Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve Harvest Surveys
Project ID: P16AC01044
Federal Agency: National Park Service
Partner Institution: Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Fiscal Year: 2016
Initial Funding: $120,812
Total Funding: $319,462
Project Type: Research
Project Disciplines: Social
National Park: Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve
Principal Investigator: Brown, Caroline
Agreement Technical Representative: Rasic, Jeffrey
Abstract: Project Description: This project is a joint effort between the NPS and the ADF&G that will generate information about community subsistence economies and collect data to estimate subsistence harvest by local community residents associated with Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. Community-based harvest reporting has been shown to be a valuable means for collecting reliable harvest data in rural Alaska. Collecting harvest and use information through inperson household surveys and conducting contextual ethnographic interviews with local key respondents give a more comprehensive picture of a community-wide subsistence economy than investigating reported harvests for individual species such as salmon or large land mammals. Harvest information and related socioeconomic data are also important for effectively managing fish and wildlife on lands (including those lands managed by NPS) and for fully providing for the subsistence priority as required by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). Section 812 of ANILCA directs the Secretary of the Interior to undertake research on fish, wildlife, and subsistence uses in cooperation with the State and other federal agencies and to share the results of the research with the State, local and regional advisory councils, and other interested parties.
The survey will include resources and activities that are not monitored through harvest reporting, for example the harvest of berries and how resources are shared between households. Comprehensive subsistence harvest surveys have never been done for the communities of
Central, Circle, Eagle, and Eagle Village. There is a pressing need for updated information.