Sitka area tops for deer abundance in Alaska
- Mark Sabbatini
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
By Anna Laffrey
Daily Sitka Sentinel
Deer hunting in the greater Sitka-area Game Management Unit 4 is more efficient than anywhere in Alaska, and Alaska Department of Fish and Game data shows the Sitka area deer population is doing well.
Steve Bethune, Sitka area biologist for the ADF&G Division of Wildlife Conservation, said the deer population is at the highest level that he’s seen in his ten years leading wildlife management for Unit 4, which includes all of Baranof, Chichagof and Admiralty islands.
Meanwhile, hunters are enjoying good harvest opportunities in Unit 4. Bethune explained that the department measures hunters’ relative success in each game management unit by collecting data on the days of effort a hunter gives for each deer they harvest in an area.
“In Unit 4, we have the lowest days of hunter effort per deer of anywhere in the state, so we have the most efficient hunting of anywhere in the state,” Bethune said.
From 2015 through 2024, the average hunter gave 2.3 days of hunting effort for each deer harvested from Unit 4, Bethune said. That’s about half the effort required on Prince of Wales Island, where hunters needed an average of 4.4 days to harvest a deer.
“For our friends on Douglas Island and other parts of Juneau it takes 7.5 days of hunting effort to get a deer on average,” Bethune said.
Hunters on Baranof, Chichagof and Admiralty islands have harvested about 4,000 deer each year for the past three years.
In 2022, 2,644 hunters harvested 3,756 deer from Unit 4; in 2023, 2,849 hunters took 4,502 deer; and in 2024, 2,733 hunters took 4,189 deer, Bethune said.
Bethune said in 2024, Sitka residents harvested about 40 percent of the deer taken from Unit 4, or about 1,700 deer. Juneau residents took 32 percent of the Unit 4 harvest (many Juneau residents hunt on nearby shores of Admiralty Island).
Other portions of the harvest were by residents of Alaska cities like Anchorage, and Unit 4 communities including Hoonah, Angoon and Pelican. Nonresidents took 4 percent of the 2024 harvest.
While hunting has been relatively easy in Unit 4, recent years’ harvest figures have been below the longer-term average of about 5,700 deer taken each year from 1997 to 2019, and below the range of 5,200 to 6,000 deer that the Alaska Board of Game set as the "amount necessary for subsistence" in Unit 4.
The recent dip in deer harvests reflects a drop in hunter participation. In 2022, 2023 and 2024, the number of hunters in Unit 4 was down from prior years – Bethune said he doesn’t know the reason.
This year’s hunting season has been lively, and boat launches have been busy, but Bethune said it’s hard to judge how many deer have been harvested so far. Hunters don’t have to report their results until after the federal deer hunting season ends on Jan. 31.
The state deer season runs Aug. 1 through Dec. 31, and is for bucks only through Sept. 14. A federal season for federally qualified users on federal public lands extends through Jan. 31.
“There’s still a lot of time left in the season, and weather conditions can play a major role in how many people get out and how many deer get harvested,” Bethune said.
Population indices are showing that deer around Sitka are healthy, Bethune said. He explained how ADF&G monitors deer populations through a number of methods, including aerial alpine surveys, winter mortality surveys and boat-based shoreline surveys.
As for this year’s aerial population surveys, he said that counting deer in the alpine on south Admiralty Island “was like counting gazelle on the Serengeti,” with 337 deer tallied per hour.
“It’s a record for our region,” Bethune said. “It was amazing, there were so many deer around.“
In the fall of 2023, managers deployed trail cameras between Sitka and Hoonah Sound and the deer photos were sent to department biometricians for analysis.
Camera surveys in the winter of 2023-2024 resulted in an index of about 25 deer per square mile of “winter habitat,” or old growth forest habitat between sea level and 1,000 feet, Bethune said.
Fish and Game is now conducting trail camera surveys for a third winter, and biometricians are analyzing data for the winter of 2024-25. The department has 40 cameras set up between Sitka and Hoonah Sound this winter, Bethune said.
The Fish and Game biologist presented the deer population and harvest data to the Sitka Fish and Game Advisory Committee at a meeting on Oct. 29.
Stacey Wayne, chair of the Sitka committee and a deer hunter of about 20 years, was encouraged by the positive data about deer populations on the islands that comprise Unit 4.
“Deer around Sitka appear to be the best in the state, the best density, and the herds are doing well,” Wayne said. “The days of hunter effort per deer is lower than elsewhere in Alaska.”
She said her hunting experiences this year have aligned with the data that Bethune presented.
"I’ve been out a few times this year and have deer in the freezer,” Wayne said. “I feel like I’ve seen a lot of deer out there and feel like it’s good to see.”
Wayne noted that environmental factors are playing a role in the health of the deer population, as deep snow often results in increased winter mortality, and “there’s an extreme change in how many fawns they are going to have based on how much food they have in the winter.” She said the does can hold pregnancies when they don’t have enough food, and will have twins or triplets when food is plentiful.
Wayne, who grew up in Wrangell, said she began hunting about 20 years ago to provide high-quality, affordable food for her children, and her family; now she hunts because her family prefers the taste and quality of wild game.
“We’re really fortunate to have that resource,” she said. “Part of the charge of the Fish and Game AC is to protect that resource. We’re being more active or proactive in trying to speak out against clear-cutting and things like that that would take away those opportunities.”
• This article originally appeared in the Daily Sitka Sentinel.
