Top Interior Department officials have been urged to get behind the NPS on proposed changes to bear-baiting regulations/NPS file

Top Interior Department officials have been urged by former National Park Service managers in Alaska to support the Park Service's proposed changes to hunting and trapping regulations in national preserves in the state.

The change in the hunting regulations would be a reversal of a Trump administration reversal of the regulations. Back in the fall of 2015 the Park Service adopted rules regarding hunting and trapping in those national preserves where sport hunting is allowed. Under those regulations, hunters on national preserves could not:

• Use bait (donuts, grease-soaked bread, etc.) to hunt bears;
• Use artificial light to spotlight dens to kill black bears; and
• Kill bear cubs or sows with cubs.
• Take wolves and coyotes (including pups) during the denning season (between May 1 and August 9)
• Take swimming caribou
• Take caribou from motorboats under power
• Take black bears over bait
• Use dogs to hunt black bears

But the Trump administration threw out those regulations. In announcing the change at the time, the Park Service said its new position affirmed "the state of Alaska’s role in wildlife management on Alaska national preserves, consistent with the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and Department of the Interior policies guiding the federal-state relationship in the management of fish and wildlife."

That change took effect in 2020.

But last fall a federal judge said the Park Service had erred in relaxing its hunting and trapping regulations, ruling that the agency was wrong in believing it had to "defer to state hunting regulations." U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason also held that the Park Service acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it concluded that Alaska's wildlife management requirements were equivalent to those of the Park Service, and when it ignored its own previous finding that Alaska's regulations failed to address public safety concerns associated with bear baiting.

The new regulation is expected to reduce visitor use conflicts and concerns over potential safety issues related to bear baiting and would also restore consistency between harvest practices allowed in national preserves and NPS management policies with respect to natural processes, abundances and wildlife behavior, said a Park Service release issued this past January.

A group of former Park Service managers with extensive experience leading national parks, monuments and preserves in Alaska, along with former Alaska state officials, sent a letter to Shannon Estenoz, the Interior Department’s assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, on behalf of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks. In the letter they pointed out the need to reverse the regulations. 

The letter commends Alaska Regional Director Sarah Creachbaum and NPS staff for their work on the proposed rule on Hunting and Trapping in National Preserves in Alaska. It also offers support for the rule itself, which reinstates bans on state-sanctioned sport hunting practices, such as killing black bear sows and cubs at den sites; killing wolves and coyotes, including pups, during denning season; and harvesting brown bears over bait, in national preserves in Alaska.

“Bear baiting, killing mother bears with cubs while they hibernate, and shooting wolves with young pups are hunting practices that do not belong on lands under the stewardship of the National Park Service,” said Jonathan Jarvis, former Park Service director and former superintendent of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. “These methods are not just cruel and unethical, they conflict with NPS wildlife conservation mandates and policies.”

Tony Knowles, former Governor of Alaska and former Chair of the National Park System Advisory Board, added that "[I]t is vitally important to protect this incredible wildlife for current and future generations of Americans. The sustainable, scientific, and humane hunting requirements in the proposed NPS hunting regulations for Alaskan National Preserves will reinstate an essential policy to protect wildlife that was under siege.”

The letter also calls attention to the 1982 Master Memorandum of Understanding between the NPS and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which laid out a clear understanding of each agency’s authority and responsibility to manage and conserve wildlife in the national preserves. 

“The Alaska Department of Fish & Game is no longer complying with the letter and intent of the 1982 MMOU,” said Jim Stratton, former director of Alaska State Parks. “The state has lost its way. The National Park Service, on the other hand, is doing its job consistent with federal law, judicial opinions, and the MMOU.” 

The letter cites multiple federal court rulings affirming federal authority to preempt state hunting regulations on federal lands, then goes on to “encourage the NPS to continue its efforts to consult and cooperate with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to resolve, when feasible, situations in which state hunting regulations conflict with NPS mandates and policies.”

Mike Murray, chair of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, supports the message brought forward by the group of former federal and state officials. “They clearly represent the voices of experience on this issue,” Murray said.