A truck parked outside today's meeting on overhauling federal subsistence management.
It was at the AFN convention in October when the Interior Department announced that federal oversight of subsistence was "broken" and pledged to rethink the program. At the time, the idea was for the feds to do a rapid review in hopes of making changes as early as this week's Federal Subsistence Board meeting.
Things are taking longer than expected.
"The more we talked to people, the bigger the challenge grew ... The expectation that the process could be done more quickly than it has gone was overly optimistic. Perhaps too aggressive," said Kim Elton, Department of Interior’s Director of Alaska Affairs.
Elton and Pat Pourchot met with regional subsistence advisers today to talk about possible changes to the program. While the Interior Department had asked for nominations for a new board chairman back at AFN, Elton said that selection process hasn't started yet.
(Though they have received 15 or 16 names.)
Meantime, here's a quick interview with Bristol Bay Borough Mayor Dan O'Hara, whose been serving on these advisory councils since they were created. He's pushing for the subsistence board to get involved in predator control:
Important warning about e-mails purporting to be from the adn.com staff.
