Wrangell-St. Elias subsistence commission sets Oct. 9-10 meeting in Kennecott

The Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve Subsistence Resource Commission is scheduled to meet Friday, Oct. 9, and Saturday, Oct. 10, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Historic Recreation Hall in Kennecott/McCarthy. The meeting is open to the public, with time set aside for testimony. If postponed, alternate dates are Oct. 23 and 24. The second day will not be held if business concludes on the first, and if an in-person meeting is not feasible, it will be held solely by teleconference.

The proposed agenda includes updates from the Federal Subsistence Board and the state boards of fisheries and game, a superintendent's report and a public comment period. Teleconference passcodes come from Subsistence Coordinator Amber Cohen at (907) 931-7566 or [email protected], and accommodation requests are due at least seven business days ahead.

Twenty-three resident zone communities, including McCarthy, hold subsistence eligibility inside the park without a permit. Eligibility requires rural residency and either living in a resident zone community or holding a 13.440 permit, the route for rural residents outside them. Wrangell-St. Elias and Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge staff issued 230 federal subsistence permits for moose, goat and sheep in Units 11 and 12 in 2025, with the fall Unit 11 moose hunt the most frequently issued.

The commission is a federal advisory committee of local rural residents, with members appointed by the Secretary of the Interior, the Governor of Alaska and regional advisory councils under title VIII of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. In January, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the state's challenge to the federal rural subsistence priority, leaving it in place on federal public lands and waters.