News Release

Federal subsistence hunting permits available July 26

Date: July 13, 2022
Contact: Carrie Wittmer, 907-822-7255

COPPER CENTER, AK – Federal subsistence registration permits for hunts in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve will be available starting Tuesday, July 26, at the park’s Visitor Center in Copper Center and the Slana Ranger Station. The Visitor Center is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through September 18. The Slana Ranger Station is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through September 24. Starting July 28, permits will also be available at the Chitina Ranger Station, which is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., six days a week (closed Tuesdays), through Labor Day. Permit information for the McCarthy-Kennecott area will be announced locally.  

Permits will be available for moose hunts in Unit 11 and a portion of Unit 12, a goat hunt in Unit 11, and sheep hunts for people 60 years of age or older in Units 11 and 12. No permits for Unit 11 and 12 caribou hunts in Wrangell-St. Elias are available at this time.  

People who plan to pick up permits at the Copper Center Visitor Center are encouraged to call [phone] a day ahead of planned pick up to request permits; they will be ready when you arrive. 

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. 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. 

Please bring your State of Alaska resident hunting license, a 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. 

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, but 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 Copper Center Visitor Center and the Slana Ranger Station. Hunters with access to a computer and printer are encouraged to obtain this permit on-line. 

New this season is an 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 Visitor Center in Copper Center at [phone].