Get your harvest tags: Wrangell area deer season opens Aug. 1

Wrangell's deer hunting season will open on Aug. 1 and remain open through Nov. 30. The dates for archery season are the same for rifle hunting.

Hunters are permitted two bucks over the course of the four-month window, and no doe harvest is allowed to protect the herd's population for future years. Hunters must always carry their harvest tags with them while they hunt.

Harvest tags are free, but an annual hunting license will cost residents $45, or $5 for low-income residents. Nonresidents will have to pay $160 for an annual license.

There are no notable regulation changes compared to last year.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is not aware of any significant changes to the area's deer population, according to Tom Schumacher, Southeast regional supervisor.

Schumacher acknowledged deer population monitoring systems are often faulty, but said he has no reason to believe there are any drastic enough population changes to affect the hunting season.

While hunters on Wrangell Island and most of Game Management Unit 3 from Etolin Island to Kuiu Island have four months to shoot two bucks, hunters are only allotted one buck over a shorter period on portions of Mitkof, Kupreanof and Woewodski islands.

Around the community of Petersburg, deer season is open only for archery hunting exclusively.

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

Deer harvest numbers in the management unit increased last year from the year prior. In 2023, 958 bucks were harvested, compared to 816 in 2022. The number of hunters in the district increased by nearly 200 between 2022 and 2023, according to data provided by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.