Park Service ends permit for subsistence handicraft collecting in Alaska parks

The National Park Service will stop requiring rural subsistence users to get a permit before collecting antlers, bones and other nonedible animal parts for handicrafts in Alaska park areas, under a final rule published Oct. 19. The change takes effect Nov. 18.

The collecting itself stays legal. The rule says gathering animal parts for handicrafts, barter and customary trade remains authorized under the federal subsistence title of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. What goes away is the permit and any conditions attached to it.

The agency added the permit in 2017, along with a definition of "animal parts." The new rule deletes both.

Nearly every commenter representing subsistence users and Alaska Native organizations opposed the permit during that 2017 rulemaking, according to the rule. They said the activity was already allowed by federal law and that users already had to hold federally qualified status. Most collection is opportunistic gathering, they said, which does not fit a system built on advance authorization. They said they had worked in good faith in the regulatory process for nearly a decade and received new restrictions instead of the clarification they sought.

The Park Service cited comments from subsistence users and Alaska Native organizations as one reason for the reversal. The rule calls the removal a deregulatory action that will spare subsistence users unnecessary administrative burdens.

Two 2017 definitions survive. "Customary trade" and "handicraft" stay on the books with minor edits to match federal subsistence regulations. The handicraft definition still covers products made from plant materials but excludes a trophy or a European mount of horns or antlers. The agency said keeping the definitions gives subsistence users and enforcement officers continuity.

The rule also restores pre-2017 language letting local rural residents gather fruits, berries, mushrooms and other plant materials, and dead or downed timber for firewood, for noncommercial use without a permit in park areas where subsistence is allowed.

The handicraft change is one piece of a broader rollback. The same rule lifts limits on bear baiting and restores local hearings and newspaper, radio and post office notice before harvest closures. Alaska News previously covered the bear baiting portion of the rule. The agency said the rule restores the framework that governed Alaska park areas from 1981 until 2015 and does not change the federal rural subsistence priority.

The Park Service received 5,172 comments during a comment period extended to 46 days after requests for more time, including from Federal Subsistence Regional Advisory Councils, which called the initial 30 days too short. The agency acknowledged that some rural communities with limited connectivity had less chance to weigh in. It said it gave particular weight to bodies that represent rural communities and that their opposition to permits is reflected in the final rule.