Opinion ID: 2599816
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The game ratio

Text: The game ratio in 5 AAC 92.070(b)(1) seeks to measure the relative availability of alternative sources of game. Access to other game is clearly a reasonable criterion to use in determining an applicant's dependence on subsistence hunting. But Manning argues that the regulation's game ratio scoring system is not an accurate method of measuring an applicant's access to other game. We agree. As described in more detail above, 5 AAC 92.070(b)(1) provides for an applicant to be assigned up to twenty points based on the percent of the applicant's household's game that came from the Tier II population over the past five years. An individual applicant's score cannot exceed the game ratio for his community of residence, which measures what percent of the community's total big game catch in the surrounding area and in Nelchina comes from the Nelchina caribou herd. As Judge Tan pointed out in his summary judgment decision, the game ratio cap does not accurately measure a community's access to alternative game. The formula assumes that hunters' actual use patterns reflect the relative availability of game for a community. This is not necessarily the case. Some local hunters may seek out particular Tier II game populations for non-subsistence reasons such as aesthetics, sport, or taste. A community may draw much of its game from a particular Tier II population and thus have a high game ratio score even if other sources of game are readily available. Relying on use patterns may be particularly problematic in smaller communities where hunting patterns of a small number of individuals may significantly affect the community's game ratio score. [40] The second problem with the game ratio formula is what the superior court called the ratcheting effect: every year that a community is excluded from the Tier II hunt, the game ratio will go down; after five years of exclusion the game ratio will be zero. Once a community is excluded because of the game ratio cap, no one in that community will be able to secure a permit unless the State decides to issue more permits. The State argues that the downward ratchet is fair because the only way a community drops out of contention for the permits is if there is an initial determination that it has access to alternative sources of game. But this argument is based on two questionable assumptions: that the community's game ratio was an accurate measure of alternative resources to begin with, and that the availability of alternative game will remain stable once the community has been excluded from the Tier II hunt. The game ratio is a structurally infirm and ultimately inaccurate method of measuring applicants' access to alternative food sources. We conclude, therefore, that 5 AAC 92.070(b)(1) is not closely related to the State's interest in ensuring that Alaskans who need to engage in subsistence hunting are able to do so. As such, the regulation violates sections 3, 15, and 17 of article VIII of the Alaska Constitution. Our holding does not imply that it is impossible for the State to craft a constitutionally acceptable regulation measuring an applicant's alternative sources of game. To name just one possibility, a community cap based directly on the availability of other big game hunts reasonably accessible to a given community would seem to be a more accurate measure than the current regulation. [41] Nor does our holding imply that such a regulation must produce uniformly perfect results. Our decision today merely holds that the current game ratio regulation is so faulty as to not satisfy the requirements of the Alaska Constitution.