Our summer intern, Ella Van Wyk, recently traveled to Wiseman, Alaska, to document the impacts of the revocations of PLO 5150 and 5180. This is part one of a series detailing her experiences and opinions on what is happening in Wiseman from an outsider’s perspective. Stay tuned for more updates to this series.
Land Revocations and Subsistence Rights
Hunting is a vital part of subsistence practices, and is essential to those who live in Wiseman. Whether they hunt big game or small, they all rely on having legal subsistence access to the surrounding area. Before the Public Land Orders 5150 and 5180 were revoked, Wiseman residents were able to harvest moose and other game within the federal lands in the Dalton Highway Corridor, which includes the area around Wiseman, making it convenient for the residents to harvest essential game throughout the year.
Since the corridor is now state land, Wiseman residents don’t have subsistence priority, meaning they must travel to federal lands to hunt. A fall and winter moose hunt in Gates of the Arctic National Park, the closest federal land to Wiseman, is currently not allowed for federally qualified subsistence users. Even if an emergency winter moose hunt for federally qualified rural residents is approved by the Federal Subsistence Board, getting to the park is not simple. Residents either take the Nolan Road 7 miles to reach the park, or those who dog mush can take 7 miles of dog mushing trails over a mountain to reach the park. Last year, the Nolan Road washed out, making it temporarily impassable and further making it difficult to access the park. Even though the park is harder to reach, the Wiseman community needs to be able to hunt somewhere to fill their freezers, which is why an emergency winter moose hunt for federally qualified subsistence users in the park is essential. Additionally, increasing climate change threats are only exacerbating the flooding issues of this area, and road washouts are becoming more common. I saw this myself when I was there in June, outside of the regular rainy season- there was a large flood that washed out a section of the airstrip road, and fully flooded the only road going in and out of Wiseman.
The nearest grocery store is hundreds of miles away
Wild game, especially moose, is a vital source of nutrition for rural residents. A moose can provide around 400lbs of meat, feeding one family for about a year. The cost of buying meat and shipping it up to Wiseman in the case where no moose could be harvested would be over $2,000, plus around $400 in shipping. Shipping alone comes with its own problems, too. There is regular service to Coldfoot, but it is not always reliable. Even on my one trip up to Wiseman, I was affected by these common weather-related delays, having to stop in Bettles for 5 hours before trying to land again. Buying commercial meat plus shipping versus hunting wild game, where the only costs are the permit and supplies, displays how much more efficient it is to hunt instead of relying on commercial meat, especially for these rural residents. This, again, is why an emergency winter moose hunt is essential to these rural residents in order to be able to efficiently and effectively continue their subsistence practices.
Winter is a high tourism season for Wiseman. Berni and Uta run Arctic Getaway all year long, Jack Reakoff leads tours all year, and Mollie and Sean open Arctic Hive during the winter months. Now, because of the land transfer, during one of the busiest times of the year, Wiseman residents have to travel much farther to get vital services. With the land transfer, there is also a risk of increased public access to this area that was previously federally protected, in which the residents had subsistence priority. On top of this, new antimony mines in the area are bringing in more year-round people, effectively doubling the competition for the moose population in the Wiseman area. With more people coming into the only place where Wiseman residents are allowed to hunt, the hunting pressure will only increase. With the rise in recent antimony mines not only in the Wiseman area, but also in Fairbanks and Goldstream Valley, there is a serious threat of competition for resources. Think about it this way- the only grocery store in your area closes, so you have to go 10 miles away to the next nearest one. However, there’s no guarantee that you will be able to get food there, because the next town over also uses that grocery store, so there is a real chance that the store could be sold out of the meat that you need for the winter. Also, you are not legally allowed to buy meat there right now anyway. What would you do?
Stand with Wiseman
You can help by signing our petition for Wiseman residents get access to harvest moose and feed their families and by emailing DNR with your support for Wiseman.
Sign the petition here: https://forms.gle/fvPYpHXa4NnmJ9jQ9