Man can use hovercraft while moose hunting, Supreme Court rules

US National Parks Service can protect public waterways from depletion or diversion but cannot ban hovercraft, ruling states

Stock image of a hovercraft on a frozen river. John Sturgeon has hunted moose from hovercraft for 40 years in Alaska and will be allowed to continue (Getty)

A man who was banned from using his hovercraft while hunting moose in Alaska by the US National Parks Service (NPS) has had the decision overturned in the Supreme Court, allowing him to continue.

John Sturgeon of Anchorage had hunted the animals for 40 years along the Nation River, a waterway within the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve in northeast Alaska.

But in 2007, while gunning down the animals from the amphibious vehicles which can be used in shallow water and over mud, three NPS rangers told Mr Sturgeon it was illegal to use his hovercraft there, so he went home.

In 2011 he took legal action against the NPS over the issue and had sued and lost in lower court rulings.

But on Tuesday justices unanimously rejected the agency’s argument the river was “public land” and that the agency’s water rights interest gave it rule-making authority.

“We reverse the decision below and wish Sturgeon good hunting,” Justice Elena Kagan said in reading a summary of the decision.

Mr Sturgeon called it “a huge win for Alaska”.

“What it basically said is that the federal government doesn’t get the manage in-holdings including navigable waters in any of the conservation units in Alaska, and that’s huge,” he told the Associated Press.

The court examined a 1980 law which had created new parks and reserves covering more than 28,125 square miles of land owned by the state, designated Alaska native lands, and in private hands.

The NPS, the Supreme Court said, has broad authority to administer lands and waterways within parks across the country. However, Congress in the Alaska law added a provision only “public” land – the federally owned land and waters – would be subject to the federal regulations.

Justice Kagan said the federal government’s reserved water right in the Nation River allows the NPS to protect it from depletion or diversion but not to ban hovercraft.

Mr Sturgeon said: “I was very happy that they kind of really understood Alaska. They recognised that the rivers in Alaska are very often our highways, like [Interstate] 5 that goes through California and Oregon and Washington, and the Yukon is kind of our equivalent of I-5.”

“Sturgeon can again rev up his hovercraft in search of moose,” Ms Kagan wrote in the court filing.

“I thought that was pretty cool,” Mr Sturgeon said, adding they made the decision feel “real human”.