Hunters will have more options for hunting bears in Alaska National Preserves under a proposal released Tuesday/NPS

Bowing to pressure from the Interior Department, the National Park Service plans to reverse a 3-year-old ban on hunting and trapping practices in Alaska national preserves that conservation groups deem “barbaric” and “cruel.”

The proposed regulation, which would align Alaska national preserves with state rules that were implemented to suppress carnivore numbers in order to increase game populations, was published in the Federal Register on Tuesday and will be open for public comment for 60 days.

“The Trump administration has somehow reached a new low in protecting wildlife,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO at Defenders of Wildlife. “Allowing the killing of bear cubs and wolf pups in their dens is barbaric and inhumane. The proposed regulations cast aside the very purpose of national parks to protect wildlife and wild places. The National Park Service should not accept Alaska’s extreme predator control program as a suitable method of managing wildlife and their habitat.”

The practices that the Park Service banned in 2015, and which are now set to be legalized again, are:

• Taking any black bear, including cubs and sows with cubs, with artificial light at den sites
• Harvesting brown bears over bait
• Taking wolves and coyotes (including pups) during the denning season (between May 1 and August 9)
• Taking swimming caribou
• Taking caribou from motorboats under power
• Taking black bears over bait
• Using dogs to hunt black bears

Since the Trump administration has taken office, the Department of the Interior has issued two Secretarial Orders regarding how the department should manage recreational hunting and trapping in the lands and waters it administers, and directing greater collaboration with state, tribe, and territorial partners in doing so.

“The conservation of wildlife and habitat for future generations is a goal we share with Alaska,” said NPS Regional Director Bert Frost. “This proposed rule will reconsider NPS efforts in Alaska for improved alignment of hunting regulations on national preserves with State of Alaska regulations, and to enhance consistency with harvest regulations on surrounding non-federal lands and waters.”

To view the proposed rule and for information on how to submit comments, visit www.regulations.gov and search for “RIN 1024-AE38”. The deadline for submitting comments is July 23. Once the public comment period ends for the proposed rule, the National Park Service will review the comments, and that input will inform the final rule, which will be published in the Federal Register. The final rule would be effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.

“I’m outraged that Trump and his trophy-hunting cronies are promoting the senseless slaughter of Alaska’s most iconic wildlife,” said Collette Adkins, a Center for Biological Diversity attorney and biologist. “Cruel and harmful hunting methods like killing bear cubs and their mothers near dens have no place on our national preserves.”

The National Parks Conservation Association says the approaches are at odds with bedrock wildlife management regulations for lands managed by the National Park Service. The group notes that the plan was released with a 60-day comment period but without plans for public meetings or other community engagement.

“This new proposal ignores the years of careful consideration, taxpayer dollars, and thousands of people who already spoke up in support of bears and wolves on national park land in Alaska,” said Theresa Pierno, the president and CEO of NPCA. “More than 70,000 Americans previously said ‘no’ to baiting bears with grease-soaked donuts in Denali. They said ‘no’ to sport hunters crawling into bears’ dens and using flashlights to wake and kill mother bears and their cubs on lands managed by the National Park Service. And, after 26 public meetings and an extensive public process, the Park Service too said “no” on their behalf.

“Secretary Zinke recently made headlines by his vow to make a ‘grand pivot’ to conservation,” Pierno continued. “Forcing the hand of the Park Service to return to a war on wildlife on lands it manages in Alaska is about as far from a positive pivot point as one can get. As a nearly 100-year old organization with ‘conservation’ in our name, we would be happy to work with the department to ensure our national parks are safe havens for the bears, wolves, and wildlife that call places like Katmai and Denali home.”

The proposed regulations would only apply to hunting on Alaska national preserves. National parks in Alaska would not be affected by the proposed changes.