The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is preemptively canceling the Nelchina caribou hunt, one of the most popular hunts in the state, citing low population estimates for the herd.
The decision affects the Nelchina herd, which migrates through a swath of Alaska partially accessible by roads, including the Denali Highway that runs from Cantwell to Paxson. The game management unit includes several roadways crisscrossing between Alaska population centers, drawing hunters from the Interior and Southcentral regions.
The state regulates a unique hunt in the unit covering much of the Nelchina herd's range, allowing a high number of residents the opportunity to harvest one caribou in exchange for forgoing other permitted hunts. In what is roughly the big-game equivalent of the Kenai River dipnet fishery, the Tier 1 caribou hunts unleash an annual armada of RVs, four-wheelers, boats and even bicycles on the area for a few weeks almost every autumn.
