Interior takes back $8,781 from Denali Dall sheep survey flight order

The Department of the Interior deobligated $8,781 on Oct. 16 from Fairbanks-based Shadow Aviation's order for Dall sheep survey flights in Denali National Park. That cut the $18,000 order to $9,219.

The on-call airplane order covered flights from June through September based in Healy, according to federal spending records. The amount is what has been obligated, not what has been spent.

The same day, Interior deobligated $28 from Fairbanks-based North River Air's order for Gates of the Arctic sheep survey flights. That order now stands at $9,972.

In Denali, the park's July aerial surveys use distance sampling. Minutes from the Denali Subsistence Resource Commission's spring 2025 meeting recorded a 2024 estimate of 939 sheep.

In Gates of the Arctic, a July 2025 survey of the Itkillik and Southeast Gates areas found population estimates slightly lower than in 2024. The park's 2026 spring update said the estimates continue a trend of low estimates in recent years. A 2022 survey found estimated adult sheep in Southeast Gates of the Arctic fell 61 percent, from 1,969 in 2015 to 766 in 2022.

The Gates of the Arctic Subsistence Resource Commission's sheep hunting plan recommendation calls for distance sampling. The commission says it cuts survey costs by about 80 percent compared with minimum counts. The commission is scheduled to review advisory council comments on the plan in November.