The Department of Interior (DOI) recently announced its intent to enforce a regulation that requires subsistence migratory waterfowl hunters to purchase and carry a federal duck stamp.
During the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act that formalized requirements of the Migratory Bird Treaty made between Canada and the United States, customary and traditional harvests of migratory birds were adversely affected. The treaty was amended in 1996 to recognize the long held practice of spring and summer harvests of migratory birds and their eggs by Alaska Natives.
Duck Stamps a Migratory Bird Treaty Act Requirement
One peculiarity of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act that impacted subsistence bird hunters was the added requirement that hunters needed to purchase and carry a federal duck stamp. Duck stamps are used by the Department of Interior to generate funds needed to purchase and rehabilitate migratory waterfowl habitat. Since Native subsistence hunters consider their practice of migratory bird hunting and egg harvesting as being a community based activity, the concept of requiring individual permits was seen by the people as being inconsistent with their traditions.
The Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) has repeatedly requested this duck stamp purchase requirement for subsistence hunters be dropped by the Department of Interior adding an exemption for “eligible indigenous inhabitants of the State of Alaska engaged in the customary and traditional harvest of waterfowl and their eggs.”
2010 DOI Migratory Bird Subsistence Harvest Rulemaking
The Alaska Migratory Bird Co-management Council (Co-management Council) met in April of 2009 to make recommendations for what regulations would be applied to the 2010 subsistence harvest season. The 2010 Alaska Subsistence Bird Harvest Regulations Handbook for April 2 to August 31 is available on the Co-management Council website. The statement of interest found in the handbook is “Beginning this subsistence spring/summer waterfowl hunting season, possession of federal duck stamps will be enforced statewide.”
Twelve people submitted comments on the proposed rulemaking expressing disappointment with the agency’s insistence on enforcing the duck stamp purchase requirement and that the regulations were pushed unto the communities. Other commenters focused on their concerns over having law enforcement officials in their villages, the burden of having to purchase one more item before being able to hunt and their difficultly experienced in trying to find a place to purchase the stamps. Some concern was also stated about the lack of agency consultation with the tribes and lack of a government to government dialogue as required by the federal law.
The official response to these comments has quite obtuse and bureaucratic. Relief of the federal requirement would require an act of Congress and changes to state requirements would require action being taken by the Alaska Board of Game. Based on the antagonistic relationship the state has with subsistence hunters, relief from state duck stamp requirements is unlikely.
Groups like the North Slope Borough, Association of Village Council Presidents, Bristol Bay Native Association and Alaska Federation of Natives continue to push the Department of Interior on modifying the agency’s latest law enforcement initiative and have them refocus on the needs of people living in rural Alaska.
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