North Chichagof Deer Working Group January 2025 Meeting notes

Ian Johnson, Steve Bethune, Cathy Needham, Norm Carson (Pelican), Brent Vickers, Lisa Gredigan, Jackson Combs, Jason Roberts, Phil Manlick, Larry Landry (Gustavus), Paul Johnson, Rob Cross, Bob K

Some members of the North Chichagof met to start determine the goals of a survey of deer hunters. The meeting notes below outline some of the topics discussed, and anything in this article should be considered a draft.

Will this be a survey and directed/open conversation? Yes, can be short form and long form

Could get direction from a copy of house hold surveys from Ketchikan? Unit 2 Survey. Funded by BIA. Pat Petroveli did this. Could ask Glenn Chen about this. Jason has a write up of this.

There is data from the State in Gustavus and Pelican from 2023.

Will we be asking folks to report 2023 and 2024 in data? Harvest data lately had lower harvest and lower participation than expected.

Pelican Hunter – there’s a change in Elfin cove and Pelican, that live out of state or non rurally.

How does snow data get integrated? Can look at at is a driver of partcipation or success

Next meeting : Jason, Brent, Norm, Emily, Lauren, Lisa, Paul

Need to test the survey before deploying.

What incentive can we provide for this survey?

Determine Goals

1. Evaluate the closure to non-rural residents from Nov 1-10 in Hoonah, Pelican, Gustavus, and Angoon. Did this meet its goal of continuation of subsistence uses.
   1. How effective was this closure?
   2. What do you expect a closure to do?
   3. What is the direct effect of a closure?
   4. Did the closure help with your competition issues?
      1. Did you have competition issues?
      2. Binary Y/N to this question – consider a 3 point scale here, not much, same level, much more
      3. How did the competition differ this year?
      4. What were differences this year?
   5. Where you able to hunt where you preferred?
   6. Did you see a lot of traffic or boats during the closure?
   7. What did you experience during the closure? Did you notice differences from your normal hunting experience around Hoonah?
   8. Did you notice if there were less NFQ users in Hoonah?
   9. Did you use the time during Nov 1-10 to concentrate more hunting effort to take advantage of it?
   10. Were you aware of the closure to NFQ to target the dates for hunting?
   11. What was the role of weather in your season this year? Did weather impact if you took advantage of time during Nov 1 – 10?
   12. How did this shift harvest patterns for other Rural Qualified residents outside of the communities?  Did they take advantage of this?
   13. Are you hunting from the beach or in the woods? what is your preference for hunting? The Road system in Hoonah is a key part of harvest pattern in Hoonah.
       1. Did you use the road or a boat?
       2. What do you determine which weather is best for you?
       3. Do you prefer to hunt the beach or the forest?
       4. Have you changed your hunting patterns over the years?
   14. If you chose not to hunt in the closed area why was that?
       1. Would you modify the closure area or change this to encorporate your preferred areas?
   15. Did you have any concerns about this closure?
   16. What time/date do you think the rut occurred this year?
       1. Did the rut differ much this year?
       2. Did the closed time period from Nov 1 – 10 hit the rut based on your knowledge?
   17. How did this impact families who have roots in the communiities?
       1. Distribute this survey to families/hunters of communities
   18. Do you think this pushed more hunters to beach hunting?
   19. Did you have any access issues this season? Do you have access concerns for preferred anchorages? Were there any road opening issues impacting your harvest?
   20. What are the differences between these three communities?
       1. Which ones have ferries?
       2. How does access to hunting areas differ?
       3. Where are the competition issues most likely?
       4. Was the effectiveness different among communiities or by community?
       5. Which areas have different land ownership?
   21. Winter severity or lack of it is why Jan 1-31 season was opened.

1. Determine household harest levels in 2023 and 2024 Harvest seasons
   1. Harvest data lately had lower harvest and lower participation than expected. Why?