The Sportsmen ’ s Alliance Foundation , together with the Alaska Professional Hunters Association and the Alaska Outdoor Council , filed an amicus brief in support of the state of Alaska ’ s petition asking the U . S . Supreme Court to review a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that holds that federal agencies have carte blanche authority to regulate hunting on federal lands in Alaska .
This case originated as a dispute about bear hunting methods on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge when the United States Fish & Wildlife Service wrote a rule in 2015 prohibiting certain methods of take previously approved by the state of Alaska to effectively manage the brown bear population .
Alaska filed a petition for writ of certiorari seeking U . S . Supreme Court review of the 9th Circuit decision , which the hunting coalition supported with its filing .
Notably , this is one but of a number of cases where the Sportsmen ’ s Alliance Foundation and our partners have engaged in litigation to protect hunters and state officials from overbearing federal agencies , including a similar issue related to wildlife management and methods of take within national parks and preserves in Alaska , as well as a case in Vermont pertaining to the training and use of hounds on Conte National Wildlife Refuge . Traditionally , the management of wildlife and the specifics of hunting and hunting seasons have been left to the states .
“ When Alaska asked for our support in this case , we didn ’ t hesitate to join ,” said Todd Adkins , vice president of government affairs at the Sportsmen ’ s Alliance Foundation . “ This case is about much more than hunting rules on the Kenai refuge . In recent months , we ’ ve seen time and again how the Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal agencies are attempting to wrest control of management decisions away from the states , and when this happens , hunters typically lose and lose big .”
More than for any other state , it is firmly spelled out in Alaska state law and federal laws specific to Alaska that hunting plays a strong and important role in the state ’ s heritage and that the state should generally control season dates , methods of take and bag limits .
These principles , followed for decades , are enshrined in the Alaska state constitution , Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act , the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 and the Alaska Statehood Act .
In fact , in all states , the Refuge Improvement Act of 1997 firmly spells out how Fish & Wildlife must defer to state hunting laws in most situations .
If the federal government could usurp management powers of fish and game on millions of acres of public land in Alaska , it could use the precedent to do so on federal land nationwide , politicizing wildlife management and relegating it to the whims of the Oval Office and bureaucrats in Washington , D . C .
WINTER 2023 5