No refuge for bear hunt — Public fired up about bear hunting closure

It’s been more than a month since the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued an emergency closure of brown bear sport hunting on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge on Oct. 26, but debate continues over whether this decision was reached for biological or philosophical reasons.

On Nov. 25 nearly 100 people — federal and state employees, representatives of conservation and pro-hunting organizations, as well as members of the general public for and against the closure — had an opportunity to share their views during a public hearing in Soldotna pursuant to the federal regulations with the emergency closure.

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Related articles

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Suspends Operations in Missouri Due to Federal Government Lapse in Appropriations (missourioutdoors.blogspot.com)
• U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources Award $750,000 to Missouri Prairie Foundation (missourioutdoors.blogspot.com)
• U.s. Fish & Wildlife Service Announces No Fish Hatchery Closures This Year (family-outdoors.blogspot.com)
• Wisconsin DNR offers five ways to find a place to hunt (midwestdeerhunting.blogspot.com)

Questions remain over counts after shift to high-tech sonar

In the continuing saga of Kenai River king salmon management during the current period of low abundance, counting the number of fish coming into the river with enough accuracy to satisfy competing users has been a difficult task for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Researchers are dealing with new, high-tech sonar counters they hope will meet the inherent challenge of finding and counting a few king salmon swimming along with thousands of sockeye salmon.

They are also faced with the task of communicating the subtleties of an increasingly complex system to a public upset by departmental missteps such as the 2012 closure of king salmon anglers and Cook Inlet setnetters due to what managers believed were dangerously low numbers of fish.

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Alaska State Trooper and veteran trapper center a suburban snare uproar

Were it not for the fact Rick Ellis's trapping buddy is a TV star, albeit a minor one, and an Alaska State Trooper to boot, the Wasilla outdoorsman believes he would not find himself and his trapping debated in the news.

In his heart of hearts, Ellis believes he and Alaska Wildlife Trooper John Cyr were performing a public service by trapping coyotes and foxes on some undeveloped property in a rural area going suburban near Colony High School in the Matanuska Valley north of Anchorage.

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