State closes resident RM840 moose hunt in Unit 22D Remainder near Nome

Resident hunters holding an RM840 registration permit for the Unit 22D Remainder area outside Nome have one more day to take a bull moose. The season closes at 11:59 p.m. Friday, August 28, and Emergency Order R5-05-26 takes effect at 12:01 a.m. the following morning, running to June 30, 2027. The scheduled season would have run through September 14. Nonresidents have no open season in the area at all.

The order, issued at Nome on Thursday, states that the area's fall quota of 17 bulls "is expected to be met by the season closing date announced in this emergency order and no further harvest is warranted." Moose composition surveys last completed in fall 2022, four years before this closure, produced bull-to-cow ratios below the department's management objectives, and the 17-bull cap was set for the 2026-27 regulatory year to let that ratio recover. Area Wildlife Biologist Sara Henslee signed the order by delegation from Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang.

The Alaska Board of Game created the registration permit hunt at its 2020 Western and Arctic meeting in Nome specifically to cap bull harvest here, and ADF&G has closed 22D Remainder early before, in 2020 and again in 2025, both times on the same 17-bull number. Neighboring hunt areas have seen it too: Emergency Order R5-8-25 shut down Kuzitrin and Southwest after a three-day season last September.

RM840 allows one moose per household. Hunters who have not filled a permit still have the other RM840 areas: Unit 22B west of the Darby Mountains, Unit 22C, and Unit 22D Kuzitrin Drainage and Southwest, open September 1 through 14 unless separately closed. Henslee can be reached at (907) 443-2271.