Two Fortymile caribou zones will close after just 48 hours

Hunters headed out for Fortymile caribou this fall will get just a two-day window in two of the herd's four zones. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game will close the registration hunt in Zone 1 and Zone 4 at 11:59 pm Aug. 21, roughly 48 hours after the Aug. 20 opening — long enough, the department expects, to fill the two zones' combined 190-bull quota.

The department calls the early closure a conservation measure, based on where the herd is sitting now, near the Steese Highway. Zone 1 is reached from the Steese Highway and Chena Hot Springs Road; Zone 4 is the White Mountains.

The other two zones run longer. Zone 2 opened Aug. 10 with a 100-bull quota, and Zone 3 opens Aug. 20 as scheduled with 125. All of it applies only to state caribou hunts, not federal subsistence.

The department set this year's overall quota at 550 bulls, no cows, against a midsummer herd estimate of 27,000 animals — 415 bulls for the fall hunt and 135 for the winter.

Reporting is mandatory. Successful hunters must report a kill within three days, and unsuccessful hunters by Oct. 15; miss either deadline and you're ineligible for any permit the next regulatory year, including Tier I Nelchina caribou, and could face a citation. The department advises checking the Fortymile hotline before heading into the field.