Fairbanks advisory committee to elect seven, with Ambler no-hunting corridor on agenda

The Fairbanks Fish and Game Advisory Committee, one of the local panels that advise the state's Board of Game and Board of Fisheries, will elect seven members Nov. 11. The same meeting's agenda includes the Ambler Road, where the Department of Fish and Game has proposed closing a two-mile-wide corridor to hunting and trapping. The committee voted 13-0 against that proposal in June.

The road would run 211 miles from the Dalton Highway west to the Ambler Mining District. It has not been built. Under the department's proposal, hunting and trapping would be closed within a mile of each side of it. The proposal says the road would be private, gated and for commercial use, and that hunters and trappers could still cross the corridor to reach areas open to hunting and trapping.

Ryan Scott, the department's wildlife conservation director, spoke at the committee's June meeting. The minutes say he connected the proposal to the "administration's priority to move the area toward development" and described its goal as a "level playing field" so road users would not have an advantage. He also acknowledged that public safety could be a concern, though future crossings and access points were not yet known, the minutes say.

Mining company Ambler Metals and the regional Native corporations Doyon and NANA wrote to the board in support, citing safety. NANA, whose land the road would cross, also asked the board to consider a narrower corridor to limit the effect on hunters and trappers from Kobuk, Shungnak and Ambler. Tanana Chiefs Conference, which opposes the road, asked for five miles on each side, saying determined hunters can get around gates.

In a letter to the board, the Fairbanks committee said the road's contractors and developers "can easily require their employees" not to hunt, trap or fish, and suggested a "no tolerance policy" like those used during early construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline. "Board action is simply not needed," the letter said.

The board will take up the closure at a Nov. 20 web conference and will not take testimony there. Written comments are due Nov. 16. The board's notice says it may adopt the rules, change them or take no action.

Five of the committee's seven open seats carry three-year terms, one a two-year term and one a one-year term. The nominees with the most votes get the longest terms. Voting-age residents of the committee's area, which covers Game Management Units 12, 20, 21, 24, 25 and 26 and the Tanana River, can vote, but only in person, according to the committee's notice. People can join online or by phone but cannot vote remotely.

The meeting starts at 6 pm at the JP Jones Community Development Center in Fairbanks. Tok Area Biologist Jeff Gross is scheduled to report on the Fortymile Caribou Herd, and Erik Schoen of the University of Alaska Fairbanks is scheduled to present on Tanana River food webs.