Although the Alaska Board of Game did not approve community proposals to increase the elk harvest on Zarembo Island, members did unanimously adopt a change in state rules to restrict the permit hunt to Alaska residents only.

The seven-member Board of Game, which rotates its meetings around the state, met at the Nolan Center Jan. 23-27. The board last met in Wrangell in 2006.

Community members and the Wrangell Advisory Committee to the Alaska Boards of Game and Fisheries have been advocating for an increased harvest of Zarembo elk which compete for food with the island’s deer population. The deer are a mainstay for Wrangell hunters looking to fill up their freezers.

The Zarembo permit hunt opened in 2024 for one elk for the fall season, and has been expanded to two elk for the fall 2026 hunt, but Wrangell residents wanted to see the Board of Game boost the harvest limit even further to protect the deer population.

Chris Guggenbickler, chair of the Wrangell Advisory Committee, said he was not surprised that the board rejected the proposal for a larger elk harvest. He was a little surprised, and happy, to see the board vote to restrict the permit hunt to Alaska residents only.

“That was a win,” he said in an interview two days after the board meeting ended.

Another plus, he said, is “the department did hear that people are seeing a lot of elk and want to hunt more.”

Department of Fish and Game staff have cited the lack of a population survey of Zarembo elk as a reason to cautiously manage the annual hunt.

Guggenbickler said he had a side conversation during the meetings with a department official who indicated the Division of Game would look at offering more tags for elk harvest on Zarembo.

In 1987, the state transplanted elk to Etolin Island from Oregon, allowing hunters in 1997 to start taking the animals after the herd had grown in size. But as the population grew, some elk swam over to Zarembo, establishing a herd there too — which led to the conflict with deer, according to Wrangell hunters.

In addition to several proposals dealing with elk, the Board of Game considered more than 60 other proposals to amend hunting rules in Southeast.

The board voted unanimously to establish an open season for hunting cougar (mountain lion) in Southeast. Currently, hunting for cougars is not allowed. The change would allow hunters to take one cougar each per year, with no limit on trappers.

“Cougars seem to be migrating into Southeast Alaska. Cougars are an ambush predator,” the Wrangell committee said in explaining its proposal. “This style of predation is unknown to prey species in Southeast Alaska. This will be extremely detrimental to prey species populations.”

Guggenbickler complimented the board for opening the region to cougar hunting.

State officials believe the mountain lions seen in Southeast likely migrated down river valleys from British Columbia, swimming the last stretch from the mainland.

A Washington state hunter was charged in 2025 with illegally taking a mountain lion on the south end of Wrangell Island in 2024, and an adult male was captured in a wolf snare on Kuiu Island in 2025.

The board rejected a Wrangell Advisory Committee proposal to change moose hunt rules “to eliminate the regulation that excludes broken, damaged or altered antlers from the definition of spike-fork antlers” for legal kills. The committee said it is an “overburdening regulation, leading to inconsistency,” and it would be better to include those antler types in determining whether a kill is legal.