To learn more about the work NWF is doing visit their website or contact Kindle at kindle@nwf.org. To get in contact with Jackson or learn more about SEACC, email matt@seacc.org or visit the SEACC website.

Deer season is in full swing throughout Southeast, and the Sitka Spruce Tips 4-H students are learning how to process a deer as well as the Tlingit traditions around the animal. On November 27th, Tad Fujioka demonstrated the butchering process.

Mountain goat hunter, Joe List, poses with a Billie he got last season. (Photo provided by Joe list)

August 1st marks the opening of the mountain goat hunting season. In just a few days, a small, but eager band of hunters will hike and traverse Baranof Island’s many mountains on one of Alaska’s most challenging pursuits. But this year, the Alaska Department of Fish & Game has changed the rules.

Downloadable audio.

Baranof Island is teeming with wildlife of all shapes and sizes. And where there’s wildlife, there’s big game hunting. Dall sheep, Black-tailed deer and Brown bears are popular, but some hunters choose to go after an animal that’s arguably the most challenging to get to — the mountain goat.

With goat season about to start, Area Management Biologist Steve Bethune says hunters should expect something new.

“We have high numbers of goats and I saw an opportunity to have increased opportunity for hunters,” he said.

The new management plan increases the number of hunt zones from 9 to 34.

Converting to smaller and more numerous subdivisions allows biologists to monitor goats at the subpopulation level. This will help reduce the risk of overharvest as well as give hunters more chances to leave with a catch.  

Deciding on 34 zones was not a random choice. Bethune and other biologists pulled from telemetry data from mountain goat radio collars, historical survey data, and conversations with veteran goat hunters. This allowed them to formulate a plan.

“Several areas that have been closed to mountain goat hunting for the last several years, are going to be open this year — places that have historically been popular such as Blue Lake and Mount Katlian,” Bethune said.

Previously, zones like those had to be shut down due to high harvest, or more specifically high female harvest.

Each zone has its own goat hunting quota, determined by ADF&G. After the quota is reached, the zone is closed. But if one female goat is harvested at anytime, that zone is automatically closed, no matter the quota.

“We really stress the taking of billies rather than nannies because the nannies have such a low reproductive rate, and so the hunters have done a great job,” Bethune said. “We have a very low female harvest over the last five years and that’s one of the reasons why I’m able to do this new management strategy.”

Of the 34 zones, only 21 will be open this season because the rest don’t have enough goats for a sustainable harvest yet.

The zones that are open are by no means easy to get to. Most are scattered throughout the East and North of the island, miles away from Sitka, and some aren’t even boat accessible. This means hunters will have a long journey ahead of them if they want a goat.

New-time mountain goat hunter Joe List is on board with the strategy change. Last year he harvested the 5th and final goat from Rosenberg Lake before it was closed for the season.

“There was a lot of localized pressure in a very small area. There is still plenty of goats outside of the lake itself, still in that unit, that would have been eligible for harvest,” List said.

List learned about the strategy last week when it was presented to him and about 17 other hunters at the ranger district office. According to List, there was no big opposition from his fellow big game hunters because it makes their task a little easier.

“Where as before if you have a 4 or 5 square mile area and you know 5 goats were harvested out of that area, you don’t know where exactly that was. Now there so condensed that maybe 2 or 3 are able to be harvested out of that area,” he said.

Mountain goat hunting is extremely taxing, so anything that makes the trip a little easier is welcomed.

As of now, List wants to see how the new strategy works out, and can barely wait for the start of the season.  He’s been training for the last month, hiking 5 miles with a 50 pound pack on his back twice a week, running two miles two times a week and doing leg workouts the rest of the week.

He plans to harvest a mountain goat with a bow and arrow, archery style.

“That’s why I like it here, I don’t like going to amusement parks, I don’t like watching movies, I don’t like paying for things that anybody can do. Sporting events are cool I guess, but this is something you have to put a pack on your back and really have to grind for,” he said. “It’s an accomplishment.”

If List succeeds this year, not only will he be set on food for a while, but he’ll be able to add to his growing mountain goat collection, which already includes a rug.

Shalene Moller is a senior at Kake City School District and one of the few female students who regularly hunts. (Jordana Grant/KCAW Photo)

The following personal essay was written by a student in Kake, as part of a special project between the Kake City School media class and Raven Radio. 

Hi, my name is Shaelene Moller and I’m a senior at Kake City School District. Six years old. I am stumbling on the ground as I try to follow my dad’s lead. I see some dug up ground just up ahead and I quicken towards it. It’s a moose print.

I was only six years old, but I knew this was something I loved. I grew up in an outgoing family with a very unique lifestyle compared to other people around the nation.

I grew up on the water, harvesting fish like halibut and salmon. I grew up in the bushes, picking delicacies such as blueberries and huckleberries. And the most important to me: I grew up in the woods and hunting, in search of making more memories.

One of my favorites of these memories was when I was about 15 years old. It was about 4 a.m. when my dad and I woke up to get ready for the day ahead of us. I was very excited. I grabbed my compass, bullets, rifle, and backpack quickly to make sure to make it before the sun rises. As usual before every hunt, we wake up my mom so she can take our picture together and wish us luck before we head out the door. She asks us to do this because she always wants to see us off.

Listen to Shalene’s essay, in her own words:

Downloadable audio.

My dad and I then get in the truck and begin our drive there. I plug my dad’s iPod into the speakers and put on the playlist we usually listen to on our way out hunting, which is mostly country music. When we reach a spot, we pull off the road and wait until it’s just light enough to hike back into the brush.

Then we gather our items and follow the trail back through the muskeg. The branches were damp with dew and the ground was stiff from the cold night. So it wasn’t a very comfortable hike back, but it would definitely be a memorable one.

We ran into a couple grouse crossing the path along the way and also a cow moose in a raspberry patch about 35 yards from us. When we got to our spot, we sat down and called for moose. After waiting about 30 minutes, of continually trying, we decided to hike even further back. We didn’t know the area very well, but we decided to experiment since the ground was chewed up on this trail we came across. So we crept slowly and quietly as he hiked, watching our surroundings.

All of a sudden, we heard branches breaking and moving rapidly ahead of us. This huge brown mass with wide antlers stood up and looked in our direction. My dad quickly loaded his rifle and lifts it to focus, but the bull takes off further back and we follow. My dad does a cow call and stops the bull in this tracks. He then takes the first shot, but it didn’t work. The bull continues walking. I look at my dad with wide eyes, scared the bull would walk even further. We were awfully far back to pack such a gigantic animal already. My dad takes his second shot, stunning the bull, but even yet this didn’t work. My dad takes a third one and he is still walking, so my dad rushes back to his bag to get more ammo.

By the time we look back, the moose isn’t there anymore. And we sigh at the thought of it going further. After all, he was the largest bull we ever harvested. We hike in the direction we think he went and my dad stops. He yells in excitement and calls me over. Our moose is down.

I call my mom as soon as I can find my dad’s phone and tell her, opening the conversation with my favorite phrase, “The moose is down.” The next thirteen hours were spent taking pictures, cutting and cleaning the meat and packing it out. Halfway out, we had help from my dad’s friend Ben, which helped a lot. If he didn’t help we wouldn’t have been done until around 3 a.m.

We pack through swamp, creeks, beaver dams, and muds before reaching the truck where my family was gathered. Everyone was excited. Succeeding this marked our fourth successful hunt for moose together, as a father and daughter.

Shalene’s media teacher is Jordana Grant in Kake. With production help from Emily Kwong. 

Heather Bauscher is a wildlife specialist for the USDA. Her job is the clear the runway of airborne creatures. But lately, her bigger problem is deer. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

Throughout this year’s hunting season, Sitka’s airport has been contending with an unusual issue: dead deer. Carcasses have been washing up on the runway since November, attracting birds. And this has posed a big problem to business as usual. 

Downloadable audio.

You know those contraptions where a hammer hits a ball which drops into a bucket which cracks an egg or something? Well, this story is set inside Sitka’s very own Rube Goldberg machine. 

Heather Bauscher works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as a wildlife specialist. Her job is to clear of the runway of wildlife that could interfere with air traffic. Mostly it’s creatures of the sky: eagles, seagulls, and ducks.

But lately, Bauscher’s biggest nemesis is deer. “There’s a lot of steps between somebody pitching some animal remains overboard or leaving them on the beach and planes crashing,” Bauscher said, “but it can happen.” Carcasses have been washing up on the runway ever since the subsistence hunting season opened on November 1st.

Traffic Control: Wildlife 2, we’ll show you on.

In her truck, Bauscher sped down the runway, which is fully exposed. It’s like a tarmac popsicle sticking out into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Because of it’s design, carcasses tend to wash up on or near the runway every week. It’s like Las Vegas when the buffet is called, except for birds.

Sitka’s runway is encompassed by the Pacific Ocean. The tides bring in debris and some of that debris attracts birds, creating a natural buffet (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

“Some of these coves really act as a catch all. You’ll see all sorts of debris. I mean, look at the way the waves are crashing and the water is pushing things in,” Bauscher noted as she slowed her truck near a wind sock. She caught a glimpse of something in the rocks and scrambles down them.

KCAW: Someone’s sneaker is floating in there.
Bauscher: Yep, all kinds of debris.

It’s debris soup really. But with her keen eyes, Bauscher spied a white tuft of hair.

Bauscher: See a little bit right there?
KCAW: Oh my god, yes!

A deer head.  

Since November, Bauscher has been seeing one to three deer wash up on the runway every week. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

She picked up a branch that had washed up nearby and proceeded to poke the deer head, eventually spearing it with the end. She scaled the rock wall triumphantly, her blue gloved hand holding the deer head high.

KCAW: Oh it smells. It smells like death.
Bauscher: Yep.
KCAW: It smells like death.
Bauscher: Yep.

Bauscher chucked it into her back of her truck. One section is smeared with blood and animal parts, so she has to wash it pretty often , and drives off the runway.

Bauscher loads a deer carcass, picked clean by birds, into the back of her truck. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

Now think about it: all this collection work for one deer head that could theoretically attract a bird that could theoretically collide with a plane. Is it worth all the fuss?

Bauscher said that on a runway as exposed and wild as Sitka’s, it’s essential. This year alone, she’s counted 136 species of birds in the vicinity of Sitka’s runway. “If a bird strikes a plane, chances are it could severely damage the turbine to the point of completely destroying that engine.”

In 2010, an eagle flew straight into the engine of a Boeing 737 that was roaring down Sitka’s runway. No one was hurt – commercial planes have two engines –  but at other airports across the country, wildlife strikes have downed planes and killed passengers before.

In 2009, pilots had to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River after birds knocked out both engines. Public pressure from that event motivated the Federal Aviation Administration to release data that year, which reported 60,000 bird strikes since 2000. Basically, it can happen to any plane with any bird. All it takes is some bad timing. And Bascher said the USDA doesn’t want to take the risk.

Bauscher: Because we’re not going to have a ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ in Sitka.

KCAW: Why not?

Bauscher: Well, I mean…look at it! There’s too many rocks. And how many times are you on a plane where you know the other people on that plane? Always. There’s always people you know on that plane and the way the flight runs from Seattle to Anchorage, if there was something horrible that happened because of a bird strike, there would be no way this whole community wasn’t impacted much less all of Southeast Alaska. And I think it would be a real shame for that to be because of some deer carcasses or fish carcasses or something that could have been preventable.

Phil Mooney, area biologist with ADF&G, urges Sitkans to dispose of their deer waste though municipal garbage collection or by donating it to the Raptor Center. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

Phil Mooney – the area management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game – urged those hunting to be more conscious of this very real connection between the sea and sky. And that means, not dumping your carcases on the side of the road.

“Don’t put it on the roadside. Don’t throw it in the water particularly. If you can put it in your garbage can that’s great,” Mooney said.

And if pick-up isn’t for awhile, or the carcass is getting stinky, Mooney recommends taking it to the Jarvis Street Transfer Station or the Alaska Raptor Center. Fortress of the Bear says it’s not accepting carcasses at this time, but will begin again in the spring.

Mooney sympathizes with those Sitkans who want to return the wildlife carcasses back to nature, but stresses that that kind of thinking is too risky in a city of 9000 with over half a dozen daily flights. “People think, ‘Okay, this one deer carcass isn’t going to hurt anything, or these two deer carcasses.’ But take that times how many hunters we’ve got out here and a good deer year and it gets to be a problem,” Mooney said.

Bauscher enjoys having the runway as her office space. “It’s pretty neat to be able to get to be out here. I feel pretty lucky to have this job,” she said. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

Back on the runway, Bauscher has just enough time to scatter a group of ducks. She uses pyrotechnics, shot out of a gun. (Sound of silver comet exploding in the air) This one is blue with sparkles. It’s called a silver comet.

Bauscher clearly loves her job. She notified traffic control that the runway was clear. We watched from outside the gate as the noon plane took off into the sky, her eyes traveling upward. She then said her superpower of choice would be to talk to animals and tell them not to hang out on the runway, as beautiful as it may be.

Between Delta and Alaska Airlines, over half a dozen flights come into and out of Sitka daily. After clearing the runway of some ducks, Bauscher looks on as a plane takes off. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

On Monday (09-22-15), Sean P. Pilutik, age 20, and Daniel B. Rasmussen, age 19, pled guilty in Sitka District Court to molesting or impeding salmon. Pilutik is from Auburn, WA and Rasmussen is from Chimacum, WA. The men were fined $210 each.

Also on Monday (09-22-15), Bryce Phillips, age 22 of Juneau, pled guilty in Sitka District Court to one count each of taking a doe in closed season and unlawful possession and transport. Phillips was fined $1250, placed on probation for one year, had his hunting license revoked for one year, and forfeited the shotgun used to take the dear. Sean Barclay, age 31, pled guilty to one count of unlawful possession. He was fined $500 and placed on probation for one year.

Updated 5 p.m., 09-11-12

Alaska Wildlife Troopers responded to several wildlife violations in Sitka this month.

Last Thursday (09-03-15), James “Mitch” Cowan, age 65, posted an internet advertisement that a big game trophy was available for sale. Cowan was attempting to sell a mounted set of moose antlers. Under Alaska law, big game trophies can not marketed or sold, except through special permission of a court, in the adjudication of an estate or similar legal settlement. Troopers seized the antlers and Cowan was issued a summons to appear in court.

On Saturday (09-15-15), two Washington men were cited for one count of molesting fish. According to the troopers, Sean P. Pilutik, age 20, and Daniel B. Rasmussen, age 19, were “smashing spawning salmon” on Indian River on September 3rd. The men were allegedly harming the fish using rocks in the stream. Under Alaska law, it is illegal to interfere with or molest salmon in any way during spawning. The arraignment for both men is September 22nd in Sitka District Court.

And on Monday (09-17-15), Alaska Wildlife Troopers Sitka Post responded to a report of a gunshot along Granite Creek Road in connection with a deer in the area. According to the Troopers, Bryce B. Phillips, 22 of Juneau, shot a doe out of season near a roadway. Phillips killed the doe prior to the September 15th opening for does and did not have a valid hunting license. Phillips allegedly hid the deer in the home of Sean A. Barclay, age 31, who was charged with unlawful possession after he assisted in cleaning and hanging the deer. Phillips was charged with counts of Taking a Doe in a Closed Season, Unlawful Possession, and Hunting without a License. His firearm and deer were seized. Both men are set to appear for arraignments in Sitka District Court on September 22nd, 2015.