AK Sheep, Population Observations

^ that's no welcome news :(

I see the USFS shut a section of the Brooks down due to poor numbers
 
mtwarden said:
I see the USFS shut a section of the Brooks down due to poor numbers
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The Dept of Agriculture (US Forest Service) didn't reduce sheep hunting opportunities in the Central Brooks Range Mountains, it was the Dept of Interior (US Fish & Wildlife Service).
 
Mykolaivka887 said:
The Dept of Agriculture (US Forest Service) didn't reduce sheep hunting opportunities in the Central Brooks Range Mountains, it was the Dept of Interior (US Fish & Wildlife Service).
Click to expand...

I think it was the fed subsistence board, right, not an agency?

I've heard a few reports from some youth hunts so far. None have been encouraging, which is no surprise.
 
VernAK said:
Feds have now shutdown the sheep hunt near Seward on the Kenai Peninsula. Unit 7 IIRC.
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Yes, that's the pair of State of Alaska sheep draw permit areas that are on the Kenai Peninsula. The remainder of federal lands in GMU 7 and GMU 15 are still open to recreational sheep hunting and subsistence sheep hunting.
 
Typically you can see a couple dozen sheep on the south face of Round Mtn with the naked eye from the RR mouth. Made a couple trips down there this year and didn’t see a single sheep.
 
If you think last year was bad you haven't seen nothing yet. I will bet we don't break 300 sheep harvested this fall.

From boots on the ground in the youth season, pilots flong areas recently and talking to bios, it's worse than abysmal. I can't in good conscience shoot another sheep until something changes. The entire AK range, Whites and Talkeetnas have some if the lowest ewe to lamb ratios ever recorded. The talkeetnas had an estimated 30% mortality last winter in the study area, and over 20% the two years prior. DCUA will have tags slashed.

Dark days ahead. Hope for easy winters, but this one is predicted to be similar to last.
 
Bambistew said:
If you think last year was bad you haven't seen nothing yet. I will bet we don't break 300 sheep harvested this fall.

From boots on the ground in the youth season, pilots flong areas recently and talking to bios, it's worse than abysmal. I can't in good conscience shoot another sheep until something changes. The entire AK range, Whites and Talkeetnas have some if the lowest ewe to lamb ratios ever recorded. The talkeetnas had an estimated 30% mortality last winter in the study area, and over 20% the two years prior. DCUA will have tags slashed.

Dark days ahead. Hope for easy winters, but this one is predicted to be similar to last.
Click to expand...



Yep, and it's only going to become worse in the foreseeable future. Were looking at very dark years ahead, in terms of sheep hunting opportunity.

Now's definitely the time to lobby a change to the current statewide management strategy - the overall statewide harvest strategy and the statewide allocation structure.
 
Bambistew said:
If you think last year was bad you haven't seen nothing yet. I will bet we don't break 300 sheep harvested this fall.

From boots on the ground in the youth season, pilots flong areas recently and talking to bios, it's worse than abysmal. I can't in good conscience shoot another sheep until something changes. The entire AK range, Whites and Talkeetnas have some if the lowest ewe to lamb ratios ever recorded. The talkeetnas had an estimated 30% mortality last winter in the study area, and over 20% the two years prior. DCUA will have tags slashed.

Dark days ahead. Hope for easy winters, but this one is predicted to be similar to last.
Click to expand...
Though sheep harvest has been low, it is important to consider success rates, effort (days hunted), average age and average horn length when using harvest numbers to make a point. And, given the variation between some mountain ranges, location should also be considered. Though numbers may be down in the Brooks, surveys from the early 1950s suggest numbers were even lower then.
Without suggesting there is not "reason for concern", it is important to at least be aware of history of Dall sheep populations in Alaska.
 
For most units, the age and success rate dropped in lock step with harvest. Statewide the success rate is the lowest we’ve seen in recent decades. There are a few pockets that were still holding up last season, so hopefully they survived this last winter also. I’m sure some guys will do just fine, but my favorite spots were hard hit indeed.

You are right about the longer timescale though. Dall sheep have managed to survive these mountains for thousands of years, including winters that were no doubt substantially harder than what we have just seen. And there have been previous large scale die offs recorded in the Brooks and Alaska Range in the last century that they eventually bounced back from. I don’t expect this situation to be permanent, but it won’t work itself out immediately either.

Yk
 
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