BLM REA CYR 2013 Dall Sheep Subsistence Use Areas

The composition of harvest is driven by available resources, cultural practices, and access to a large river or ocean. Going from west to east there is a shift from caribou to moose as the most commonly harvested large mammal with a mix of both species in the middle. This corresponds with a shift in vegetation and climate due to the fact that the upper west portion of the study area occurring outside of interior Alaska (e.g., outside of the bounds of the Alaska and Brooks mountain ranges). Interior Alaska is dominated by the boreal forest that is better moose habitat while northwest Alaska contains more tundra that is preferred by caribou. Culture is also influenced by this in that examination of Alaska native clothing, tools, and hunting practices revolve around the respective animals. Even though large mammals are important in these regions, fish provide an important and sizeable amount of protein for many of these communities. Communities along the Yukon depend on salmon for their livelihood and are strongly influenced by salmon runs which have been declining and becoming increasingly difficult to predict. Subsistence use areas of caribou were much larger than moose or Dall sheep. Overall, the landscape condition in the subsistence use areas is very high. Caribou had the most percent of the harvest area occur in the highest landscape condition, followed by Dall sheep, and moose. Caribou subsistence use areas likely have the most pristine landscape conditions because they encompass much larger use areas than for moose or sheep and residents of the communities examined typically traveled further from communities to hunt caribou. The community of Dot Lake mostly hunted along the road system, which is why the landscape condition model score was so low for their subsistence use area.