Alaska Stat. § 16.05.255 (2026)

Sec. 16.05.255. Regulations of the Board of Game; management requirements.
 (a) The Board of Game may adopt regulations it considers advisable in accordance with AS 44.62 (Administrative Procedure Act) for
     (1) setting apart game reserve areas, refuges, and sanctuaries in the water or on the land of the state over which it has jurisdiction, subject to the approval of the legislature;

     (2) establishing open and closed seasons and areas for the taking of game;

     (3) establishing the means and methods employed in the pursuit, capture, taking, and transport of game, including regulations, consistent with resource conservation and development goals, establishing means and methods that may be employed by persons with physical disabilities;

     (4) setting quotas, bag limits, harvest levels, and sex, age, and size limitations on the taking of game;

     (5) classifying game as game birds, song birds, big game animals, fur bearing animals, predators, or other categories;

     (6) methods, means, and harvest levels necessary to control predation and competition among game in the state;

     (7) watershed and habitat improvement, and management, conservation, protection, use, disposal, propagation, and stocking of game;

     (8) prohibiting the live capture, possession, transport, or release of native or exotic game or their eggs;

     (9) establishing the times and dates during which the issuance of game licenses, permits, and registrations and the transfer of permits and registrations between registration areas and game management units or subunits is allowed;

     (10) regulating sport hunting and subsistence hunting as needed for the conservation, development, and utilization of game;

     (11) taking game to ensure public safety;

     (12) regulating the activities of persons licensed to control nuisance wild birds and nuisance wild small mammals;

     (13) promoting hunting and trapping and preserving the heritage of hunting and trapping in the state.

 (b) [Repealed, § 12 ch 52 SLA 1986.]
 (c) If the Board of Game denies a petition or proposal to amend, adopt, or repeal a regulation, the board, upon receiving a written request from the sponsor of the petition or proposal, shall in addition to the requirements of AS 44.62.230 provide a written explanation for the denial to the sponsor not later than 30 days after the board has officially met and denied the sponsor's petition or proposal, or 30 days after receiving the request for an explanation, whichever is later.

 (d) Regulations adopted under (a) of this section must provide that, consistent with the provisions of AS 16.05.258, the taking of moose, deer, elk, and caribou by residents for personal or family consumption has preference over taking by nonresidents.

 (e) The Board of Game shall adopt regulations to provide for intensive management programs to restore the abundance or productivity of identified big game prey populations as necessary to achieve human consumptive use goals of the board in an area where the board has determined that
     (1) consumptive use of the big game prey population is a preferred use;

     (2) depletion of the big game prey population or reduction of the productivity of the big game prey population has occurred and may result in a significant reduction in the allowable human harvest of the population; and

     (3) enhancement of abundance or productivity of the big game prey population is feasibly achievable utilizing recognized and prudent active management techniques.

 (f) The Board of Game may not significantly reduce the taking of an identified big game prey population by adopting regulations relating to restrictions on harvest or access to the population, or to management of the population by customary adjustments in seasons, bag limits, open and closed areas, methods and means, or by other customary means authorized under (a) of this section, unless the board has adopted regulations, or has scheduled for adoption at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the board regulations, that provide for intensive management to increase the take of the population for human harvest consistent with (e) of this section. This subsection does not apply if the board
     (1) determines that intensive management would be
          (A) ineffective, based on scientific information;

          (B) inappropriate due to land ownership patterns; or

          (C) against the best interest of subsistence uses; or

     (2) declares that a biological emergency exists and takes immediate action to protect or maintain the big game prey population in conjunction with the scheduling for adoption of those regulations that are necessary to implement (e) of this section.

 (g) The Board of Game shall establish population and harvest goals and seasons for intensive management of identified big game prey populations to achieve a high level of human harvest.

 (h) [Repealed, 2000 Ballot Measure No. 6.]
 (i) For the purpose of encouraging adults to take children hunting, the board shall establish annual hunting seasons in appropriate areas of the state for big game, other than bison and musk ox. Only a resident child accompanied by a resident adult or a child accompanied by the child's resident parent, resident grandparent, resident stepparent, or resident legal guardian may take big game in an area where a season established under this subsection is in effect. The adult, parent, grandparent, stepparent, or legal guardian who accompanies the child may only assist the child in taking big game. A big game animal taken under this subsection, except for a Sitka blacktail deer when the harvest limit for the deer is one for each person, must be counted against the bag limits of both the child and the adult, parent, grandparent, stepparent, or legal guardian who accompanies the child. In this subsection,
     (1) “adult” means an individual who is 21 years of age or older;

     (2) “child” means an individual who is not more than 17 years of age and not younger than eight years of age.

 (j) This section authorizes the board to regulate regarding the conservation, development, or utilization of game in a manner that addresses whether, how, when, and where the public asset of game is allocated or appropriated.

 (k) The board may establish annual big game hunting seasons in appropriate areas of the state for persons with physical disabilities. A participant in a hunt established under this subsection must be accompanied by a hunter with a valid hunting license who is capable of retrieving game.

 (l) In this section,
     (1) “harvestable surplus” means the number of animals that is estimated to equal the number of offspring born in a game population during a year less the number of animals required for recruitment for population maintenance and enhancement, when necessary, and the number of animals in the population that die from all causes, other than predation or human harvest, during that year;

     (2) “high level of human harvest” means the allocation of a sufficient portion of the harvestable surplus of a game population to achieve a high probability of success for human harvest of the game population based on biological capabilities of the population and considering hunter demand;

     (3) “identified big game prey population” means a population of ungulates that is identified by the Board of Game and that is important for providing high levels of harvest for human consumptive use;

     (4) “intensive management” means management of an identified big game prey population consistent with sustained yield through active management measures to enhance, extend, and develop the population to maintain high levels or provide for higher levels of human harvest, including control of predation and prescribed or planned use of fire and other habitat improvement techniques;

     (5) “sustained yield” means the achievement and maintenance in perpetuity of the ability to support a high level of human harvest of game, subject to preferences among beneficial uses, on an annual or periodic basis.