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Where we're heading
Posted by bushrat on Jan 04 2006
twodux,
I replied to Bob in an earlier thread and posted some of the statutes from the new Commercial Services Board.
We are heading toward what may be a defined "limit" of the amount of air-taxis and guides that can operate in a given area. It's a problem with capitalism and sustained yield of wildlife often being mutually exclusive. Hunting in Alaska is in BIG DEMAND, and there will always be someone wanting to make a buck off it, from hunt-bookers to transporters to guides. I think we have to recognize that perhaps we have overdone it in some parts of the state. When transporters drop off hunters on top of one another, when air-taxi A competes with air-taxi B-through-F for the same hunting grounds, there will be conflicts and overharvest problems. In the past, a given air-taxi that had used an area for, say, thirty years, was considered by unwritten code to have rights to that area. In all facets of our society you can see this breakdown of past ethics and respect. In the present, new air-taxis or transporters may say: "He doesn't own it and by law I can drop hunters off wherever I damn well please!" Believe it or not, this has been happening. There have been fisticuffs on remote gravel bars when one transporter lands a group of hunters on top of another party, dejection among hunters expecting more privacy after paying five grand for a remote fly-in hunt or a float trip. Transporters see more and more hunters in "their" former areas and so drop off hunters on top of other hunters. Many biologists have harped that we need the big-game-board reinstated; certain areas were getting hammered by too many hunters, too many transporters, too many guides overlapping, and no board to enforce any modicum of restraint.
Enter the new Commercial Services Board. The last resort to fix a growing problem. I imagine and hope some things will change. We'll see.
Best, Mark
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