Searching for Unit 13 Community Moose Harvest Data...

[Doc]

Without rehashing our personal opinions and field observations related to the Community Moose Harvest in unit 13, I'm not having much luck finding harvest data for moose taken under this hunt. The most recent I can find is for 2009 harvests, which is not at all representative of what this particular hunt has grown to be.

I'm personally interested in reviewing and analyzing the Community Moose harvest statistics in Unit 13 for the past four years, including 2013:
(1) number of Community Moose Harvest permits issued;
(2) number of bulls actually taken under Community Moose Harvest permits that were "sublegal" (any bull) when compared to general harvest restrictions, and
(3) number of bulls taken that met general harvest restrictions (4 or 50, spike or fork) and were taken after an emergency closure for any bull, but taken before the general season began.

Anyone have a quick link or objective statistical resource for this data set?

Thanks in advance folks.

 

[AKLIVENDIE]

I would contact Becky....


Rebecca Schwanke, Wildlife Biologist III
Area Manager GMU 11 & 13
Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game
P.O. Box 47
Glennallen, AK 99588
907-822-3461 phone
907-822-3811 fax
[email protected]

 

[anchskier]

Do they track the antler size for things like the community harvests when it is "any bull"? I know if I have an "any bull" tag, I don't report the size of the antlers, just that I got a bull (never done the CH stuff though, so don't know how that works).

 

[Doc]

Do they track the antler size for things like the community harvests when it is "any bull"? I know if I have an "any bull" tag, I don't report the size of the antlers, just that I got a bull (never done the CH stuff though, so don't know how that works).

Good question to ask...seems like it would make good harvest management sense to include antler information (general harvest requires that information)...but I don't know the answer to that question because I also have never participated in the community moose hunt. Anybody know if there were antler reporting requirements?

That said, the season opened 8/10 this year for the Community Moose Harvest permit in Unit 13. They apparently did have a set number of "any bulls" to be taken under this permit because ADFG issued an emergency closure of the "any bull" allowance after one week of the hunt (I think that was on 8/16 this year). However, ADFG allowed continued hunting under the Community Moose Harvest permit for the remaining two weeks of August for bulls meeting the general harvest permit requirements (4 or 50, spike or fork), which allowed the harvest of more bulls to be taken under the Community Moose Harvest before the general harvest season began for everyone else on 9/1.

Therefore, even if there was no antler reporting requirement associated with the Community Moose Hunt in unit 13, one could infer that bulls taken between 8/10 and the date of the emergency closure included some bulls that did not meet the general harvest antler requirements of a legal bull (exact percentage is unknown if antler reporting was not part of the permit requirements), but those bulls taken after the emergency closure and before the opening of the general harvest season on 9/1 did meet those antler requirements.

Either way, the data will still be interesting and it will give some indication of the impact on our managed moose resource in unit 13.

 

[Doc]

I would contact Becky....


Rebecca Schwanke, Wildlife Biologist III
Area Manager GMU 11 & 13
Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game
P.O. Box 47
Glennallen, AK 99588
907-822-3461 phone
907-822-3811 fax
[email protected]

Good information and thank you...

I do plan to call her about the data. I did call her office last month with a field report after returning from hunting this year.