Alaska Board of Game proposes closing areas near Ambler Road to hunting and trapping

The Alaska Board of Game is proposing rules that would close areas near the Ambler Road right-of-way in Game Management Units 23 and 24 to hunting and trapping. The board issued the notice Tuesday and is taking written comments until 8 am Nov. 16.

The board will consider the closures at an 8:30 am web conference Friday, Nov. 20, and will take no testimony there. The notice, signed by Executive Director Kari Winkel, says the board can adopt the rules, change them or take no action without further notice.

The notice says only that one regulation would change for hunting and another for trapping "in the vicinity of the Ambler Road right of way." Proposal 4, which Alaska News reported in June, is more specific. The Department of Fish and Game wrote it and backed it in staff comments. It would close hunting and trapping within one mile of each side of the road, a corridor of about 420 square miles. Hunters and trappers could cross it but not take wildlife inside it. The proposal describes the road as private and gated.

At a special meeting in Fairbanks on July 23, the board voted 5-2 to table the closure to a January meeting in Kotzebue.

Mining company Ambler Metals LLC wrote in support of the changes for Units 23, 24 and 26(B), according to the board record. Doyon, Limited also wrote in support. The Fairbanks and Matanuska Valley fish and game advisory committees opposed the closure, 13-0 and 11-1. Tanana Chiefs Conference, which opposes the road, asked for a wider closure, five miles on each side.

The road has not been built. Seven conservation groups appealed the state's easement for the road to Anchorage Superior Court on Sept. 30.

Comments can go through the Board of Game website. Comments become public records.