Group says email vote violated ANILCA and bypassed public process; federal board says closure implements a decision publicly adopted in April
THE ALASKA STORY
Sept. 4, 2026 – With Alaska’s fall moose season about to open, SCI Alaska is asking two Trump administration Cabinet officials to overturn a federal closure affecting approximately 1,300 square miles along several Interior Alaska river corridors.
SCI Alaska, joined by its Kenai Peninsula and Northern Alaska chapters, called on Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to review and immediately rescind the action approved Sept. 3 by the Federal Subsistence Board.
The board approved Emergency Wildlife Special Action Request WSA26-09, closing specified federal public lands in Game Management Unit 25D to moose hunting by people who do not qualify as federal subsistence users from Sept. 10 through Sept. 20.
The closure covers a 10-mile-wide corridor along the Yukon River and five-mile-wide corridors along Birch Creek, the Sheenjek River to river mile 60, the Porcupine River, Black River and Chandalar River.
SCI Alaska argues that the board exceeded its authority under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and deprived affected hunters of an adequate opportunity to respond before the season.
“This isn’t how the law is supposed to work. The Board’s action falls well outside what ANILCA allows,” SCI Alaska Chapter President Jeremiah Williams said. “Congress gave the Secretaries, not federal staff, and not a board acting by email, narrow, specific authority to close federal lands, and only when it’s necessary to conserve wildlife or protect a genuine subsistence need.”
The Federal Subsistence Board acknowledged that its Sept. 3 decision was conducted by email, saying that procedure was consistent with board policy and necessary because of the approaching hunting season.
The federal board, however, disputes the characterization that the underlying closure was created without a public process.
According to the board’s Sept. 3 bulletin, WSA26-09 temporarily implements a regulation the board had already adopted in April as Proposal WP26-75. That proposal went through the board’s regular regulatory process, including regional council consideration and an April public meeting.
The emergency request was submitted by the Tanana Chiefs Conference because the final regulation carrying out the April decision had not yet been published in the Federal Register. The board said the special action was needed to put the previously approved restriction in place before the Sept. 10 opening.
The underlying proposal was one of several hunting and trapping changes the board announced April 30.
That distinction is central to any legal challenge: SCI Alaska objects to the closed-door email vote that made the restriction effective this season, while the federal board maintains that the policy itself had already received public review.
SCI Alaska contends that ANILCA permits federal officials to exclude non-subsistence hunters only when a closure is necessary to conserve a healthy wildlife population or continue subsistence uses of that population. It argues that federal authority cannot be used merely to reduce competition or the number of hunters in the field.
Supporters of WP26-75 told the board that aircraft and visiting hunters along the river corridors were interfering with local hunters and making it more difficult for rural families to obtain moose. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game opposed the closure during the earlier proceeding.
SCI Alaska also cited the 2008 Ninth Circuit decision in Alaska v. Federal Subsistence Board, commonly known as the Chistochina case. The court upheld the board in that dispute, concluding its determination was supported by substantial evidence. SCI Alaska argues that the ruling nevertheless confirms that federal subsistence decisions must have substantial evidence in the administrative record.
The organization further maintains that the board has failed to minimize the effects of its action on other hunters and has not complied with ANILCA’s state-consultation requirements. Those are SCI Alaska’s legal assertions; no court has yet ruled on WSA26-09.
SCI Alaska additionally pointed to President Donald Trump’s January 2025 Executive Order 14153. The order directed Interior agencies to consider Alaska’s cultural traditions of hunting and fishing, respect ANILCA’s subsistence priority, consult meaningfully with state wildlife agencies and seek consistency between federal and state hunting opportunities.
The dispute is not over whether rural Alaskans should receive the subsistence priority established by Congress, Williams said. Federal subsistence eligibility is based principally on rural residency and is not limited by race or Alaska Native status.
“Subsistence users and other hunters are not on opposite sides of this,” Williams said. “The people this closure impacts are hunters who followed the rules, planned and funded a hunt, and are now finding out, just days before the season, that the ground shifted under them without a public process.”
Although the closure affects only specified federal lands within Unit 25D, the timing could disrupt hunters who arranged transportation, purchased supplies or planned remote camps based on the state season and the regulations available before this week.
“It’s been more than 30 years since ANILCA was passed, and it seems like some of the people running this program have forgotten the compromises that were struck to make it law,” Williams said. “We’re imploring the Secretaries to remember and enforce them.”
The Federal Subsistence Board’s action is scheduled to take effect Sept. 10 unless the administration intervenes or a court blocks it. Hunters planning to enter Unit 25D will need to determine whether their hunting area lies within the affected federal corridors and whether they qualify under federal subsistence regulations.
