Associated Press
Senator Mark Begich is seeking a congressional oversight hearing on subsistence management of federal lands in Alaska.
Begich wrote to leaders of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, saying a hearing would allow subsistence stakeholders to explore new ways of “ensuring sustainability of such an important way of life.”
The federal government took over management in 1989 on what was supposed to be a temporary basis after Alaska state lawmakers failed to pass a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing a rural subsistence preference.
Begich says the system is failing, an noted that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in 2009 announced a review of federal subsistence management in Alaska.
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