The deer harvest around Wrangell has been on an upswing the past few years, with another healthy count expected as hunters take to the woods starting Saturday, Aug. 1.

“We’re looking at another successful season,” Frank Robbins, Petersburg-Wrangell area game biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said Friday.

“We’ve had pretty mild winters in recent years,” boosting the survival rate.

Hunters in Game Management Unit 3 — which includes Wrangell Island and the nearby islands of Kupreanof, Mitkof, Kuiu, Etolin, Zarembo, Woronkofski and Woewodski — took 858 deer in 2022, then 917 in 2023 and an estimated 1,140 in 2024, Robbins said.

“The harvest … is up pretty much everywhere,” said the Petersburg-based biologist.

Game Unit No. 3 — shaped like an upside-down letter U — extends from Etolin Island north to Frederick Sound and then back south around the west side of Prince of Wales Island down Sumner Strait.

Game Management Unit 1, the mainland across from Petersburg, is the exception to predictions of a strong harvest, Robbins said. Deep snow in December 2021 drove deer down to lower elevations and reduced their survival rate. “It hasn’t recovered yet.”

State hunting rules are the same as past years; the season closes Nov. 30.

No doe harvest is allowed to protect the herd's population for future years. People must always carry their harvest tags with them when hunting.

One inconvenience to hunters this year on Zarembo Island is the lack of a working dock at Roosevelt Harbor. A winter storm in December 2022 took the facility out of action, buckling the dock and disconnecting it from the gangway.

The U.S. Forest Service reported in 2023 that it would need to totally replace the gangway and renovate the floating dock.

The rebuild is taking longer than initially planned.

“Roosevelt dock will unlikely be fixed by hunting season,” the Forest Service reported on July 21.

Without the dock, hunters will need a landing craft or other boat they can pull up to shore.