Trump administration plans to end ban on bear baiting in Alaska national preserves

Proposal would reestablish state authority to manage sport hunting and trapping in federal territory that is part of the national park system

A brown bear rests on a hillside in Denali National Park and Preserve. Hunting, trapping and fishing are allowed on national preserve lands in Alaska. But under rules issued during the Biden and Obama administrations, state-authorized bear baiting was banned in national preserves. (Photo provided by the National Park Service)

By Yereth Rosen

Alaska Beacon

The Trump administration is seeking to open national preserves in Alaska to bear baiting by sport hunters.

The U.S. Department of the Interior on Friday announced that it will propose a new rule to overturn restrictions imposed by the Biden administration and prior to that, wider restrictions imposed by the Obama administration.

The proposed rule would allow for state regulations to apply in national preserves, which are part of the National Park System. Sport and subsistence hunting, trapping and fishing are allowed in national preserves in Alaska, under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, or ANILCA.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game allows hunters to use bait to hunt bears in certain places and at certain times of the year. Baiting is the practice of setting up stations with food to attract bears so they can be targeted for hunting.

In a statement, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the proposed rule will restore the state’s previously established authority to manage sport hunting and trapping in Alaska’s national preserves.

“For decades, Alaska’s national preserves were managed under a framework that respected the State’s authority, protected subsistence uses and ensured conservation of wildlife resources,” Burgum said in the statement. “This proposed rule restores that balance. It reduces unnecessary federal overreach, aligns federal regulations with state law, and honors the commitments Congress made in ANILCA.”

The proposed Trump administration rule, like the Biden-era and Obama-era restrictions, applies only to sport harvesters. The federal government, not the state government, regulates subsistence harvesting on federal lands in Alaska, including national preserves.

Doug Vincent-Lang, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said he welcomed the new Department of the Interior plan.

“It is refreshing to see a federal agency recognize the State’s role as the primary manager of fish and wildlife within its borders and affirm the importance that federal actions not undermine that foundational responsibility,” Vincent-Lang said in a statement. “These changes support the cultural heritage and long-standing traditions of Alaskans who use these lands to fulfill their subsistence needs and continue to pass down a way of life to future generations of Alaskans.”

But conservation groups criticized the move.

Emily Thompson, executive director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, said in a statement that the proposed rule should be rejected.

“This proposed rule, like so many before it from this Administration, will endanger our national parks, the millions of visitors that visit them every year, and the animals that inhabit them,” she said in the statement. “For years, bear baiting policy in Alaska’s national preserves has been treated like a political light switch in Washington — flipped on and off with each new administration. But the consequences are anything but political. Bear baiting disrupts natural wildlife behavior and creates dangerous conditions for people visiting these lands managed by the National Park Service.”

Nicole Schmitt, executive director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, said the proposed rule change is not justified, noting that current rules already protect subsistence users.

“The rule change we see today was championed by Safari Club International, who just last month petitioned the Department of Interior to dismantle the power and local representation on the Federal Subsistence Board. Now, this same outside group wants to unlock Alaska’s National Preserves for expansive sport hunting, opening cherish(ed) preserves like Denali to bear baiting,” Schmitt said in a statement.

The new Trump administration proposal will be detailed in an upcoming Federal Register notice that will kick off a public comment period, the Department of the Interior said.

The new proposal is the latest in a decade-long history of rule changes for sport hunting in Alaska national preserves.

In 2015, the Obama administration issued a rule barring bear-baiting and other controversial hunting practices like killing cubs in dens, using dogs to hunt bears and shooting swimming caribou, all practices that were allowed on state land.

The first Trump administration overturned those restrictions. The Biden administration in 2024 resurrected part of the Obama administration’s restrictions, specifically focusing on the bear-baiting ban. At the time, the National Park Service determined that bear baiting posed safety risks to people and animals because it could make bears habituated to human-provided food.

The debate over state regulation of sport hunting and trapping on federal lands in Alaska has also sparked litigation.

In 2020, conservation groups, including the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, notched a victory when a federal court struck down the first Trump administration’s plan to allow baiting of brown bears within the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. The state and the Safari Club International attempted to reverse that ruling, but the appeal was rejected by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined the state and Safari Club’s request to take up the case.

• Yereth Rosen came to Alaska in 1987 to work for the Anchorage Times. She has been reporting on Alaska news ever since, covering stories ranging from oil spills to sled-dog races. She has reported for Reuters, for the Alaska Dispatch News, for Arctic Today and for other organizations. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.