Hunting & Trapping

Hunting and trapping in Game Unit 16B in the Chuitna watershed south of the Beluga River is much like is was in the frontier days. Access is limited and the area is very large. Cut-up by rivers, streams and wetlands, the lower watersheds are inhabited by beaver, mink, muskrats, and otter. While the lynx, wolf, fox, coyote, marten, parka squirrels, wolverine, and the weasel are found throughout the area. The predators like the wolf, coyote, lynx and fox are often followed by the wolverine as he likes to steal as much food as he can. This sometimes makes him an easy catch.

The coyote and lynx do very well when the hare are plentiful and can make them much easier to trap. But make no mistake, neither one will be easy at any time. The coyote will test you at every moment, he has a great nose and if anything looks out of place he is gone. The lynx like to catch his prey in brush or holes and open country, where he is fast. This can make him a little bit predictable for the use of den sets that work well. The wolf is timid, clever, smart, and very tough. He hunts in packs and will bring down a full grown moose in minutes. His weakness is his kill; once he has made a kill, he will keep coming back until it is all gone. Making his kill a easy place to catch him. Freeze-up opens the entire 16B area for trapping.

Hunting in 16B can also be very challenging. Water fowl are in great abundance: ducks, Canadian and Snow geese, sand hill cranes, and swans fly north and south along our coast where the wetlands make home in the spring for the nesting and raising of their young. The fall gives opportunity for hundreds, maybe thousands of duck hunters.

The Chuitna watershed has big game, like brown bear, black bear, and moose. Because the brown bear and black bears are so abundant, the moose calves have a hard time surviving. Our big moose live up near a fault line called Lone Ridge. This is an area that is being sought after for its coal. If this strip mine goes through the breeding ground for our moose the resource will be destroyed, along with 11 miles of salmon stream. If Pac Rim is allowed to dig up the moose breeding area here, they will also dig up the waterways that sustain the fish and wildlife that feed us. If permitted, this mine project will kill the water flowing into the Chuitna and Cook Inlet. In turn this tainted water will greatly impact all animals from the beluga whale to waterfowl. This area is unsuitable for coal mining and there oughta be a law against mining through a salmon stream.