Federal board opens a late-fall subsistence moose hunt on the eastern Kenai Peninsula

The Federal Subsistence Board voted this month to open a late-fall moose season for rural subsistence hunters on federal land in Unit 7 on the eastern Kenai Peninsula. The season opened Oct. 20 and runs through Nov. 10.

Hunters can take one bull with spike-fork or 50-inch antlers, or with three or more brow tines on either antler. Those are the same limits as the existing federal season, which ran Aug. 20 to Sept. 25.

The board adopted the late season unanimously in April, on a proposal from Cooper Landing resident Onie Wilkes. Publication of the new federal rules was delayed, so the Chugach National Forest's Seward Ranger District asked the board in an Oct. 7 request to put the season in place anyway. Board members approved the emergency action by email poll Oct. 13 to 15, 9-0 with two members absent, according to the vote summary.

The rules took effect Oct. 27, a week into the season. The board has used the same emergency step for other April decisions held up by the delay, including a moose closure in Unit 25D in September.

Moose are the most important and widely used wild land mammal for Unit 7's rural communities, and before regulated seasons, residents traditionally hunted them in late October and early November, the Forest Service wrote in its request. The Unit 7 caribou herd has dropped to very low levels, bringing harvest restrictions and very low hunter success, the request said, and vehicle and train strikes kill more Unit 7 moose than hunters do.

Federally qualified hunters have taken between zero and seven moose a year in the regular federal season since 2020, fewer than three on average, according to the vote summary. They took three in 2025.

The Office of Subsistence Management recommended against the April proposal, citing limited data, low-density habitat and a possibly declining moose population, according to the proposal analysis. The board's Interagency Staff Committee said in the same analysis that current state data suggests there is not a conservation concern. The Southcentral Alaska Subsistence Regional Advisory Council supported the proposal. Board Chair Tony Christianson voted for the emergency action "based on ISC recommendation."

The Seward district ranger can close the hunt early by emergency action if harvest gets unsustainably high.

Permits are limited to qualified residents of Cooper Landing, Hope and Moose Pass who have lived in Alaska at least 12 months, according to a Forest Service permitting notice. Residents who missed the July permit events can get one by appointment at the Seward Ranger Station.