Fortymile caribou Zone 2 closes Sept. 5 as fall quota nears

Hunters in the roadless part of the Fortymile caribou range have until 11:59 pm Sept. 5 to take a bull before the season closes there. State registration hunt RC860 shuts its Zone 2 that night, across parts of Game Management Units 20B, 20D, 20E and 25C.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game issued the closure Tuesday, saying harvest has held steady since the season opened Aug. 10 and the fall quota of 100 caribou is on track to be met by the Sept. 5 date. It's a near-repeat of last year, when the same 100-caribou quota triggered a Sept. 5 closure in the same zone.

Zone 3, the Taylor Highway area in Unit 20E, stays open under the same permit, with a fall quota of 125 bulls. Successful hunters have three days to report their kill at hunt.alaska.gov; everyone else reports by Oct. 15. Hunters who don't report lose their eligibility the following year — including for Tier I Nelchina caribou — and can be cited.

The herd is running smaller than the state wants. Fish and Game put the mid-summer population at 27,000, below the 30,000-to-50,000 target in the herd's management plan, and set this year's total quota at 550 bulls — 415 of them in the fall, split by zone under a Board of Game plan that allocates 75 percent of the harvest to fall. The winter hunt opens Oct. 27 with the remaining 135 bulls.