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On 10/27/2020, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) held a public hearing titled, “Proposed Rule Change to Public Use in Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.”
The Alaska National Wildlife Refuge System staff of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service published a proposed rule to amend the public use regulations for Kenai National Wildlife Refuge on June 11, 2020 that would weaken hunting restrictions on the wildlife refuge land.
The proposed rule can be seen here:
In summary, the regulatory changes proposed by this rule include:
- allowing the harvesting of brown bears at registered bait stations
- allowing for trapping under State law without a Federal permit
- allowing the discharge of firearms along the Kenai and Russian Rivers at select times of the year
- increasing access by bicycles and game carts and allowing snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles and utility task vehicles on certain lakes when there is a sufficient amount of snow and ice.
The state claims that the purpose of the rule is to align with Alaska’s regulations and management of fish and wildlife and the Federal law brought forth by the Trump administration. The current administration has been actively working towards expanding hunting territory and debilitating hunting restrictions since 2017 when President Donald Trump persisted that Republicans repeal a federal restriction on hunting predators.
During the public hearing on June 11, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service received many requests from Alaskan and out-of-state residents to extend the public comment period past the initial 60-day period. The USFWS decided to allow comments from the public until Nov. 9. As required by Service regulations, a public hearing via teleconference on Zoom was held on Oct. 27. The Oct. 28 public hearing, the day for which C.A.S.H. had registered to comment was can- celled without further explanation as to why.
The hearing on the 27 took place at 4 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time (8 pm in NY) and proceeded for about 4 hours. With over 70 participants involved in the teleconference, a range of state agencies and departments, as well as Alaskan residents, were able to share their opinions about the proposed rule.
Over tens of thousands of people all over the country had shared their opinion where the majority of the comments were similar concerns and oppositions regarding the proposed changes to the regulation.
Many of the public comments were similar in language stating in so many words, “I urge you to reject the proposed regulation that would roll back protections for bears and other animals on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Refugees should be places of safety for wild animals not playgrounds for trophy hunters.”
Americans nationwide made it clear that they fully oppose the revision of rules that would allow for trophy hunting on national land that is meant to be a wildlife refuge.
To read the proposed amendments and submit a comment electronically, visit www.regulations.gov and search Docket Number: FWS-R7-NWRS-2017-0058.
Victoria Cymbal is beginning to intern at C.A.S.H. She had fortunately registered for the first hearing, thanks to an alert by Wilderness Watch www.wildernesswatch.org that was sent to us by C.A.S.H. member Richard Firth. C.A.S.H. quickly sent her the official C.A.S.H. comment. You can see it below.
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C.A.S.H. COMMENTS AT THE KENAI NATIONAL – WILDLIFE REFUGE PUBLIC HEARING 10/28/2020 COMMENTS PRESENTED BY VICTORIA CYMBAL
Should hunting and trapping be expanded in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge?
The Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting strongly opposes this expansion, and would, in fact, like to see the reversal of hunting and trapping here and elsewhere.
The larger issue that is mostly hidden from the public and general taxpayer is that the excise taxes on every bullet and firearm used against animals in our forests and fields, and used against people in the cities, pays into the USFWS and state wildlife management bureaus to promote more use of firearms and ammunition in our fields and forests.
The only way to stop management of our wildlife for this purpose is for the public to prevent their tax dollars in their state general fund from supporting this circular and exclusive economy that you see in action now. Millions of dollars of your taxes and mine are supplementing the management of wildlife to be recipients of bullets, while human victims of bullets are left to pay for their hospitalizations on their own, and families are left to pay for funerals of family members.
State General Funds must STOP supplementing the systemic slaughter of our wild animals. An economy built on wildlife watching must replace firearms as the foundation of wildlife management. For more info, visit: www.abolishsporthunting.org
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