NIKISKI, Alaska — Before the sun rose on Nov. 11, 10 students from Nikiski Middle & High School had gathered with their teacher, Jesse Bjorkman, at a gas-station parking lot here in this small community on the Kenai Peninsula — to gear up for a moose hunt.
Dispersed among five vehicles, the group drove about 10 miles to the Nikiski Escape Route, a gravel road connecting Nikiski to the city of Kenai. Inching slowly down the snowy road, the students peered out each side of the cars, scanning the edge of the spruce forests in search of moose.
Within five minutes, they had spotted one, but moved on after seeing a calf nearby. Ten minutes later, the students sighted another moose, but left after realizing it was on tribal land. Mr. Bjorkman reminded the group that “even in a hunt, if we don’t get an animal, it’s still a success.” But within 45 minutes, around 8:50 a.m., the group found a third moose, lounging in a snow heap under a spruce tree.
When his middle school students gave him the OK, Mr. Bjorkman set up his rifle and fired one shot. It was a lethal blow to the roughly 950-pound cow moose. The students gasped at the sound of the gunshot, then giggled with excitement. The moose jumped and sprinted a few hundred feet deeper into the woods before falling down in a clearing.
It was the first time moose hunting for Rex Wittmer, 12. He said finding the animal, shooting it and tracking the kill made his heart race.
“Being a valuable part of society is learning how to do stuff people did before you — keep the tradition going,” he said. “Hunting shouldn’t die off. It’s been part of our culture for many, many years. I feel like coming out here was a good opportunity to keep that tradition alive.”
Rex and the other students from Nikiski are part of their school’s outdoor-explorations class, a course dedicated to teaching an expanded version of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s hunter education program. They study basic hunting skills and protocols, wildlife ecology and habitat, and outdoor survival and safety — including Alaska-specific risks like drowning and avalanches. Mr. Bjorkman said students in the program, who choose whether they want to participate in the moose hunt, learn firsthand about where their food comes from.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220113014905/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/10/dining/alaska-students-moose-hunting.html
