Alaska Game Management Units: Boundaries, Permits, and Reporting

Alaska is divided into 26 Game Management Units, and each one carries its own seasons, bag limits, salvage rules, and permit requirements that can shift again at the subunit level. Crossing an invisible unit line with the wrong tag or the wrong weapon can turn a legal hunt into a Class A misdemeanor, so understanding how the Alaska Game Management Units are organized, where their boundaries fall, and what rules change from one to the next is the first piece of planning any hunt here.

How the Units Are Structured

The 26 primary units cover every acre of the state, from urban Anchorage in Unit 14 to the Aleutian Islands in Unit 10.¹ Most are split into subunits labeled with letters (Unit 1A, Unit 1B, Unit 1C, and so on), which lets biologists manage herds at the drainage or island level. A single subunit can be open for moose while the next valley over is closed.

The seven-member Board of Game sets seasons, bag limits, and methods-and-means restrictions, writing them into Title 5 of the Alaska Administrative Code. Between Board meetings, the Commissioner of Fish and Game has separate authority under AS 16.05.060 to issue emergency orders that open or close seasons as conditions on the ground change.²

Finding and Verifying Boundaries

The official boundary for every unit and subunit is a written legal description printed in the Alaska Hunting Regulations. These descriptions use watershed divides, river confluences, mountain crests, roads, and power lines. The regulation booklet includes maps, but those maps come with an explicit warning: they help you find the general area, not the exact line. For precision you need the written description paired with a large-scale topographic map.³

Checking your GPS against that description before you shoot is your legal responsibility. The hunting regulations state it plainly: ignorance of your location is not a defense.³ Each unit’s regulation pages open with a list of restricted areas, including places closed to hunting outright and areas where access methods are controlled.

What Changes When You Cross a Unit Line

Stepping from one unit into the next can change nearly every rule on your hunt. The Board of Game sets the rules unit by unit, so what’s legal in one drainage may be illegal in the next.

Seasons and Bag Limits

One unit might allow two caribou while a neighboring unit permits only one. A unit might have a bull-only moose season while the adjacent subunit allows either sex during a brief window. A moose season in one Interior unit might run September 1 through September 25, while a nearby subunit opens only for ten days in mid-September. These differences reflect herd size, calf recruitment, and bull-to-cow ratios in each area.

Methods and Means

Some units or subunits are designated for archery only, muzzleloader only, or shotgun only. Motorized vehicle restrictions appear in some units to reduce harvest pressure or protect habitat. A controlled-use area might prohibit flying in and hunting on the same day, or ban motorized boats above a certain point on a river.

Salvage

Alaska requires hunters to salvage the edible meat of most big game, but what counts as salvage varies by unit. In many units, meat must be left on the bone during transport out of the field, which changes how you pack and how many trips you make.⁴ Some units also require salvage of organ meat like heart, liver, and tongue. Read the specific unit requirements before the hunt, not at the kill site.

Land Ownership Inside a Unit

A unit map shows wildlife management boundaries, not property lines. The same unit can contain state land, federal land managed by several agencies, Native Corporation land, and private inholdings. Alaska Native Corporations are the largest private landowners in the state, with entitlements totaling roughly 45.5 million acres.⁵ Using that land without permission is trespassing.

A common misunderstanding involves 17(b) easements that cross Native Corporation lands. These easements exist under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to provide access corridors to public lands and waters, but they do not give you permission to hunt, fish, or recreate on them. The easement is for transit only; the underlying land belongs to the corporation.⁵ If you want to hunt that land, you need direct permission from the landowner, and some corporations run their own permit programs.

Federal Land and Subsistence Overlap

On federal public lands, a separate subsistence hunting system operates alongside the state system. Rural Alaska residents qualify as federally recognized subsistence users and receive priority access to fish and wildlife on federal lands.⁶ Federal subsistence seasons and bag limits are published separately from state regulations, and where the two conflict on federal land, federal rules control.⁷ You cannot stack federal and state harvest limits to increase your total take unless the regulations for that specific unit say so.

If you are not a rural Alaska resident, you can still hunt most federal public lands under state regulations, but not in areas managed as National Park Service parks or monuments, and not where federal regulations specifically close the hunt.⁶ National preserves are a distinct category where Congress authorized hunting and trapping under both state and federal law. As of early 2026, the Department of the Interior has proposed rulemaking to more closely align federal regulations on preserves with state wildlife management authority.⁸

Permits, Harvest Tickets, and Locking Tags

Alaska uses several layers of authorization. What you need depends on the species, the unit, and whether you’re a resident.

Harvest Tickets

Most big game species require a harvest ticket in addition to your hunting license. Harvest tickets for deer, caribou, moose, and sheep come at no additional cost with your license, but you must have the correct ticket on you before you start hunting. After a kill, you validate the ticket immediately at the kill site by marking the day and month of the kill, either on paper or electronically as directed by ADF&G.⁹ The validated ticket stays with the animal until it reaches the place where it will be processed for consumption.

Drawing Permits

For hunts with limited capacity, Alaska runs a lottery. The application period is November 1 through December 15, and a non-refundable application fee is required for each entry.¹⁰ Drawing hunts are generally open to residents and nonresidents, but nonresidents applying for hunts that require a guide must select an Alaska-licensed guide registered for the specific Guide Use Area where the hunt takes place.

Registration Permits

Registration permits are typically available on a first-come basis and are used in hunts where managers need to monitor harvest in real time. Once enough animals have been taken, the season closes by emergency order, sometimes with very little notice.

Locking Tags

Nonresident hunters must purchase species-specific locking tags for big game. The tag is physically locked onto the animal immediately after the kill and stays there until the animal is processed or exported from the state.¹¹ Residents have fewer locking-tag requirements but still need them for brown or grizzly bear and muskox.

Guide Requirements for Nonresidents

Nonresident hunters from other U.S. states must be personally accompanied by an Alaska-licensed guide, or a close Alaska-resident relative within the second degree of kindred (parents, siblings, children, grandparents, grandchildren, in-laws, and step-relations), when hunting brown or grizzly bear, Dall sheep, or mountain goat.¹² For other big game like moose, caribou, and black bear, a nonresident U.S. citizen can hunt without a guide.

The rules are stricter for nonresident aliens, meaning anyone who is not a U.S. citizen and does not permanently reside in the United States. A nonresident alien must be accompanied by an Alaska-licensed guide to hunt any big game animal in the state, with no relative exception, regardless of species or unit.¹²

Unit-Specific Education and Orientation

Several units require hunters to complete education or orientation courses before they can legally hunt, and proof of completion must be carried in the field.¹³

Anyone born after January 1, 1986, who needs a hunting license must complete a certified hunter education course to hunt in Units 7, 13, 14, 15, and 20.
Mountain goat in Units 1 through 5 requires a department-approved orientation on sex identification.
Moose in Units 7 and 15 requires an antler recognition orientation.
Moose in Unit 17(B) and moose or caribou in Unit 19(B) requires nonresidents to complete an orientation on trophy recognition and meat care, or to be accompanied by a guide or qualifying resident relative.
Moose in Units 21(A) and 21(E) requires nonresidents to complete a similar orientation or be accompanied by a registered guide.
Sheep in the Unit 25(A) Arctic Village area requires an ethics and orientation course covering land status and trespass.
Bowhunting bear over bait in Units 7 and 14 through 16 requires a department-approved bowhunter education course.
Muzzleloader restricted-weapons hunts require a department-approved course that includes ballistic limitations and a proficiency test.
Crossbow users born after January 1, 1986, need a department-approved crossbow certification course.

Unit 23 adds a requirement for pilots: you cannot transport big game parts by aircraft without a certificate from a department-approved course on big game hunting and meat transportation in that unit.¹³

Harvest Reporting

Within 15 days after you take the bag limit for a species, or within 15 days after the season closes if you didn’t fill your tag, you must submit a completed harvest report to ADF&G.⁹ Reports from unsuccessful hunters count too, because biologists use that data to estimate effort and success rates across the unit. For permit hunts, the permit itself takes the place of a harvest ticket and report, with its own reporting deadline. Deer offers “as-you-go” reporting that lets you report each hunt immediately, which helps during Alaska’s long multi-month deer seasons.

Emergency Orders and Mid-Season Changes

Emergency orders are how Alaska’s unit management stays responsive. When a quota fills, when weather shifts animal migration, or when a survey reveals unexpected numbers, the Commissioner can open or close a season immediately. These orders carry the same legal weight as Board of Game regulations and the same penalties for violation.¹⁴

The practical problem is that you can be deep in the backcountry when an emergency order closes your season. ADF&G publishes orders on its website and offers email subscription lists organized by region. Signing up for the relevant regional list and checking before you head out each day is the simplest way to avoid hunting a closed season without knowing it.

Penalties for Getting It Wrong

Most hunting violations in Alaska are Class A misdemeanors, which carry up to one year in jail.¹⁵ Hunting the wrong unit, failing to know your location, using an illegal method, and violating permit conditions all qualify. ADF&G identifies hunting in the wrong unit or a closed area as one of the most common violations it encounters.¹⁶

Beyond fines and jail time, a court can order restitution to the state for each animal unlawfully taken. Restitution amounts are set by species:

Black bear: $900
Brown or grizzly bear: $2,500
Caribou: $1,500
Moose: $2,500
Dall sheep: $2,000
Mountain goat: $2,000
Musk ox: $4,500
Bison: $3,000
Deer: $1,000
Wolf: $1,000
Wolverine: $750

Courts can also revoke hunting licenses and order forfeiture of hides, antlers, and skulls. If you voluntarily report the taking to ADF&G or a wildlife enforcement officer as soon as reasonably possible and surrender all salvaged portions of the animal, the court may waive the restitution amount. That self-reporting provision is no guarantee of leniency, but it is written into the statute as a potential defense against the restitution component.

1
Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Game Management Unit Information
2
Justia. Alaska Code 16.05.060 – Emergency Orders
3
Alaska Department of Fish and Game. 2025-2026 Alaska Hunting Regulations
4
Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Meat Salvage Requirements
5
Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Access – Private Lands
6
U.S. Department of the Interior. Permits
7
eCFR. Federal Subsistence Management Regulations for Public Lands in Alaska – Subpart D
8
U.S. Department of the Interior. Interior Proposes to Restore State-Aligned Hunting Regulations on Alaska National Preserves
9
Legal Information Institute. 5 AAC 92.010 – Harvest Tickets and Reports
10
Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Alaska Drawing Hunt Information
11
Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Hunting and Trapping Licenses and Permits
12
Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Guide Requirements for Hunting in Alaska
13
Legal Information Institute. 5 AAC 92.003 – Hunter Education and Orientation Requirements
14
Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Hunting, Trapping and Wildlife – Emergency Orders, Advisory Announcements and News Releases
15
Justia. Alaska Code 12.55.135 – Sentences of Imprisonment for Misdemeanors
16
Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Play by the Rules