If you plan on hunting bears in Alaska, then you need to read this. Last spring, coronavirus kept resident and nonresident bear hunters at home due to the state’s travel restrictions; however, new regulations approved by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s (ADFG) Board of Game gives those who missed out on spring bear hunting another opportunity, KXDF News reports.

“It didn’t work out to where it would be one size fits all,” said Ryan Scott, Assistant Director of Wildlife Conservation with ADFG. “We realized that very early that some of the hunts have very specific requirements and they’re in place for a reason and the number of permits available are there for management purposes. We ended up looking at Spring 2021 and Spring 2022 as places that we could take the Spring 2020 permits and move them.”

According to ADFG, the new regulations include:

Unit 14C and Unit 26B will remain “unchanged for future season.”

“We looked at the hunt data for both of those areas and the hunt data indicated that majority of residents were the hunters there so they had the opportunity to actually hunt if they could make it work,” said Scott. “In addition to that, several of those hunts actually open in the fall and then run through the spring and many of the hunters had already taken advantage of the opportunity in the fall. So, the board didn't feel there was a need to carry those forward and make those future opportunities available. Essentially, everybody that had those permits had already hunted.”

And, while travel restrictions limited the number of bear hunters out last spring, Scott said that many “figured out how to go bear hunting and even how to maneuver within the travel mandates to make sure they met the requirements, but were still able to take advantage of the opportunity.”

According to KXDF News, the new regulations do not impact those who hunt within the Interior.