Setting your sights on a Gustavus moose

M oose season opens Wednesday, and when Juneau hunters talk about moose, nine times out of 10 they're talking about Gustavus.

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It's understandable. Just 60 miles west of Juneau, Gustavus offers an opportunity to harvest enough meat to feed an entire family for the winter - a moose yields 10 times the meat of a black-tailed deer. Last winter, moose outnumbered people in Gustavus two-to-one. About 400 moose inhabit the Gustavus forelands, and the estimated density of 3.8 moose per square kilometer is among the highest in Alaska.

It's a tricky hunt, however. The Gustavus moose hunt probably features the highest density of moose hunters in the state, and most of the moose are taken on the morning of opening day. Knowing where to be, and where not be, is important.

Hunters can register in Gustavus and Juneau and pick up permits to participate in the hunt. Last year more than 500 people had permits to hunt the area. That's a lot of hunters stalking the pre-dawn of opening day.

The hunting area, the Gustavus forelands, is about eight miles across and about three miles wide, surrounded on three sides by Glacier Bay National Park and one side by the waters of Icy Strait. Homesteads, houses and the airport are fairly concentrated in about one-third of the forelands, and cabins and private property are scattered throughout the area among the pines, spruce and muskeg.

"You don't just go over there and walk off the airport property into the woods and start hunting," said Neil Barten, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist responsible for managing the hunt. "It's not that simple. There are a lot of homes back in the woods."

Barten said hunters need to be aware of the layout of the community, the roads, and the airport. A general map of the area is available at the Fish and Game office in Douglas, where the registration permits are issued.

"Hunters need to be aware that there are likely to be other hunters in the same vicinity as themselves, and they need to be particularly careful when shooting at moose because of this," Barten said.

The western edge of the Gustavus forelands is the state-managed Dude Creek Critical Habitat Area, an area about the size of the Mendenhall Wetlands (4,000 acres) that is open to moose hunting. It is important to be keenly aware of the National Park boundary. Hunting is not permitted in Glacier Bay National Park, and the Park Service patrols the boundary on foot and from the air.

Juneau hunter Jeff Mondragon spent several summers in Gustavus in the late 1990s, and has hunted moose there four years. He passed over several animals in past years and bagged a nice bull last year. He said he spent his first year learning the strategies specific to this hunt. This year, he's headed over four days early to prepare. He's looking forward to the hunt, but said the number of hunters is significant.

"The locals call it the moose derby - it's a gold rush atmosphere. It's not so much a hunt as an opportunity to kill a moose," he said. "Because it is a small town, there's quite a bit of territoriality. Not only with hunting spots, but with parking, too. They know who's local and who's not."

Mondragon recalled opening day several years ago. "We saw five bulls the night before opener, and then the fog socked so thick you couldn't see across a room," he said. "But people were blasting away in the fog; it was like a war zone. I was glad I was in a tree."

State game biologists set the harvest level at about 35-40 bull moose, and the hunt is closed when that number is reached. This year, hunters must report their harvest within 48 hours of making the kill, and failure to comply will result in a citation. In previous years hunters had 5 days to report, but this resulted in delayed reporting and larger harvests than ADF&G wanted. Hunters can report their kill by calling the Douglas office of Fish and Game at 465-4256.

Barten works with the Alaska State Troopers during the hunt, and keeps close tabs on the harvest level. Given the limited size of the hunt area, the high level of enforcement, and the 48-hour reporting period, it's not difficult to shut down the hunt once the harvest level has been reached. In past years the hunt has extended into early October; last year it lasted just seven days.

"For the Taku River and St. James Bay areas, hunts run their course for the moose season, and close Oct. 15," Barten said. "But Gustavus, being high density for hunters and moose, the allowable harvest is reached earlier."

Barten said information on the closure will be distributed to KTOO, KINY, and KJNO radio stations. Signs will also be posted in Gustavus at the Beartrack Mercantile, Gustavus Hardware, Post Office, LAB, Air Excursion and Wings Air Services. Up-to-date harvest information will be available at ADF&G in Douglas by calling 465-4265. In Gustavus, daily information will be posted at Gusto Building Supply.

Word gets out fast. "Within three hours most everyone in town knows the season has closed," Barten said.

The season that opens Sept. 15 at Gustavus is for bull moose. There is a different cow hunt that runs from Nov. 15-30, and only those people who applied for and were awarded draw permits are eligible to participate in that hunt.

Unfortunately, hunters do sometimes take cow moose out of season.

"Every year since I've been there, it seems like there's been somebody that shoots a cow," Mondragon said. "I think that's largely attributed to hunters who just don't adequately identify their target. They see a bush wiggle and shoot. You need to ID your target - obviously for safety reasons, but illegal harvest is an issue, too."

Although there are a number of roads that cross through the hunting area, all hunting is nonmotorized. A condition of the permit for hunting at Gustavus makes it illegal to use a motorized vehicle off of a constructed road surface. For Mondragon, last year that meant six trips with a heavily loaded backpack, trudging between his hunting stand and kill site to the nearest road, carrying out about 400 pounds of meat.

"If you bag a moose, you can't drive your quad in and get it," he said. "You pack it out. It's a commitment."

• Riley Woodford is a writer with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Wildlife Conservation. For more information on Alaska wildlife see www.wildlifenews.alaska.gov