Subsistence commission pushes a plan for Gates of the Arctic's depleted Dall sheep

The Gates of the Arctic Subsistence Resource Commission has sent federal advisory councils a plan for managing the park's Dall sheep, whose numbers have stayed low for years, and asked for comments within 60 days of its Oct. 6 letter.

The commission, whose members are appointed by the Interior secretary, the governor and regional advisory councils, will review the comments at its November meeting and send its final plan to the Interior secretary and the governor. Under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the secretary must put it in place unless he finds in writing that it violates wildlife conservation principles, threatens healthy wildlife populations, conflicts with the park's purposes or harms local subsistence needs.

The sheep are the reason. In Southeast Gates of the Arctic, the estimated number of adult sheep fell 61%, from 1,969 in 2015 to 766 in 2022, according to the National Park Service. The Itkillik and Anaktuvuk populations crashed after the hard winter and spring of 2013 and 2014. A July 2025 survey found the Itkillik and Southeast Gates estimates slightly lower than in 2024, continuing "a trend of low estimates in recent years," the park said in its spring update.

It's part of a statewide decline. State wildlife managers say Dall sheep numbers have fallen 40% to 70% across much of Alaska since about 2010, Alaska News reported in July.

The plan blames weather above all. Dall sheep stand 12 to 20 inches at the belly and have climbing hooves that can't dig through much snow, it says, and rain on snow, deep snow and late springs kill the weakest animals first. In 2013, a melt-off a month late killed most of the yearlings, older sheep and lambs and caused declines of more than 50% in some populations, it says. Many local residents have already cut back their own hunting, according to the plan.

Among its recommendations:

Survey sheep in July, when there's little snow to hide white animals, using distance sampling, a method that counts sheep along random lines and estimates the rest. The commission says it costs about 80% less than trying to count every animal. Manage each game unit's sheep separately rather than expecting a few healthy pockets to supply hunters across the whole range. When survey data is missing for a struggling population, default to restrictive rules. And within 20 miles of the Dalton Highway, where the plan says rams face hunters on foot, by plane and by boat, base commercial hunting allocations on the number of legal rams available.

The plan also stresses older rams. Rams 7 to 12 years old breed more successfully and lead younger sheep away from predators, it says, so losing them can hurt a whole population.

The Park Service hired charter planes for this summer's sheep surveys. After the season ended, the Interior Department on Oct. 16 took back $8,781 of an $18,000 order with Shadow Aviation for Denali sheep survey flights out of Healy, and $28 from North River Air's $10,000 order for Gates of the Arctic, federal spending records show.