The number of elk hunt permits issued for Zarembo Island will be doubled next year, from one elk bull available for harvest to two.

It’s a slow climb after the state shut down elk hunting on the island from 2006 to 2023, then allowing just one permit per year in 2024 and 2025.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has been able to develop a better understanding of Zarembo’s elk population, and believes the herd can handle the additional harvest, said Frank Robbins, the Petersburg-based game biologist for the Wrangell-Petersburg area.

The Wrangell Fish and Game Advisory Committee has advocated for several years that the state allow taking elk on Zarembo to preserve the habitat for deer to browse on. Zarembo is a popular and easily accessible destination for Wrangell hunters.

The committee has filed a proposal with the Alaska Board of Game to allow even more hunting for elk on the island, including “a limited cow hunt may be necessary in the future to further keep the herd in check.”

The board will meet in Wrangell Jan. 23-27 to consider almost 70 proposed rule changes for Southeast hunts.

The deadline to apply for 2026 elk hunt permits on Zarembo and also Etolin Island is Monday, Dec. 15. The hunts on the two islands are both drawing hunts, open to residents and non-residents and awarded by lottery.

On Etolin, 25 permits will be available for a bow-only hunt from Sept. 1-30, before 50 each are available for two further hunts without the bow restriction between Oct. 1-15 and Oct. 16-31.

Those permit numbers are far higher than the actual harvest in recent years. The department hasn’t published this year’s results yet, but in 2024 a total of 42 hunters on Etolin harvested two elk across the three hunting periods.

Robbins said Etolin hunting is “tough going” because there is little infrastructure to help hunters move around the southern portion of the island where the elk are generally found.

Hunting on Zarembo is comparatively easier because of existing logging roads.

Cameras were deployed on Zarembo in 2023, Robbins said, with positioning determined by previous elk reporting, telemetry from collared elk and other available information. Using antlers for positive identification, 20 bull elk were counted on Zarembo in both 2023 and 2024. Cameras will continue to be used to track and monitor the population.

In 2024 a single hunter — Curtis Kautz, of Wrangell — harvested the one allowable elk, and Robbins said a hunter was successful on Zarembo this year as well.

Based on the new data of the elk population, the department was able to increase the number of permits available next year. “We’ll continue to do that,” Robbins said. “Adjust the number of permits to provide for a sustainable hunt.”

The elk on both islands are not native to Southeast Alaska. They were transplanted from Oregon to Etolin Island by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in 1997. The elk spread to Zarembo, swimming across from Etolin.

The department closed elk hunting on Zarembo in 2006, citing population concerns, and later opposed the successful proposal by the Wrangell Fish and Game Advisory Committee to the State Board of Game in 2023 that reopened the hunt.

The department told the board in 2023: “There is no available data to suggest that the Zarembo Island elk population has increased since elk hunting ended in 2006.”

Information available from the department says elk hunting on Etolin Island is best south of Anita Bay and recommends that hunters “concentrate their efforts” along the western and southern portions of the island. They recommend caution and preparedness for hunting in wet weather and avoiding unpleasant encounters with bears, and encourage hunters to plan for storing and processing the meat without letting it go to waste.

For more information about elk hunting regulations and opportunity, or to apply for the permit drawing, visit adfg.alaska.gov.