Governor Loses Litigation To Challenge Pandemic-Created Subsistence Hunt

In August 2020, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy was behind a state lawsuit to challenge an emergency federal subsistence hunt announced during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when it was believed food shortages were a concern in Southeast Alaska. Dunleavy’s argument at the time was there was no food shortage to be concerned about, but more than a year later the suit was dismissed

Here’s more from Southeast Alaska radio company CoastAlaska:

There’s long been tension between state and federal authorities over subsistence rights. And the state’s position was that the special hunt was exclusionary and an example of federal overreach. 

But federal Judge Sharon Gleason rejected the state’s request for a restraining order against the Federal Subsistence Board. She also rejected the state’s objections over the board’s excluding urban hunters harvesting moose in an area of the Interior, which the subsistence board had ruled was needed for public safety. That had been a second part to the state lawsuit.

In a 49-page order issued December 3, she rejected all the state’s legal arguments.