241 



Mr. KiRCHHOFF. Well, it is hard to get a single answer. In 

 McDuff Islands and Central Park or the Kuiu Islands, it is closed 

 season; there is no hunting and in the Mystic Fjord area, Baranoff 

 and Chichagof Islands there is a six-deer bag limit and in the 

 southern part there is a two-deer bag limit and that it varies a 

 little bit along the mainland so we have seen just — I think what 

 you are getting at to come up with transient population over the 

 time. We had high numbers of deer in the 1950s, we had a series of 

 very difficult winters in the 1960s, early 1970s and the population 

 crashed across the area, the population has responded and the last 

 20 years the northern part or portion of the — in the southeast we 

 have had relatively high deer figures. It has been much lower in 

 the southern southeast. Current high numbers of deer are largely 

 through the wildlife that we passed since the 1970s. We have been 

 doing some more surveys this spring and found the highest mortali- 

 ty since those early 1970s reports on the Chichagof Islands, we 

 have had a fairly hard winter this year in the southeast. 



Senator Wirth. Thank you. 



I want to commend this panel. 



Senator Murkowski. I wonder, Mr. Kirchhoff, if you would ex- 

 plain to me, if there is any principal logging on Kuiu Island? 



Mr. Kirchhoff. There is logging on Kuiu Island. 



Senator Murkowski. How long has this been in relationship to 

 the proposal to initiate the plan, the ALT, and initiate a bigger 

 program that has been objected to. Are you familiar with that? 



Mr. Kirchhoff. Perhaps — well, I am very familiar with Kuiu 

 Island, the areas that have been logged but in the APC five-year 

 plan, a substantial portion of their volume comes off. 



Senator Wirth. It is supposed to come off North Kuiu? 



Mr. Kirchhoff. Yes. 



Senator Murkowski. Can you explain the difference in the deer 

 population at Kuiu Islands, Ornaski or with Admiralty, Chichagof 

 and Baranoff as unique? 



Mr. Kirchhoff. With islands north of Frederick Sound 



Senator Murkowski. You do not have wolves? 



How would you deal with the wolf take in a week? 



Mr. Kirchhoff. I really do not know. 



Senator Murkowski. As a game ball, you do not know that? 



Mr. Kirchhoff. Well I think we worked into models about ten 

 pounds of deer per wolf per day. 



Senator Murkowski. Ten pounds of deer per wolf per day and 

 there are no deer on Admiralty, Baranoff and Chichagof? 



Mr. Kirchhoff. Excuse me, no, there are no wolves. 



Senator Murkowski. What is the limit there for hunting? Fish 

 and Game sets a limit? 



Mr. Kirchhoff. It is six deer for most of that. 



Senator Murkowski. What about Kuiu? 



Mr. Kirchhoff. The season is closed there. 



Senator Murkowski. Can you give us any explanation; now Kuiu 

 is right across from Baranoff, this is where six deer are — this has 

 got some population base on Kuiu — would it have any town of any 

 consequence? 



Mr. Kirchhoff. Well I think the predator is probably responsible 

 for that. 



