currently closed Central and Western portions of 40 Unit 22E. It would also increase access for Wales 41 hunters seeking to hunt caribou. Conversely, it may 42 adversely affect the local reindeer herds if hunters 43 mistakenly harvest reindeer instead of caribou. 44 45 Thank you. 46 47 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you. So a 48 question on this, are the -- anybody with a herd over 49 there have any knowledge of this? 50

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Page 245 1 MS. GERMAIN: Through the Chair. I am 2 not sure if they know of it, we're pretty much waiting 3 for the Reindeer Herder's Association to bring that up. 4 I've tried to reach out to a few people but have not 5 been successful yet. 6 7 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay, thank you. 8 9 Nikki, do you have something to offer 10 here. 11 12 MS. BRAEM: For the record, I'm Nikki 13 Braem with BELA. I happened to be out in Wales in 14 August after I spoke with you, and I did drop off a 15 copy of this proposal with Davis Ontowashik, who is the 16 reindeer herder there. I believe I also handed a copy 17 to the tribal government saying they may want to take a 18 look at this and talk to Davis. Davis did say that not 19 all his deer had tags, would be the only other thing 20 I'd note about that, and I assume they will provide you 21 more detail but I did take a copy of that out there. 22 23 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Was there any 24 discussion of the Olanna Herd there? 25 26 MS. BRAEM: No, I only went to Wales 27 and talked with Davis about his deer. 28 29 CHAIRMAN GREEN: According to Elmer he 30 said there's nothing left of the Olanna Herd. 31 32 MR. SEETOT: As far as I know I know 33 that Wales has a herd, I heard his -- his brother, 34 Davis' brother told me a couple years ago that he was 35 concerned about the caribou hunting around the Nuluk 36 River because, you know, his reindeer -- or his grazing 37 permit is in and around that area, so that was one of 38 the concerns that I had written down, that reindeer are 39 present and in and within that area. I think the only 40 reindeer herds that are present, as I know, Nunivak 41 Island, St. Lawrence Island, Stebbins/St. Michael, 42 Katcheak Herd, Mr. Davis' Herd, a little bit up there, 43 the Kakarak Herd which is still there but presently 44 don't have a manager, Leonard S. Olanna, he has a herd 45 up around Brevig, Davis Ontowashik, along with maybe 46 Frank Ontowashik from Wales, you know, that they manage 47 the Wales herd. Not all of them have a yearly -- 48 yearly, but they still do have permits for these areas 49 to graze. 50

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Page 246 1 Thank you. 2 3 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay, thank you. 4 Thank you, Nikki. So the impression I got is they've 5 been alerted to this..... 6 7 MR. SEETOT: Uh-huh. 8 9 CHAIRMAN GREEN: .....Proposal 32, so 10 rather than creating any conflicts I think we could 11 just take a step back. 12 13 MR. SEETOT: No action. 14 15 CHAIRMAN GREEN: No action. Okay, 33. 16 17 MR. DUNKER: So Proposal No. 33 is the 18 same proposal as what you guys looked at earlier 19 yesterday and took action, WP20-38, in support of 20 implementing a registration permit, closing the season 21 down October 1st to the end of November, making a 22 winter hunt to be announced with an antlered bull bag 23 limit and then requiring a State registration permit. 24 The same proposal was submitted to the Board of Game 25 and that's No. 33. 26 27 So with that I guess I would recommend 28 -- well, it's up to you but we can move on to the next 29 one, I think. 30 31 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Yeah, we already took 32 action on it so we're good with it. 33 34 MS. DEATHERAGE: Do you want to support 35 it? 36 37 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Do we want to support 38 it, then do we need to vote? 39 40 MS. DEATHERAGE: Mr. Chair. If you 41 want me to send comments to the Board of Game to 42 support Proposal 33 then, yes, you will need to vote, a 43 motion and a vote to support Proposal No. 33. 44 45 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. Council, you 46 heard the lady, she says she needs a vote so I'm asking 47 for a motion to support the one we already -- is there 48 a motion. 49 50

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Page 247 1 MR. KIRK: So moved, Mr. Chair. 2 3 MR. OYOUMICK: I second. 4 5 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Ron. Thank 6 you, Leland. So all those in favor of support say aye. 7 8 IN UNISON: Aye. 9 10 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Those against, same 11 sign. 12 13 (No opposing votes) 14 15 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Hearing none, the vote 16 passes to support. 17 18 Thank you. 19 20 Next. 21 22 MR. DUNKER: Okay. So Proposal No. 34 23 was a public proposal and it's requesting to establish 24 a non-resident draw permit for moose with a bag limit 25 of one bull with 50-inch antlers or antlers with four 26 or more brow-tines on one side, season dates September 27 1st through September 14th, and the hunt would take 28 place in GMU 22D remainder. 29 30 The Department is neutral due to the 31 allocative nature of the proposal and in the course of 32 our ANR point out to the Board a lot of the information 33 that we shared with you yesterday with respect to poor 34 productivity, declines in bull/cow ratios and the 35 existence of a proposal to implement a registration 36 permit for residents in the area, and the Department's 37 neutral on this one. 38 39 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So this one is to open 40 -- Proposal 34 is to open a non-resident drawing hunt 41 for moose in Unit 22D remainder. Well, I don't think 42 that's going to fly with me, so we need to put it to a 43 vote. 44 45 Go ahead, Leland. 46 47 MR. OYOUMICK: May I ask you a 48 question, is there enough moose to support this action? 49 50

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Page 248 1 MR. DUNKER: So that would be by nature 2 the allocative decision that we're talking about. 3 We'll identify the Board how many moose we feel are 4 available for harvest in a sustainable manner within 5 Unit 22D remainder, and then it will be their job to 6 determine who gets to harvest those animals. 7 8 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So this proposal is to 9 open a non-resident, so I'm going to put it to a vote 10 so we can have our say. So Proposal 34, I'm trying to 11 word this right here -- hold on a second. 12 13 Do you need to say something, Elmer. 14 15 MR. SEETOT: 22D remainder, is that 16 west of 22D Kuzitrin. 17 18 CHAIRMAN GREEN: 22D remainder is on 19 this one. 20 21 MR. SEETOT: Okay, 22D remainder we 22 have had some hunters, some non-resident hunters where 23 Piper Cubs were able to bring the meat to Brevig and 24 Teller, I think, in September, so that's pretty much 25 what I know about this area, Unit 22D non-resident 26 hunt. 27 28 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So in my opinion, it's 29 -- I'm going to vote to oppose, but I will ask for a 30 motion so we can move on this one, one way or the 31 other. Is there a motion -- it's a friendly motion, is 32 there a motion to approve. If you don't approve of it, 33 just vote against it, that's all you have to do. 34 35 MR. OYOUMICK: I make a motion to 36 approve or disapprove. 37 38 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Is there a second. 39 40 MR. SEETOT: Second. 41 42 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you. All those 43 in favor to approve open a non-resident drawing hunt 44 for moose in Unit 22D remainder say aye. 45 46 (No aye votes) 47 48 CHAIRMAN GREEN: All those against, 49 same sign. 50

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Page 249 1 IN UNISON: Aye. 2 3 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Motion fails and we 4 vote to oppose. 5 6 Go ahead, Karen. 7 8 MS. DEATHERAGE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 9 With the Council's permission I would like to add to 10 the opposition to this proposal, the actions you took 11 to protect the moose population in 22D remainder, which 12 included the elimination -- permanent elimination of 13 the cow hunt as well as the October/November hunt. 14 15 Thank you. 16 17 CHAIRMAN GREEN: That'll be good, 18 thanks. So we're on to No. 35, thanks. 19 20 MR. DUNKER: Proposals 35 and 36 are 21 very similar to one another. The big difference 22 between the two is that the one offers two alternatives 23 and the other one does not. 24 25 What the proponent of the proposal is 26 seeking to do is to limit the availability of all 27 registration permits within Unit 22. And in one 28 instance here one of the options that the proponent has 29 outlined is the option to limit the availability only 30 of RM840 registration moose permits here along the Nome 31 road system. The proponent wishes to limit the 32 availability of those permits to July 15th to July 33 31st. So folks would be required to pick up a permit 34 during that time period after which the permits would 35 no longer be available. The intent of the proponent is 36 to limit participation in the local moose hunt by non- 37 local Alaska resident hunters. 38 39 The Department is neutral due to the 40 allocative nature of the proposal and we'll be 41 providing some information to the Board with regards to 42 the season lengths within that hunt area which have 43 been closed by emergency order in most instances over 44 the past several years, and the reductions in harvest 45 quotas during that same time period in response to some 46 of the biological information that's coming out of the 47 22B west, 22D Kuzitrin and 22C hunt areas. 48 49 But, again, the intent here is to limit 50

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Page 250 1 participation by non-local Alaska residents looking to 2 hunt moose in registration permits within Unit 22. 3 4 And, again, those two proposals are 5 very, very similar, they're almost identical. 6 7 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Right. So I was going 8 to ask you, how -- are they -- they're blended 9 together, no, okay, I see the difference here. What it 10 says is that it says that these folks need to come here 11 to get the permit and they only got so long to come and 12 get it and it's been working -- where else is it being 13 used at? 14 15 MR. DUNKER: So a similar tool is in 16 place in a couple different places in the region. The 17 most, I guess the one that most people are familiar 18 with is RM880 up in Kotzebue, a very similar permit 19 issuance for a registration moose hunt in Unit 23, with 20 the intent being that it would limit non-local 21 participation in the hunt. The other place would be 22 down in the Bethel area, the Kuskokwim River hunt, 23 RM615, not so much anymore, but when they first started 24 that hunt they were dealing with very small quotas 25 relative to the number of people that participated in 26 the hunt and having come out of a moratorium, part of 27 the hunt conditions associated with that were to limit 28 the availability of permits up to five days before the 29 hunt. So August 25th rolls around, they stopped 30 issuing the permits, and then September 1st the hunt 31 would start. So you weren't able to pick up permits 32 immediately prior to the start of the hunt or during 33 the season, and, again, the intent there was to limit 34 non-local participation in the moose hunt there. Both 35 of which, you know, they don't eliminate non-local 36 participation but it certainly seems to limit it to 37 some degree. 38 39 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So you're not getting 40 any backlash on people that forgot to get it on time, 41 is that..... 42 43 MR. DUNKER: It's certainly a 44 consequence that some people deal with. 45 46 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. So voting for 47 it is just limiting non-resident participation..... 48 49 MS. DEATHERAGE: Non-local. 50

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Page 251 1 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Non-local, excuse me. 2 Non-local resident participation, like somebody out of 3 Anchorage. Any comments out of the Council on it, any 4 questions. 5 6 MR. OYOUMICK: Good idea. 7 8 CHAIRMAN GREEN: There was a movie with 9 that line that's why I'm chuckling. 10 11 (Laughter) 12 13 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. So what I will 14 do is I will ask for a motion to support, yeah, that's 15 a positive motion, but also I'm in support, so motion 16 to support. Is there a first and a second -- oh, 17 Karen's got to say something. 18 19 MS. DEATHERAGE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 20 Are you talking about 35 or 36, keeping in mind you 21 just approved sending support for requiring a 22 registration permit hunt for moose hunting in Unit 22D 23 remainder, that's currently in Proposal No. 35, so you 24 may want to just not do anything with that and just 25 vote on Proposal No. 36. Does that make sense to the 26 good folks sitting at the table there? 27 28 MR. DUNKER: Applying this 29 discretionary permit authority would be an option for 30 22D remainder if the hunt's administered as a 31 registration permit. 32 33 MS. DEATHERAGE: So you would also 34 limit the timeline for a registration hunt in 22D 35 remainder as well? 36 37 MR. DUNKER: It's an option, it's a 38 tool that's available to us, whether we would do it or 39 not would be dependent on public deliberation and Board 40 input. 41 42 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So instead of -- so we 43 want to do 36, do away with 35 and move to 36, is that 44 -- I'm trying to understand what you were getting at 45 Karen. 46 47 MS. DEATHERAGE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 48 I guess the question is, do you want this basically 49 availability limitation on a State registration permit 50

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Page 252 1 that you've already approved for the Federal hunt, as 2 well as the -- or the State hunt -- and the Federal 3 hunt through these proposals, do you want to limit 4 availability of those registration permits in Unit 22D 5 remainder. They currently don't exist. They haven't 6 existed. I know it's confusing but because it will be 7 a new system in 22D remainder, as a registration -- a 8 State registration permit, the question is, do you want 9 to limit that at the onset or do you want to wait and 10 see how that State registration permit system works in 11 22D remainder. It already exists in the rest of 22D. 12 So all that that proponents are asking for is to limit 13 the timeframe, but it currently does not exist in 22D 14 remainder until it's codified both at the Federal and 15 the State level, which you have approved. 16 17 CHAIRMAN GREEN: And if we go along 18 with what we've already approved we don't need to. 19 This thing was -- what was I going to say, I lost my 20 words here. 21 22 MR. SEETOT: Redundant. 23 24 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Redundant. 25 26 MR. SEETOT: I don't know. 27 28 (Laughter) 29 30 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So stepping from one 31 step to the next, I think maybe we would just want to 32 sit back and wait and see what happens. So..... 33 34 MR. SEETOT: No action. 35 36 CHAIRMAN GREEN: .....so no action. 37 38 MR. DUNKER: No problem. And as I 39 mentioned earlier, you know, all of these are open for 40 public comment for yourselves as individuals, if 41 anybody has any questions about, you know, these -- any 42 of these proposals, myself or Sarah are available to 43 help out if you're trying to draft, you know, 44 individual comments to submit to the Board. 45 46 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay, thank you, Bill. 47 48 MR. DUNKER: Proposal No. 37 seeks to 49 close the non-resident moose hunt in Unit 22C. We 50

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Page 253 1 currently offer non-resident hunting in 22C under 2 RM840, participation and harvest are both extremely 3 low. Historically we're dealing with maybe one or two 4 non-resident permitholders annually with harvest less 5 than that typically. If it exceeds one a year it'd be 6 noteworthy. 7 8 The Department's neutral with respect 9 to the permit -- or with respect to the proposal. And 10 I would just point out that there is limited amounts of 11 Federal public lands in Unit 22C, and by that almost 12 none. 13 14 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Right. That's more of 15 a State -- well, State jurisdiction and we're just 16 residents. So I think that's another one we can pass 17 up and move on to the next one, 22C is State managed. 18 19 MS. GERMAIN: Okay, through the Chair 20 -- oops. 21 22 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Yes, did somebody say 23 something. 24 25 MS. GERMAIN: Through the Chair, this 26 is Sarah Germain. For Proposal 38 we are seeking to 27 modify the hunting season for moose in Unit 22A, 28 specifically 22A central, that portion in the 29 Unalakleet River drainage and all drainages flowing 30 into Norton Sound north of the Golsovia River drainage 31 and south of the Taguminik and Shaktoolik River 32 drainages. So we're seeking to extend the fall season, 33 it's currently September 1st to September 20th, and we 34 want to extend that to September 30th. And then as far 35 as the winter season, it's December 1st to December 36 30th right now and we want it to be until January 31st. 37 Not we, but the proponent of this proposal. So we 38 still have -- as Fish and Game managers we can still 39 close these seasons earlier if the quota is reached 40 sooner than the season closing date by emergency order. 41 42 And as far as the Department stands, we 43 support providing additional hunting opportunity in 44 Unit 22A. The proposed season extension to September 45 31st [sic] for resident hunters is adequate to protect 46 breeding bulls which will allow for continued 47 population growth. Since the registration permit uses 48 an annual harvest quota of 22 antlered bulls and 49 reporting has been adequate, we have no over harvest 50

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Page 254 1 concerns with the season extension and would maintain 2 the ability to close the season by emergency order if 3 the quota is met earlier than the close of the season. 4 5 Furthermore, another part of this 6 proposal is changing the fall hunt bag limit to one 7 bull, it's currently one antlered bull, there's no 8 biological reason for us to have the bag limit as one 9 antlered bull and if it was one bull it would open up 10 the door for proxy authorizations to be issued, which 11 is currently not allowed under the antlered bull bag 12 limit. 13 14 And as far as that goes the Department 15 is neutral on changing the bag limit to one bull from 16 one antlered bull because it is allocative in nature 17 and it's not associated with any biological concerns as 18 they pertain to moose in Unit 22A. 19 20 Thank you. 21 22 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Sarah. So 23 we've opened up 22A on the Federal side to all 24 residents of 22, this isn't doing anything beyond that, 25 is it, I'm just trying to -- I see non-resident open 26 season..... 27 28 MR. DUNKER: So this proposal would 29 only pertain to the central portion in 22A where you 30 guys have not made any changes to the definition of 31 Federally-qualified or any of the closures relating to 32 that particular area. The proposal, for all intents 33 and purposes, is more or less a housekeeping proposal. 34 We've issued a number of season extensions over the 35 last several years to extend the season to the end of 36 September and when we have administered the winter hunt 37 we've issued additional extensions through to the end 38 of January. So the intent here is to have the 39 regulations in codified to reflect the full range of 40 season dates that have been traditionally offered in 41 the area and allow us more flexibility to manage the 42 hunt under a harvest quota with emergency order 43 closures if and when it becomes necessary. 44 45 But no sense in cutting it off on the 46 20th if we just extend it to the 30th, we can put it in 47 codified to go to the end of the month and then close 48 it as need be based on where the harvest is relative to 49 the quota. 50

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Page 255 1 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So you're saying 2 you've been doing it on emergency order or am I missing 3 something. 4 5 MR. DUNKER: No, I mean we've issued -- 6 there's been several years where we issued a season 7 extension and then closed the season down earlier than 8 what we extended it to. So we're saying let's just 9 push the end date for the season in regulation out as 10 far as we have historically and then cut it off short 11 as need be based on the quota. 12 13 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So, again, you're 14 saying this housekeeping. So anybody from the 15 Unalakleet area, any comments. 16 17 MR. KATCHATAG: Make the bag limit 18 higher. 19 20 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So do we choose to 21 just let it roll or do you want to vote on this, for a 22 lack of a better word that I'm supposed to be using. 23 24 MR. SEETOT: Let it go. 25 26 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Just let it happen, we 27 don't need to make any comments on it, it's just a 28 housekeeping thing. We did talk about this earlier, 29 now, right. So on to the next one, we don't need to 30 comment on it. 31 32 MS. GERMAIN: Okay, through the Chair, 33 this is Sarah again. Proposal 39 seeks to lengthen the 34 hunting season for brown bear in Units 22D and 22E and 35 increase the bag limit to two bears per regulatory 36 year. So this proposal would add 15 days to the spring 37 brown bear season for residents and non-residents in 38 Unit 22D and Unit 22E by moving the season's opening 39 date from May -- oh, season's closing date from May 40 31st to June 15th. It would also increase the resident 41 hunter bag limit to two bears per regulatory year. 42 43 The Department is neutral on this 44 proposal because it has not identified biological 45 concerns associated with brown bear harvest in Unit 22D 46 or Unit 22E. There have been small incremental changes 47 in the form of regulatory liberalizations pertaining to 48 brown bears in Unit 22. So in 2012 the Board approved 49 a spring brown bear hunt season extension in 22C to 50

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Page 256 1 start the hunt on May 1st from May 10th, and in 2017 2 the Board approved two regulatory changes, the bag 3 limit of brown bears in 22B was increased to two bears 4 per regulatory year and the brown bear spring season in 5 22C was increased by a month beginning on April 1st 6 rather than May 1st. 7 8 The Department would like to continue 9 to monitor brown bear harvest in this area to evaluate 10 the effect of this increased hunting opportunity and 11 ensure sustainable harvest patterns continue before 12 additional regulatory changes are made. 13 14 Thank you. 15 16 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you. The 17 comment I'll make is that I've talked to hunters in the 18 Nome area that, if they had the option of taking two 19 bears, would they be in favor and they said, yes, the 20 majority of the ones I talked to said I'd take a small 21 bear because I know I'm still have that option to take 22 a bigger one if I find one. So I'm in favor of this 23 increase to two bear in 22D and 22E. 24 25 So can I get a motion. 26 27 MR. OYOUMICK: Yeah, I move Louis, I 28 move to that effect. 29 30 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Is there a second. 31 32 MR. SEETOT: I second. 33 34 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Discussion. 35 36 MR. SEETOT: Even though I said that we 37 do not pretty much hunt bear in the community of 38 Brevig, it provides an opportunity for people outside 39 the community to come in and -- brown bear, not taking 40 part in the harvest but at least providing information 41 that we see these bears, you know, that are causing 42 problems, because -- because we do have about one, two, 43 about five within the community of Brevig and they're 44 just -- the only reason we keep them there is to keep 45 the muskox away -- no. 46 47 (Laughter) 48 49 MR. SEETOT: But hunters have seen 50

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Page 257 1 them, they pretty much kind of leave them alone. All 2 they do is just try to let them know that the humans 3 are present and that the bears are not welcome until 4 people that -- that do harvest bears, you know, do come 5 in and have the proper licenses, registration or 6 permits to hunt bears in our, you know, in and around 7 Brevig or Teller. 8 9 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Any further 10 discussion. 11 12 (No comments) 13 14 MR. SEETOT: Question. 15 16 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Question's been 17 called, all those in favor of the motion say aye. 18 19 IN UNISON: Aye. 20 21 CHAIRMAN GREEN: All those against, 22 same sign. 23 24 (No opposing votes) 25 26 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Motion passes. On to 27 the next one. 28 29 MR. DUNKER: So Proposal 40, this 30 proposal was submitted by the Department of Fish and 31 Game, it seeks to require a resident registration 32 permit for brown bear hunting in Unit 22C. The 33 Department supports this proposal. Adoption of the 34 proposal would allow the Department the opportunity to 35 evaluate the effects of recent liberalizations, better 36 understand the level of participation in the hunt, and 37 provide meaningful recommendations for future 38 regulatory changes, all while providing hunters with 39 the current level of opportunity. Permits would be 40 available on line and at licensed vendors in Nome, 41 Teller and White Mountain and Golovin. 42 43 The proposal here is in response to 44 recent years of harvest in 22C where we realistically 45 saw kind of the full power of the Nome brown bear 46 hunting community. We have received comments from 47 members of the public that are concerned with the level 48 of harvest in 22C and their ability to utilize bears 49 for other non-consumptive uses, wildlife viewing, those 50

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Page 258 1 sorts of activities. And the proposal really is 2 intended to, again, allow us the opportunity to gather 3 some information, better understand the brown bear 4 hunting community, how many folks are participating in 5 it, what their success rates, all of these things that 6 can better inform management moving forward. The 7 registration permit component of things would also 8 allow us to kind of cap harvest at historic levels, and 9 we acknowledge that increased levels of brown bear 10 harvest in 22C may have benefitted nuisance muskox 11 issues in the Nome area, however, something we'd like 12 to have a better understanding of and the ability to, 13 you know, more actively manage, particularly in 22C 14 being that it's one of the more accessible hunt areas 15 and it may provide us with a great deal of insight into 16 hunting activity related to brown bears in Unit 22. 17 18 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Bill. And 19 when I was on the Advisory Committee, I was the guy 20 that always wanted to see more pressure on the bears. 21 We switched it in 22C for identifying like the other 22 areas and then we switched it to this lesser window of 23 opportunity and we've been stuck there since the '90s. 24 25 I see this as just another one of those 26 things that would hold it back. And the intent that -- 27 there used to be -- or still is, on the books, was one 28 subsistence bear a year, okay, and that wasn't getting 29 anything done so the Native community got together and 30 they went after it again and they got it a sport hunt 31 one per year, and this was just, what three or four 32 years ago. I can't remember now. 33 34 MR. DUNKER: There's certainly been a 35 suite of regulatory changes related to 22C. The first 36 one being the change in the bag limit from one bear 37 every regulatory -- or every four regulatory years to 38 one bear every regulatory year. Following that the 39 season was extended from May 10th -- the spring season 40 was extended from May 10th to May 31st to May 1st to 41 May 31st, and then during this last Board cycle the 42 spring season was extended yet again to April 1st to 43 May 31st. 44 45 I'm trying to find it in here but as a 46 result of some of those liberalizations we've seen 47 changes in brown bear harvest patterns within 22C. 48 From 1990 to 1997 average annual harvest was 8 bears in 49 22C. We enacted a series of liberalizations during 50

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Page 259 1 that time period and for the next chunk of time, '98 to 2 2011 average annual reported harvest increased to 16 3 bears. The brown bear harvest in Unit 22C in the most 4 recent round of regulatory changes 2012 to 2018 has 5 increased to an average annual harvest of 25 bears per 6 year. And in 2017 the reported harvest of brown bears 7 from Unit 22C alone was 38 bears. 8 9 So we've done a lot in terms of 10 liberalizing brown bear regulations in 22C over the 11 last decade. This is a proposal seeking to gather some 12 more information about that dynamic. 13 14 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. So the intent 15 of the people was to remove the bears from 22C because 16 of the human population and access to berries and fish 17 and so putting in a regulation in here that you have to 18 have basically a bear tag or registration permit kind 19 of, in my mind, would be just one hoop to jump through 20 and you'd start getting into regulation where people 21 would hesitate. 22 23 Because generally it's like an 24 opportunity hunt, you see them, you shoot them. If you 25 got to go to Fish and Game and get a tag to go get one 26 you might be reluctant to, so I'd vote to oppose it 27 myself, because I like seeing what I've seen. 28 29 On the average, what are we doing with 30 bears in the whole Unit 22, all of it, what's the 31 average, it used to be about 100 a year. Have we seen 32 an increase because of 22C or are we still. 33 34 MR. DUNKER: Sarah's got that stuff 35 here. 36 37 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I know that down in 38 22A they opted for the two bears because of the 39 predation level and the problems that Nome experiences 40 here with fish camps and stuff, bears come in there 41 raising cane, people just want them out. 42 43 Leland. 44 45 MR. OYOUMICK: Yeah, when they talk 46 about registration hunt, does it mean that you have to 47 have a guide along with you or just -- what does that 48 encompass? 49 50

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Page 260 1 MR. DUNKER: So a registration permit 2 would not change guide requirements, this would only be 3 for residents in the area. We already have a non- 4 resident draw permit in both 22B and C, and the 5 proposal would require that folks pick up a permit 6 before they go bear hunting. 7 8 CHAIRMAN GREEN: And my feeling is I 9 just want to go hunting for one I don't want to pick up 10 paperwork. 11 12 Charles, go ahead. 13 14 MR. SACCHEUS: Yeah, I got something to 15 say about the bears in my area, Elim. Sometimes when I 16 go dump, when I go dump trash, sometimes I count 25 17 bears up in our dump, they're all over and we have a 18 lot of bears in our dump, there's a lot of bears over 19 there in our land, because we got rivers up -- we got 20 Quinhagak River, Tumutkuluk River, and WallaWalla, 21 there's a lot of times when people come back without 22 dumping their trash, too many bears up there, they just 23 turn back and go to Elim. So we have a lot of problems 24 with bears and we got a lot of timber, that's east side 25 of the Darbies. And we got some rivers up there where 26 them bears always used to eat the fall fish -- I mean 27 those fish that are good and old, they go up there and 28 eat the salmon that are spawning, after they spawn, and 29 on top of that we got maybe 10 miles of blueberries you 30 could see them on the Darby Mountains, the south side. 31 A lot of times when I go up there I count 50 bears up 32 there eating blueberries after they get done with 33 eating those old salmon that are swimming backwards in 34 the river. 35 36 So we got a lot of bears down there. 37 38 That's the reason why that my nephew, 39 he got chewed up by a bear in Golovin and Golovin is 40 not too far from that river and so -- and bears are 41 just lousy down there, a lot of bears. And when some 42 people walk out like to -- I know a couple guys walked 43 to Nome and them bears started following them from 44 White Mountain, all the way to Solomon. And when they 45 get to a road, they jump in somebody's pickup and go to 46 Nome. So we got -- there's a lot of bears down there. 47 48 And Fish and Game don't even watch 49 their bears, no kidding. 50

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Page 261 1 I'm telling you nothing but the truth, 2 they even got my nephew, the one that got lost in 3 Golovin. There's' so many bears down there they -- my 4 nephew was going to walk from Golovin because he got 5 left by somebody in Golovin, he missed that boat, and 6 they looked for him, but he wasn't there so they just 7 took off. And he was going to walk back to Elim, 8 through the road, through the beach, go out maybe five 9 miles out of Golovin, he got chewed up by a bear and 10 they still never find his body, so they must have chew 11 him up in the water because they see his tracks going 12 down to the -- running away from that bear on a sand 13 bar to the water and that bear must have get a hold of 14 him and he trip or something in the water and chew him 15 up. It was pretty tough when we go and look for him and 16 we can't find him. So when he get to the water that 17 bear must have kill him and you know when the human 18 guts swell up inside with a lot of air in them you 19 float up on the surface and they go out with the tide. 20 And that tide in Golovin Bay, when it's going out, 21 right now it's got full moon, and when that tide's 22 going out in Elim, man that tide is very strong, it 23 just takes everything away. 24 25 And my grandpa, I used to live in Cape 26 Darby, and there were a lot of people that they find 27 gold in Nome, those beaches were just covered with gold 28 so them people started walking from Anchorage to Nome 29 and some of them people don't make it across Golovin 30 Bay, even my grandpa tell them not to go across, they 31 don't listen to him, he hollered at them and swear at 32 them and they just go, and when they get out to Golovin 33 Bay, they just sink right down to the bottom. There's 34 warm springs over there to keep that ice from freezing 35 and when they go down they don't come back up. And 36 they wouldn't listen to my grandpa, when he tell them 37 to follow the land all the way to White Mountain, and 38 follow that White Mountain -- from White Mountain to 39 Nome, that trail, they said they'll do it and thought 40 they'd make it to Nome, and I don't know if they get 41 rich, maybe they do. 42 43 But we sure got a lot of bears down 44 there. I'm just telling you. Okay. 45 46 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Mr. 47 Saccheus. So what I'm going to ask for is a positive 48 motion to approve; if you don't, vote against it. So 49 they're asking if -- this is about having a 50

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Page 262 1 registration permit. I am going to vote to oppose. 2 3 So is there a motion. 4 5 MR. KATCHATAG: So moved. 6 7 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Motion to approve. Is 8 there a second. 9 10 MR. OYOUMICK: Second. 11 12 CHAIRMAN GREEN: It's a friendly motion 13 to approve. All those in favor of the motion say aye. 14 15 MR. KATCHATAG: Aye. 16 17 CHAIRMAN GREEN: All those against, 18 same sign. 19 20 MR. KATCHATAG: No, I mean..... 21 22 IN UNISON: Aye. 23 24 CHAIRMAN GREEN: The motion, let me 25 see, it -- excuse me. 26 27 REPORTER: I got it. 28 29 CHAIRMAN GREEN: You got it, okay, we 30 got it. All right, so we'll move on to the next one. 31 We're on -- what are we on, 41. Sorry that took so long 32 but here we are. 33 34 Thanks. 35 36 MS. GERMAIN: Okay, through the Chair. 37 This is Sarah with Fish and Game. For Proposal 41 38 hunting -- this affects hunting seasons and bag limits 39 for brown bears in Unit 22B and Unit 22C, specifically 40 it wishes to lengthen the hunting season for the non- 41 resident DB685 brown bear hunt in those units. 42 43 So this proposal would add 15 days to 44 the spring brown bear season for the non-resident DB685 45 hunt in Units 22B and 22C, it'll extend the season's 46 closing date from May 31st to June 15th. It also 47 extends both the subsistence and general resident 48 spring brown bear season by a month changing the 49 closing dates to June 30th from its current closing 50

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Page 263 1 date of May 31st. 2 3 So let's see, the Department is neutral 4 on the allocative nature of this proposal. 5 6 Thank you. 7 8 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Well, as far as I'm 9 concerned I don't mind seeing an extension. That's my 10 opinion. 11 12 Anybody else on the Council. 22B, 13 Council area, 22C Nome area, and it's aligning with the 14 closing dates adjacent to the Unit 22A. 15 16 (No comments) 17 18 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Did I get this right, 19 it was non-resident, right, but it also applies to 20 resident hunters. 21 22 We're always talking about we need to 23 do something about bears so this is one of those 24 proposals that does that in my mind. 25 26 So I'm going to ask for a motion 27 to..... 28 29 MR. KIRK: Mr. Chair. 30 31 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Yeah, go ahead, Ron, 32 you're on. 33 34 MR. KIRK: I'll make a motion to 35 support this proposal. 36 37 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Ron. Is 38 there a second. 39 40 MR. SEETOT: Second. 41 42 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Any discussion. 43 44 MR. KATCHATAG: Question. 45 46 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Question's been 47 called, all those in favor of the motion say aye. 48 49 IN UNISON: Aye. 50

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Page 264 1 CHAIRMAN GREEN: All those against, 2 same sign. 3 4 (No opposing votes) 5 6 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Hearing none, motion 7 passes to support. 8 9 MS. GERMAIN: Again, this is Sarah, 10 through the Chair. This is Proposal 42 which it seeks 11 to allow hunters to use a snowmachine to position brown 12 bears for harvest in Unit 22. If this proposal were to 13 be adopted, let's see, it would allow a snowmachine to 14 be used to position a brown bear for harvest and for 15 brown bears to be shot from a stationary snowmachine. 16 17 And since this is a methods and means 18 proposal, we are neutral, the Department. 19 20 Thank you. 21 22 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay, thank you. Any 23 comments from the Council. 24 25 (No comments) 26 27 CHAIRMAN GREEN: This is -- it's 28 already in place for these other critters in here, 29 listed, correct? 30 31 MS. GERMAIN: Through the Chair, that's 32 correct. So currently in Unit 22 a snowmachine may be 33 used to position a caribou, wolf, or wolverine for 34 harvest and caribou, wolf or wolverines may be shot 35 from a stationary snowmachine. However, throughout the 36 state no regulation exists that permits hunters to use 37 a snowmachine to position a bear for harvest. 38 39 Thank you. 40 41 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Any Council member 42 comments. 43 44 (No comments) 45 46 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Whenever the bears are 47 in existence out there when you got a snowmachine, it's 48 asking whether you believe you should be able to 49 position yourself on a snowmachine to shoot a bear. 50

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Page 265 1 The seasons speak to when you can do it. So I don't 2 have a problem with it. 3 4 Anybody want to make a motion. 5 6 MR. KIRK: We're having bear problems. 7 8 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Is there a motion on 9 the floor to approve. 10 11 MR. KIRK: So moved. 12 13 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Is there a second. 14 15 MR. OYOUMICK: I second. 16 17 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Discussion. 18 19 (No comments) 20 21 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Call for the question. 22 23 MR. SEETOT: Call for question. 24 25 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Question's been 26 called, all those in favor to approve Proposal 42 say 27 aye. 28 29 IN UNISON: Aye. 30 31 CHAIRMAN GREEN: All those against, 32 same sign. 33 34 (No opposing votes) 35 36 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Motion passes. 37 38 Next. 39 40 MR. DUNKER: Last one. Proposal 43 41 seeks to address the lack of a customary and 42 traditional use determination for Alaska hares in Unit 43 22. We also ask the Board to address any ANS 44 requirements that may or may not stem from that 45 determination. It would also modify the season and bag 46 limit for Alaska hares in Unit 22. 47 48 This is in response to some concerns 49 that have been presented to the Department with respect 50

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Page 266 1 to hare regulations kind of throughout this range of 2 the Alaska hare, jackrabbits, the big ones. The season 3 dates as proposed are September 1st to April 15th with 4 a bag limit of two hares per day, and those would align 5 the hare season with the Federal regulations. You 6 guys, on the Federal side, have a season for hares 7 which includes Alaska hares, September 1st to April 8 15th. This seeks to align it and address some concerns 9 that we have about kind of our lack of understanding of 10 the species within their range, population dynamics, 11 pretty basic biological information is lacking for the 12 species. And historically we've had no closed season, 13 no bag limit. So the issue was brought up on the 14 Alaska Peninsula and it's slowly moving its way north 15 and we're working to address it throughout the range of 16 the species. 17 18 The last one I would add, the proposal 19 may result in a slight decrease in hunting opportunity, 20 however, when climatic and habitat conditions are 21 favorable for Alaska hares, a lower hunter harvest 22 could protect localized populations for quicker 23 recovery and recolonization. 24 25 Thank you. 26 27 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you. So you're 28 basically taking, what, two weeks off of the -- am I 29 reading that right, no, that's Units 1 through 5. It 30 was a no closed season is what you're saying so you 31 want to put a closure on it? 32 33 MR. DUNKER: That's correct. And 34 elsewhere within the range of the population they've 35 seen some pretty dramatic declines in abundance, Unit 36 18 and Unit 9 primarily are the ones that have 37 identified the concern. 38 39 Rick Marizone with the small game 40 program out of Palmer has done a lot of outreach within 41 our area here. It's my understanding that we have 42 Alaska hares. They may be at lower densities but it 43 doesn't seem to me that the local folks are expressing 44 as much concern about the species as they are elsewhere 45 in the range, but that's the limit of our information 46 about it, is kind of local information and 47 understanding. 48 49 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. Well, as far as 50

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Page 267 1 the Fed regs are already in place that we -- that are 2 under our jurisdiction, I guess there's no argument 3 with the State bringing that on, is there? 4 5 (Council shakes head negatively) 6 7 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I guess that's a no 8 action item. We already have it in place. 9 10 (Council nods affirmatively) 11 12 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay, I think that's 13 it, right. 14 15 MR. DUNKER: Yeah, thanks, guys. Sorry 16 to spring that on you here, appreciate the feedback 17 and, obviously if there's any of these that have peeked 18 your interest and you wish to submit your own comments 19 the deadline would be January 3rd and happy to help in 20 whatever way I can. 21 22 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you. 23 24 MR. DUNKER: Thank you. 25 26 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I feel like a 27 rubberband, I got stretched. 28 29 (Laughter) 30 31 CHAIRMAN GREEN: All right. So what 32 are we up to next here. I'm trying to figure out where 33 we're at here. OSM. 34 35 Suzanne. 36 37 MS. WORKER: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 38 This is Suzanne Worker, and I am going to present you 39 the OSM update. 40 41 This will include a couple of things, 42 2019 Federal Subsistence Board actions, 2019 OSM Staff 43 highlights, and then an update on our current staffing 44 situation. So to start with the Federal Subsistence 45 Board. 46 47 At their April 2019 meeting, that was a 48 regulatory meeting, the Board took action on 19 49 fisheries regulatory proposals, all of these were 50

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Page 268 1 analyzed by OSM Staff. The Board also implemented a 2 system of temporary special actions to cover approved 3 changes to the fisheries regulations until they were 4 published in the Federal Register. The Federal 5 Subsistence Board also took action on one non-rural 6 proposal, one fisheries temporary special action 7 request, and three requests for reconsideration. 8 9 At their July 19th, 2019 meeting, which 10 was a work session, they took action on three wildlife 11 temporary special action requests. They rejected 12 Wildlife Special Action 19-03, which was for moose and 13 caribou in Unit 13. They approved WSA19-05, which was 14 for Unimak Island caribou, that's Unit 10. And they 15 approved WSA19-06, which was for caribou in Units 20E, 16 25C and 20F. 17 18 They also had a meeting in August 2019 19 and that was another work session. And at that meeting 20 they reviewed Regional Advisory Council nominations and 21 charter packages. Those packages have been submitted 22 to the Secretary's office after being reviewed by the 23 special assistant to the Secretary's office as well as 24 the USDA Regional Forester. 25 26 They also took action on three wildlife 27 temporary special actions at that meeting. They 28 approved WSA19-01 with modification that included a 29 delegation of authority. That was for moose in Unit 30 18. They approved WSA19-02 which was for wolves in 31 Unit 2. And they approved WSA19-04 with modification, 32 again with the delegation of authority for moose in 33 Unit 23. They also reviewed a couple of Federal 34 Subsistence program informational videos that are 35 office produced. These were titled how to submit a 36 proposal and how to become a member of the Regional 37 Advisory Council. And we are working on developing 38 additional videos similar to those. These videos were 39 produced in partnership with the Alaska Teen Media 40 Institute and the videos are available via Facebook, 41 our website and they're on YouTube as well. 42 43 The Board has two meetings scheduled 44 for the upcoming year. The Board retreat and public 45 work session will be held January 28th through 30th, 46 that meeting will be held in Anchorage. And the 47 primary item on the agenda is the Fisheries Resource 48 Monitoring Program. They will have their wildlife 49 regulatory meeting April 20th through 24th and we're 50

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Page 269 1 going to hold that meeting in Gakona this year. The 2 Board will take action at that meeting on the wildlife 3 regulatory proposals that we have been working on today 4 -- or sorry, yesterday, and some other agenda items as 5 well. 6 7 In terms of Staff highlights. We 8 analyzed 55 wildlife proposals and those are scheduled 9 to be presented to the Regional Advisory Councils 10 during the remainder of this regulatory cycle -- or 11 sorry, the meeting cycle, and then those will be 12 presented to the Board in their April meeting. 13 14 The Anthropology Division Staff 15 conducted analyses on ten customary and traditional use 16 determination proposals for the Southcentral region, 17 Southeast region, and the Interior Alaska Regions. So 18 far this year we've analyzed eight wildlife temporary 19 special action requests and the Board has taken action 20 on six of those, as I mentioned earlier, and the 21 remaining two, they will be taking action on November 22 5th during a call. 23 24 We've analyzed 17 wildlife closure 25 reviews, and these were presented to the Regional 26 Advisory Councils during their winter meeting cycle. 27 Again, the Board will take action on these at their 28 upcoming April meeting. 29 30 We made comments on 46 Alaska Board of 31 Game proposals that we thought had the potential to 32 affect Federally-qualified subsistence users and this 33 was in the Southcentral and Southeast Regions. 34 35 One Federal subsistence chinook salmon 36 fishery was restricted by the Federal Subsistence Board 37 through the temporary special action process. This was 38 the Kuskokwim River and two Federal subsistence chinook 39 salmon fisheries were restricted or closed through the 40 emergency special action process this season. That was 41 the Situk and the Stikine Rivers. Two Federal 42 subsistence sockeye salmon fisheries were closed 43 through Federal actions. An emergency special action 44 due to low returns this season for the Chignik and the 45 Stikine, after an in-season run assessment prompted an 46 automatic closure through the Pacific Salmon Treaty due 47 to no harvestable surplus. 48 49 Six subsistence rule-making documents 50

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Page 270 1 were published in the Federal Register. They were two 2 proposed rules, three final rules, one notice of 3 information, collection for permits, as well as the 4 Council nomination packets. 5 6 The Native liaison has been conducting 7 tribal consultations with 149 of the Federally 8 recognized tribes, the ten Regional Corporations, and 9 he also has been engaged in these tribal engagement 10 sessions, he's conducted 10 of these so far. He's 11 worked with high schools in four regions with the goal 12 of increasing awareness of the Federal Subsistence 13 Program and its objectives. 14 15 As you might know, in 2017 the Board 16 adopted a policy on non-rural determinations and in the 17 spring of 2018 the first call for proposals to change 18 non-rural determinations was issued. OSM received a 19 proposal from the Southcentral region related to non- 20 rural. The Federal Subsistence Board determined that 21 the proposal met the threshold requirements and that 22 happened in April and the Board then directed Staff to 23 proceed to the full analysis and so this analysis will 24 go before the Board for final action in January of 25 2021. 26 27 OSM Staff is drafting a best practices 28 document to be finalized in 2019. This document will 29 provide general guidance for data request exchange 30 between the State of Alaska and the Office of 31 Subsistence Management. And then we have an outreach 32 -- a few outreach folks and they have been providing 33 outreach and information booths and so we were at AFN 34 last week and we will also be at the BIA Providers 35 Conference as well as several Regional Corporation 36 annual meetings. 37 38 I have a little bit about the Regional 39 Advisory Councils. One of the primary functions of the 40 Regional Advisory Councils is to provide 41 recommendations to the Federal Subsistence Board on the 42 take of fish and wildlife on Federal public lands. 43 This past regulatory cycle the Board received 20 44 fisheries proposals. One of them was withdrawn by the 45 proponent. So the Board adopted the majority of the 46 RAC recommendations on those proposals, in whole or 47 with modification, 18 of the 19 proposals the Board 48 acted consisted with your recommendation, so that's a 49 95 percent adoption rate. And we just want to stress 50

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Page 271 1 the importance that this body has in the process and 2 acknowledge that the Federal Subsistence Board really 3 does need your input on these proposals. 4 5 With regard to the Fisheries Resource 6 Monitoring Partners Program and the Partners Program, 7 Staff reviewed 28 Fisheries Resource Monitoring 8 proposals for the 2020 notice of funding opportunity 9 and these proposals were scored by the Technical Review 10 Committee, you saw a few of them this morning, the ones 11 that relate to the northern region, and these will be 12 awarded in the winter of 2020. 13 14 Federal and State partners reviewed a 15 total of 14 proposals for the Partners Program, and 16 Hannah presented those details a little bit earlier in 17 the meeting, I won't repeat them here. But in total, 18 in 2019, OSM awarded about 4.3 million dollars to fund 19 those FRMP and the Partners projects. 20 21 A little about our current staffing 22 levels. 23 24 We currently have 12 vacant positions. 25 Our assistant Regional Director, who is our -- the 26 primary leader in our program, was advertised for 30 27 days and was recently closed and so we hope to have 28 someone permanently in that position before too long. 29 OSM hiring priorities for the remaining positions are 30 first the Anthropology Supervisor, that position has 31 been vacant for some time now. We have three 32 administrative assistants that are vacant. We have 33 vacancies for two fish biologists, two wildlife 34 biologists, a Council coordinator supervisor, an 35 anthropologist, and finally the subsistence policy 36 coordinator. And so until we can permanently fill 37 those positions, we have people detailing into them. 38 Notable, Greg Risdahl is our acting Deputy Assistant 39 Regional Director. Tom Kron is our Acting Council 40 Coordinator Supervisor. And I'm currently acting in 41 the subsistence Policy Coordinator position. 42 43 So Fish and Wildlife Service is in the 44 middle of a consolidation process of our administration 45 functions. Human Resources, Finance and Acquisitions 46 and Property and Safety and they're being consolidated 47 into a centralized entity called the Joint 48 Administrative Operations, or JAO, and this process has 49 really slowed down our ability to hire and so there is 50

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Page 272 1 some optimism that by mid-year we'll be able to sort of 2 begin to move that along. 3 4 On a brighter note in 2019, OSM hired 5 and placed 11 Alaska Native Science and Engineering, or 6 ANSEP interns in the field with biologists to expose 7 them to careers in biology. This included four ANSEP 8 Bridge students entering their first year of college, 9 six ANSEP University success students with career 10 interests in the Fish and Wildlife Service, or ADF&G 11 and rural conservation organizations in our Partners 12 Program. 13 14 So that is the end of my slightly 15 lengthy update but if I can answer questions I'd be 16 happy to. 17 18 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Council members, 19 anybody have any questions of Susan. 20 21 22 (No comments) 23 24 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Ron, I know you're 25 still there. 26 27 28 (No comments) 29 30 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I guess Ron's not 31 there. Well, I don't have any, thanks Susan. 32 33 MS. WORKER: All right, thank you. 34 35 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Karen. 36 37 MS. DEATHERAGE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 38 We have future meeting dates and then I just have a 39 couple of housekeeping announcements so I can do those 40 before the future meeting dates or after. 41 42 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Just give the 43 announcements and then we'll work on this other. 44 45 MS. DEATHERAGE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 46 The first announcement is just logistics for each of 47 the Council members. If you have any cab receipts, 48 just give those to me at the end of the meeting but we 49 will cover your receipts for your trip to the airport 50

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Page 273 1 tomorrow morning for your flights without a receipt. 2 3 The second thing is, if you need your 4 air schedule, I do have copies of those here if you 5 don't have them with you. 6 7 The last and probably more important 8 issue is on Page 262 of your meeting books, I'd like 9 you to turn to that, it's about the Real ID card that 10 is going to be a requirement and in the case of Council 11 members, it is a requirement that the airports are 12 going to require before you can get on an aircraft. 13 And that requirement is going to be due by October 14 2020. So a lot of the tribes are working with 15 communities to try to ensure that you have access to be 16 able to get a Real ID so that you can travel to 17 different areas around the state via aircraft or across 18 the border, if needed. And we have information in your 19 meeting book for you. If Nome does have a Division of 20 Motor Vehicles on site here, I'm not sure if you do, 21 but if you do, and you all want to bring the documents 22 needed to get a Real ID at the next meeting that's 23 going to be held here in Nome, we can certainly allot 24 time during the day for you to go over to DMV and we 25 will help you with that transport so you can get your 26 ID. 27 28 Thank you very much. 29 30 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. So now we're 31 down to discussing fall and winter meeting schedule, 32 that's on Page 264, yep, 264 and 265. So what do you 33 need from us Karen? 34 35 MS. DEATHERAGE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 36 The Council has already voted at its last meeting to 37 hold its winter meeting in Nome, the winter 2020 38 meeting, the dates selected were -- are not in the 39 book, hold on -- oh, they're in the meeting book -- 40 sorry. For March 11th and 12th. And so if there is no 41 changes and everybody is still in agreement with those 42 dates we can leave those the same. 43 44 What the Council needs to do at this 45 meeting is to select the time and the dates for the 46 fall 2020 meeting as well as the location. There are 47 some slots that have currently been filled by other 48 Councils so I will keep you apprised of those as you 49 deliberate on when you want to meet. 50

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Page 274 1 Thank you. 2 3 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you. Anybody 4 got any fingerpointing on a date here. October again. 5 6 MS. DEATHERAGE: Mr. Chair. The 7 meeting cycle opportunity runs from mid-August through 8 November 5th, but as Okay. since we're meeting October 9 22nd and 23rd this week, the week of October 19th is 10 open if the Council wishes to schedule a meeting during 11 that week and at a location it prefers. 12 13 Thank you. 14 15 CHAIRMAN GREEN: And if I said October 16 5th, no? 17 18 MS. DEATHERAGE: There is still 19 currently one slot available the week of October 5th. 20 21 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Any desires there, any 22 members. The week of October 5th or the week of 23 October 19th, they're both open. Where's Tom Gray at, 24 when does he have this meeting. 25 26 (Laughter) 27 28 MS. DEATHERAGE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 29 I haven't personally spoken with him but I recall when 30 you decided on this meeting here, that he preferred it 31 later in the month of October so that it did not 32 conflict with his guiding season versus the earlier 33 dates that you also were looking at at that time in 34 October. 35 36 Thank you. 37 38 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Is October 26th open? 39 40 MS. DEATHERAGE: Mr. Chair. Yes, 41 October 26th, the whole week is open. 42 43 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I wish Mr. Gray was 44 here to elaborate, but that being said, that is the end 45 of the month. So do we want to go into November, or do 46 we want to take care of it in October. It doesn't 47 matter to me, I won't be here I'm going to be hunting. 48 49 (Laughter) 50

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Page 275 1 CHAIRMAN GREEN: No, I'm kidding, look 2 at Karen. I got her again, did you see that. 3 4 (Laughter) 5 6 MR. SEETOT: I think we really can't 7 predict the weather but when it does, you know, it's 8 not -- provides a hardship, but at least, you know, it 9 keeps us -- especially myself, I got other things to do 10 other than meet, but I will take time to meet and then 11 weather is becoming a factor in some of these 12 situations where meetings are taking place and I guess 13 we can schedule whatever date with a reminder of 14 weather permitting. 15 16 CHAIRMAN GREEN: What about November 17 2nd, the week of, or did somebody else take it? 18 19 MS. DEATHERAGE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. 20 The only days that would be -- the window closes 21 November 6th, to be able to hold a meeting, so the only 22 days conceivably would be -- to allow for flight time 23 without having weekend travel, would be November 3rd, 24 4th and 5th. 25 26 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Do we want the last 27 week of October, that way we can go trick-or-treating 28 after the meeting's over. 29 30 (Council nods affirmatively) 31 32 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay. 33 34 MS. DEATHERAGE: You can come as chair. 35 36 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay, I can come as 37 chair. 38 39 (Laughter) 40 41 CHAIRMAN GREEN: She's trying to throw 42 it back at me but I'm rolling with it, man. 43 44 (Laughter) 45 46 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I like it. 47 48 (Laughter) 49 50

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Page 276 1 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So let's pick 2 something on the week of October 26th, so where are we 3 at. 4 5 MS. DEATHERAGE: That entire week is 6 open as long as travel isn't required on weekends, 7 which can sometimes can be difficult for Bering Air, 8 and also for you, as Council members, you can choose 9 whatever two days that you wish. 10 11 CHAIRMAN GREEN: From the 27th on. 12 13 MS. DEATHERAGE: I can put down the 14 27th and 28th of October if you'd like. 15 16 CHAIRMAN GREEN: 28th and 29th, how's 17 that. 18 19 MS. DEATHERAGE: That sounds fine, and 20 would you like the meeting location to, again, be in 21 Nome? 22 23 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Anybody got anything. 24 Let's go to..... 25 26 MS. DEATHERAGE: Nome. 27 28 MR. OYOUMICK: Yes. 29 30 CHAIRMAN GREEN: .....Mary's Igloo. 31 32 (Laughter) 33 34 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay, I guess we're 35 looking at Nome again. I saw you yawn. 36 37 MS. DEATHERAGE: Sorry, Mr. Chair, I 38 wasn't meaning to yawn at Nome, it's actually nice to 39 meet in Nome. But the other thing I want to point out 40 is if you choose these dates and there is a conflict 41 with some of the Council members who weren't able to 42 make it to this meeting, you'll have an opportunity, 43 potentially, to change them at the winter meeting. And 44 so before you meet that fall -- if those weeks are not 45 already taken, so just keep that in mind as well. 46 47 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So if we keep these 48 two dates, October 28 and 29, that keeps our travel out 49 of the weekend, that's what I saw. 50

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Page 277 1 MS. DEATHERAGE: Uh-huh. 2 3 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I have a son who's 4 birthday's on the 26th and I'd kind of like to take 5 part in that so that's why I kind of moved it over a 6 little bit, in my mind. 7 8 Are we good with 28 and 29 for now, if 9 we need to change it we can do it in the winter 10 meeting. 11 12 (Council nods affirmatively) 13 14 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Okay, thank you. 15 That's where we're at. 16 17 (Pause) 18 19 CHAIRMAN GREEN: So I'd like to have 20 closing comments. Somebody had something to say. 21 22 (No comments) 23 24 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Ron, are you on the 25 phone. 26 27 MR. KIRK: I'm on the phone. 28 29 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Closing comments. 30 31 MR. KIRK: It was a good meeting. Good 32 to hear all you guys. I'm sorry I couldn't be there 33 but I attended telephonically and I'm trying to hang on 34 to this job and see if I can snag it, I don't know if I 35 will. But I hope to see you guys in spring. It's been 36 a good meeting. 37 38 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Ron. 39 40 MR. KIRK: Hello to everybody. 41 42 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Ron. Bye. 43 44 Deahl. Big deal. 45 46 MR. KATCHATAG: Yeah, we had a good 47 meeting here, and some things that went through I 48 appreciate and thank you all. 49 50

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Page 278 1 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Leland. 2 3 MR. OYOUMICK: Yeah, it was okay. I'd 4 like to see something in the way of finding out why all 5 these things are perishing in the ocean, why our food 6 sources are depleting because it's good food. I'd like 7 to know what's going on in the ocean and that kind of 8 thing. 9 10 But it's been a good meeting and I wish 11 everybody safe travels. 12 13 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Leland. 14 15 Elmer. 16 17 MR. SEETOT: Very good meeting. First 18 time I ever see -- or in a number of meetings, this is 19 the first time we went over our time limit but that's 20 good to know because, you know, with the three agencies 21 talking about issues earlier, I think that was a pretty 22 good approach and that's what we were trying to strive 23 to see, the Federal and State agencies work together 24 because whatever you say, whatever you do, it affects 25 the subsistence user of the natural resource and I 26 appreciate everything that the Staff and, you, as 27 representatives of the Federal and State agencies come 28 to -- put out information. So thank you very much. 29 30 Have safe travels. 31 32 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you, Elmer. 33 34 Mr. Saccheus. 35 36 MR. SACCHEUS: Well, it's good to meet 37 again with all you people and I hope you enjoy your 38 Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas and a Happy New 39 Year. Thank you all for helping us. Thank you very 40 much. 41 42 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Thank you. So that 43 leaves just little old me, I had fun with you, Karen, 44 this time, I got you too many times, I don't even 45 remember how many. 46 47 (Laughter) 48 49 CHAIRMAN GREEN: Yes, it was a very 50

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Page 279 1 good meeting and we had a lot of stuff to work through 2 there. I'd like to thank the folks, that, when we were 3 going through this 22D remainder sheet here it took a 4 few people to get together to construct how I was 5 supposed to do this to get it through. Appreciate 6 that, and the Council members. 7 8 Thanks to the Staff. These two ladies 9 over here. Man, you got fast fingers. And thanks to 10 all you folks for being here and bringing that 11 information forward to us that we needed to make our 12 decisions on. It's really important. It's always a 13 big deal to me, so I want everybody to have a nice 14 evening and have safe travels home and happy holidays, 15 by the way, because we're getting there. 16 17 Thank you. 18 19 I so move -- I'd like to have somebody 20 move to adjourn. 21 22 MR. SEETOT: So be it. 23 24 MR. KIRK: Second. 25 26 CHAIRMAN GREEN: All right, Ron, and 27 all right, Elmer, first, second, all those in favor of 28 adjournment say aye. 29 30 IN UNISON: Aye. 31 32 CHAIRMAN GREEN: I don't think there's 33 any opposition. 34 35 (No opposing votes) 36 37 CHAIRMAN GREEN: No opposition, thank 38 you, meeting's adjourned. 39 40 (Off record) 41 42 (END OF PROCEEDINGS) 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

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1 C E R T I F I C A T E 2 3 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ) 4 )ss. 5 STATE OF ALASKA ) 6 7 I, Salena A. Hile, Notary Public in and for the 8 state of Alaska and reporter for Computer Matrix Court 9 Reporters, LLC, do hereby certify: 10 11 THAT the foregoing pages numbered through 12 contain a full, true and correct Transcript of the 13 SEWARD PENINSULA FEDERAL SUBSISTENCE REGIONAL ADVISORY 14 COUNCIL MEETING, VOLUME II taken electronically on the 15 23rd day of October in Nome, Alaska; 16 17 THAT the transcript is a true and 18 correct transcript requested to be transcribed and 19 thereafter transcribed by under my direction and 20 reduced to print to the best of our knowledge and 21 ability; 22 23 THAT I am not an employee, attorney, or 24 party interested in any way in this action. 25 26 DATED at Anchorage, Alaska, this 16th 27 day of November 2019. 28 29 30 31 Salena A. Hile 32 Notary Public, State of Alaska 33 My Commission Expires: 09/16/22 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

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