Nature & Outdoors
RSSAlaska News covers outdoor recreation, trails, parks, wildlife viewing, fishing closures, and safety in Alaska's natural areas.
Tanana subsistence and personal use fishing goes 24 hours
Tanana River subsistence fishing opens to full gear around the clock Tuesday, after six straight years of restrictions on a fall chum run that came back.
by Bill AlaskaNews6d ago2 min read
Federal environmental review begins for the Arctic copper mine near Kobuk
The Army Corps is starting its environmental review of the Arctic copper mine near Kobuk, with a final decision targeted for September 2028.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read
The West Coast's halibut fleet needed six openings to near its small quota
The West Coast's commercial halibut season is over after six openings to catch a small quota — from the same stock Alaska fishes, near 1970s lows.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
Past three miles, Sitka residents fish under nonresident rules
Cross three miles off Sitka and residents fish under nonresident rules, so a lingcod that's legal inshore can end your day in federal water.
by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 6d ago1 min read
Interior proposes dropping the Arctic relief rig rule and a whaling check
Interior's proposed Arctic drilling rule would drop the standby relief rig and a whaling-ground discharge check, with subsistence losses scored at zero.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago5 min read
Southeast's Dungeness fleet gets a 30-day fall season after a short summer
Southeast's Dungeness crabbers get 30 days this fall after an early summer closure, and Wrangell has asked the state to seek a federal fishery disaster.
by Alaska News1w ago1 min read
Last Unit 22 bull moose hunt closes early as quota fills
The Seward Peninsula's fall moose hunt is over, closed area by area as quotas filled. One section shut three days in. The winter hunt opens Jan. 1.
by Alaska Newsadded 1w ago1 min read
ADF&G cuts Southeast fall Dungeness crab season to 30 days
Southeast's Dungeness fleet gets 30 fall days instead of 60, because a harvest projection built from one week of June fishing came in short.
by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 1w ago1 min read
The park could have added ten days of moose hunting. It added two.
Unit 11 subsistence moose hunters get two extra days out of a possible ten, with the park citing a declining population and no current estimate.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read
Helicopter work at Erie Mine Bunkhouse brings noise to Kennicott Valley
Helicopter crews are clearing fallen rock at Erie Mine Bunkhouse this month. Kennicott Valley residents and pilots should expect added aircraft activity.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
Trollers get Neets Bay back through the middle of October
Neets Bay is open to trollers again through Oct. 10, six weeks after it closed so the hatchery association could take its cost recovery chum.
by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 1w ago1 min read
Yakutat gillnetters must donate Chinook found dead in Situk nets
Yakutat set gillnetters open Sunday. Any king that dies in the net gets its dorsal fin cut off and handed to somebody in town who needs it.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
Southeast trollers got ten more days, and a smaller fleet to fish them with
Southeast trollers got ten more days for coho. There is a smaller fleet to fish them, and the harvest is still headed below the record lows.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
A goat season that runs to January is closing after six days
A goat hunt east of Unakwik Inlet closes Sunday, six days into a season that runs to January. The department says 30 days is closer to normal.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
Kuskokwim closures lifted because the coho run ended, not because it recovered
Six weeks of Kuskokwim subsistence closures lifted Friday, not because the coho finally came back but because the run is over for the year.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read
Fish and Game sets Prince William Sound fall herring quota at 749 tons, citing weak spring spawn
Prince William Sound's fall herring quota came in 633 tons under what the plan allows, and the spawn number behind that call was never published.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read
Craig's council asked Washington to keep the Tongass roadless rule
A former Craig timber cutter says four decades of logging left less deer food on the forest floor, not more. His council agreed with him, 4-1.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read
Kotzebue's chum run beat the forecast; the state will not say by how much
Kotzebue's chum harvest beat the forecast, and the state will not say by how much. Nobody counted the fish upriver for the second year running.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read
Alaska seafood groups call EU catch-tracking system a trade barrier
A European rule wants every fish traced back to its boat. Alaska catches salmon 100 boats at a time, and 16,000 tons sat in Dutch ports in May.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read
Sullivan's bycatch bill advances from Senate committee
A Senate committee advanced Sullivan's bycatch bill, which would set trawl-gear standards, expand monitoring and fund bycatch research.
by Alaska News1w ago1 min read
An order would presume hunting is allowed on Alaska's federal land
An executive order would presume hunting is allowed across some 92 million federal acres in Alaska. The subsistence priority is statutory and stays put.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read
Trump fishing order targets Gulf, Atlantic data disputes and could reach Alaska
Trump changed no Alaska catch limit. His national sportfishing order targets Atlantic and Gulf data disputes but could later reach Alaska rules.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read
Juneau's hatchery waters reopen six weeks ahead of schedule
Fishing reopens near Juneau's Macaulay hatchery six weeks early, six coho a day. The closure traced back to fish lost in a landslide in 2020.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
The state held Kenai coho at two a day through November
Kenai coho limits stay at two a day through November instead of rising to three, on abundance numbers the state admits it can't monitor well.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
State says genetics funding enabled first Western Alaska chum bycatch cap
State-funded genetic testing helped create a 45,000-fish Western Alaska chum bycatch cap. NOAA implementation is expected no earlier than 2028.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read
Bait allowed again on lower Klawock River as fall coho move in
Bait fishing reopened on lower Klawock River from September 15 through October 15 as fall coho arrive, though upstream areas remain lure-only year round.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
Eshamy District salmon season closes Friday night
Eshamy closes Friday night on a season in which nobody reported catching anything for two weeks, under a fishing cap set by an allocation formula.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
Copper River coho periods stretch to 36 hours next week
Copper River gillnetters get 36-hour openings Monday and Thursday, up from 24-hour periods, after a delta survey counted 40,780 coho above the expected range, following a difficult summer.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
Nonresident rockfish retention stays closed in Ketchikan waters
Nonresident anglers in Ketchikan cannot keep yelloweye, quillback, canary, China, copper, tiger or rosethorn rockfish through year-end, though Alaska residents may keep one a day.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
The snow crab limit is going up. There aren't more crab.
The Bering Sea snow crab catch limit would rise 13% this winter — not because there are more crab, but because scientists cut the safety margin in half.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago3 min read
Fish board committee to review Traditional Knowledge report process Sept. 25
Fish board members will review how Traditional Knowledge reports are handled Sept. 25. The notice proposes no change to Traditional Knowledge's place in regulation.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
Low water slows Seward's youth coho fishery, open through Oct. 5
Kids have four more weeks to catch a silver at Seward Lagoon, where low water has been holding the fish outside waiting on enough rain to get in.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
Fish and Game suspends ice house registration in the Copper Basin
Ice anglers in the Copper Basin won't have to register their fishing shelters this winter, after the state found there's no way to do it online.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
Prince William Sound noncommercial shrimp fishery will not reopen in 2026
Prince William Sound shrimpers got about five weeks this year and the commercial fleet got none. The state hasn't published a reason for the closure.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read
House committee advances bill treating hatchery fish as wild under Endangered Species Act
House committee voted to require federal agencies to consider hatchery fish alongside wild ones in Endangered Species Act consultations, a shift with major economic implications for Alaska's salmon industry.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 1w ago3 min read
State approves 183-acre Heceta Island clearcut with 300-foot beach buffer
Alaska approved clear-cutting 183 acres on Heceta Island with a 300-foot beach buffer, rejecting the state's own habitat biologist's recommendation for 1,000 feet to protect winter deer habitat.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago3 min read
Copper River Delta moose hunt closes six weeks early at 24 of 25 bulls
Bull moose hunting on the Copper River Delta closes Wednesday night, six weeks early, after hunters took 24 of the 25 bulls the state allowed.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
Wrangell-St. Elias subsistence commission meets next month in McCarthy
The commission advising on subsistence hunting in Wrangell-St. Elias meets in McCarthy next month, with time set aside for public testimony.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
Bear Mountain goat zone on Baranof closes Sept. 18 after quota fills
Bear Mountain is the fourth Baranof goat zone closed this season — on quotas built from surveys the state hasn't flown island-wide since 2023.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
State Parks tells Homer hikers to avoid new Kachemak Bay trails near moose kill
Alaska State Parks is warning Homer hikers to avoid new trails in the Cottonwood Eastland section of Kachemak Bay State Park because a moose kill near the construction site may attract predators.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read