Annual problems with predator hunting in national preserves in Alaska have prompted the National Park Service to propose a permanent federal prohibition against certain hunting practices.

The aim is to prevent the hunting of wolf and coyote pups and adults in early summer when they den and their pelts have little commercial value; prohibit the taking of brown bears over bait, and; prohibit the use of artificial light to take black bear cubs and sows with cubs at dens. The Park Service has been dealing with these issues by each year issuing prohibitions against these practices via a park superintendent's compendium. 

"It has been illegal through temporary regulations, through the superintendent's compendium, which has to be renewed every year," said John Quinley, the Park Service's chief spokesman in Alaska. "Most people think of temporary restrictions as something that gets renewed every year for every year. As a process, it just doesn't work every year."

Alaska state officials, who try to manage their wildlife to boost prey populations and decrease predators with an end goal of providing more prey for hunting, have opposed such restrictions in the past.

"By and large, they don't think we should be regulating seasons and methods and means of sport hunting in preserves, that that's a prerogative of the state," Mr. Quinley said Thursday.

The proposed ban is open for public comment through December 3.

"These proposals, if finalized, codify long-standing prohibitions for wildlife harvest seasons and methods that were traditionally illegal under state law, but in recent years have been authorized by the State of Alaska in an effort to drive down predator populations and boost game species,' said Bert Frost, the Park Service's Alaska regional director.

This manipulation of natural population dynamics conflicts with National Park Service law and policy, the Park Service said in a release.

"National park areas are managed to maintain natural ecosystems and processes, including wildlife populations and their behaviors. While sport hunting is allowed by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in national preserves in Alaska, NPS policies prohibit reducing native predators for the purpose of increasing numbers of harvested species," the release added.

'This rule does nothing to restrict or limit federal subsistence hunting on NPS-managed lands," Mr. Frost stressed. "It would make permanent the small number of temporary restrictions we have put in place annually for the past four years, and largely maintain the status quo."

The proposed regulations would replace temporary restrictions in the following national preserves: Denali, Wrangell-St. Elias, Glacier Bay, Yukon-Charley Rivers, Gates of the Arctic, Noatak, Bering Land Bridge, Lake Clark, Katmai and Aniakchak.

The National Park Service has repeatedly requested the State of Alaska and the Alaska Board of Game to exempt national preserves from state regulations that liberalized methods, seasons and bag limits for predator hunting. The requests have been denied. State officials have also objected to the use of repeated temporary federal closures, and advised the NPS to seek permanent regulations.

Sport hunting occurs on about 38 percent, or more than 20 million acres, of the land managed by the National Park Service in Alaska. In these national preserves, sport hunting generally occurs under state regulations. The vast majority of state sport hunting regulations would remain unchanged by the proposed regulations. National Park System areas, including preserves, already prohibit predator control actions, such as aerial shooting of wolves, which the State of Alaska conducts as part of its statewide wildlife management program.

The proposed regulations would also update procedures for implementing closures or restrictions in park areas, including taking fish and wildlife for sport purposes, to more effectively engage the public, as well as update NPS regulations to reflect federal assumption of the management of subsistence hunting and fishing under Title VIII of ANILCA from the State of Alaska in the 1990s. Additionally, the regulations propose the allowance of the use of native species or their parts to be used as bait, commonly salmon eggs, for fishing in accordance with non-conflicting state law. This would supersede, for park areas in Alaska, the national prohibition on using certain types of bait at 36 CFR 2.3(d)(2).

You can find the proposed regulations and an environmental assessment online.