The Alaska Board of Game will meet in Fairbanks on March 17, taking up a variety of issues from around the state until March 28.
One of the items on the agenda is a measure introduced by the Alaska Wild Sheep Foundation that would force domestic goat and sheep owners to permit and fence their livestock if they are located within 15-miles of Dall sheep habitat.
The Foundation’s President Kevin Kehoe says the proposal is is a preventative measure to avoid the spread of diseases between domestic livestock and wild Dall Sheep.
Kehoe: “If you talk to people in the know, a lot of guys who fly to hunt and travel around, it’s not uncommon to see [wild] sheep and goats in places you would least expect them. So what happens is that they get out, pick up a disease somewhere from a domestic and then bring it back and spread it themselves, they become their own worst enemy at that point and it spreads rapidly.”
Livestock owners like Shawna Wolk of Kasilof are concerned that the new requirements would be costly and ill defined, potentially causing current sheep and goat owners to have to get rid of their animals.
Another item Board of Game members are slated to discuss is the federal proposal that would change predator control programs in Alaska Wildlife Refuges.
The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge hosted an open house on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal in Feburary where it recieved almost equal amounts of support and opposition.
Public comment on that proposal was extended until April 7.
The federal register can be found athttp://www.regulations.gov and the proposals for Alaska’s 16 refuges can be found by searching for FWS–R7–NWRS–2014–0005.