For purposes of implementing AS 16.05.255(e) - (g), the Board of Game (board) will

1. (1) consider the following criteria when identifying big game prey populations that are important for providing high levels of human consumptive use:

   1. (A) harvest size: the average annual historic human harvest meets or exceeds values as follows:

      1. (i) caribou: 100;
      2. (ii) deer: 500;
      3. (iii) moose: 100;
      4. (iv) sheep: harvest size to be determined;
   2. (B) accessibility to harvest;
   3. (C) utilization for meat: a population that is used primarily for food; and
   4. (D) level of hunter demand: as reflected by total hunter effort, number of applications for permits, or other indicators;

2. (2) consider the following criteria when establishing population objectives and harvest objectives for each identified big game prey population consistent with maintaining near maximum sustainable yield from the population:

   1. (A) effects of weather, habitat capability, diseases, and parasites;
   2. (B) maintenance of viable predator populations;
   3. (C) maintenance of habitat conditions suitable for other species in the area;
   4. (D) effects on subsistence users;
   5. (E) cost, feasibility, and potential effectiveness of possible management actions;
   6. (F) land ownership patterns within the range of the population;
   7. (G) accessibility to harvest; and
   8. (H) other factors considered relevant by the board;

3. (3) find that depletion of a big game prey population or reduction of the productivity of a big game prey population has occurred when

   1. (A) the number of animals, estimated by the department, that can be removed by human harvest from a population, or portion of a population, on an annual basis without reducing the population below the population objective, preventing growth of the population toward the population objective at a rate set by the board, or altering a composition of the population in a biologically unacceptable manner is less than the harvest objective for the population; and
   2. (B) the population size is less than the population objective for the population;
4. (4) determine whether a finding made under (3) of this section may result in a significant reduction in the allowable human harvest of the population;

5. (5) not consider as significant:

   1. (A) any reduction in taking that continues to allow a level of harvest equal to or greater than the minimum harvest objective established by the board; or
   2. (B) any reduction in taking that is intended or expected to be of a short-term and temporary nature and is necessary for the conservation of the population;
6. (6) utilize active management of habitat and predation as the major tools to reverse any significant reduction in the allowable human harvest of the population.

(Eff. 7/1/98, Register 146; add’l am 7/1/98, Register 146; am 7/1/2025, Register 254)

Authority: AS 16.05.020, AS 16.05.050, AS 16.05.255