News Release

Additional Subsistence Hunting Permit Events Announced for Kennecott-McCarthy and Chitina.

Date: August 15, 2024
Contact: Amber Cohen, 907-822-7284

COPPER CENTER, AK – The park is offering two additional subsistence permit events for qualified local rural residents to pick up subsistence hunting permits in the Kennecott-McCarthy area and in Chitina. Staff will be available in McCarthy on Thursday, August 22 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the McCarthy Mail Shack and from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the McCarthy Road Information Station at Mile 59. Applicants should call 907-379-0040 at least a day in advance to request a permit. Staff will be available in Chitina on Saturday, August 24 from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Chitina Ranger Station. Applicants should call 907-822-7284 at least a day in advance to request a permit. Please bring your State of Alaska resident hunting license, a government-issued photo ID (such as a driver’s license), and proof of local physical address when you come to get a permit. Examples of documentation of physical address include a voter registration card, a recent electric or other utility bill listing your physical address, or current rental or lease agreement.

If you are unable to attend these events, permits will still be available at the main Wrangell-St. Elias Visitor Center in Copper Center between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., seven days a week. Walk-ins are welcome, but calling ahead is strongly encouraged to reduce wait times.

Eligibility Requirements: Permit applicants must be federally qualified subsistence users and meet special eligibility requirements for lands managed by the National Park Service. They must have their primary permanent residence in rural Alaska, and their community must be listed in the “Species/ Customary & Traditional Use Determination” (C&T) column of the Federal Subsistence Management Regulations Booklet for Wildlife (https://www.doi.gov/subsistence/wildlife) for the intended species and location. The C&T use determinations for Unit 11 begin on page 59 and for Unit 12 on page 64 of the 2022-2024 regulations booklet.

Individuals wanting to hunt on National Park lands (as opposed to in the National Preserve) must additionally have their primary residence in one of the park’s 23 resident zone communities: Chisana, Chistochina, Chitina, Copper Center, Dot Lake, Gakona, Gakona Junction, Glennallen, Gulkana, Healy Lake, Kenny Lake, Lower Tonsina, McCarthy, Mentasta Lake, Nabesna, Northway/ Northway Village/Northway Junction, Slana, Tanacross, Tazlina, Tetlin, Tok, Tonsina and Yakutat.

Additional Information: There is no federal registration permit for the general sheep hunts in Units 11 and 12. Federally qualified hunters wishing to harvest sheep in Units 11 and 12 during the regular season may do so under the federal harvest limit; however, they must obtain a state harvest ticket and comply with the state’s reporting and horn sealing requirements. The state sealing requirement for Unit 11 applies to all rams, even rams with less than full-curl horns. Sealing is not required for sheep harvested under a federal registration permit during the elder hunts.

The joint state/federal permit (RM291) for the moose hunt in the portion of Unit 11 draining into the east bank of the Copper River upstream from and including the Slana River drainage and Unit 12 within the Nabesna River drainage west of the east bank of the Nabesna River upstream from the southern boundary of Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge is available on-line at https://secure.wildlife.alaska.gov/ePermit as well as from the Visitor Center in Copper Center and the Slana Ranger Station. Hunters with access to a computer and printer are encouraged to obtain this permit online.

A new online mapping tool allows hunters to create georeferenced PDF (Portable Document Format) maps of areas of interest within Wrangell-St. Elias. These maps are designed for use on a GPS-enabled mobile device, such as a smart phone, and can be displayed on any PDF reader. When viewed in an installed mobile map application, each map is designed so that the user’s location can be displayed on-screen in real time. The maps show things such as land status (park, preserve, wilderness, non-NPS lands), roads, trails, game management unit boundaries, and hunt area boundaries. This tool is accessible through the map page of the park website: https://www.nps.gov/wrst/planyourvisit/maps.htm.

Hunters are reminded that airplanes may be used to access the National Preserve for the purposes of subsistence harvest of fish and wildlife, but not the National Park. Special rules apply to the use of off-road vehicles in the Black Mountain area and at the end of the Tanada Lake Trail. If you plan to hunt in those areas, please ask when you pick up your permit or see the park website for more information: https://www.nps.gov/wrst/learn/management/subsistence-access.htm.

For more information, contact the park’s Visitor Center in Copper Center at [phone]