National park superintendents are expected to see if they could relax their wildlife management regulations to bring them in line with state guidelines/NPS

National Park Service officials will be expected to respond to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's order that they relax their wildlife management regulations if necessary to conform to those of states in which parks are located.

While officials in the Park Service's Washington, D.C., headquarters said that "(A)ny such recommendations will be made consistent with the (National Park Service) Organic Act and other federal laws and regulations," they added that recommendations also will be "in accord with policies established by the Director of the National Park Service and the Secretary of the Interior."

In early September the Interior secretary told the bureaus under his authority that he "reaffirms" a 1983 policy that gives the states the authority "to exercise their broad trustee and police powers as stewards of the Nation's fish and wildlife species on public lands and waters under the jurisdiction of the Department."

"State governments have established fish and wildlife agencies that are charged with the responsibility and mandate to implement those statutes ensuring effective, appropriate, and efficient conservation and management of fish and resident wildlife species, including providing citizens wtih the opportunity to enjoy those fish and wildlife species through regulated hunting, fishing, and trapping," wrote Secretary Zinke.

But there have been concerns voiced over the order, and the secretary's authority to tell the Park Service to follow a state's lead in managing wildlife has been questioned by legal experts.

Robert Keiter, a law professor at the University of Utah and director of the Wallace Stegner Center of Land, Resources, and the Environment said the Interior secretary can't unilaterally issue such a directive.

"The Secretary of Interior cannot override the (National Park Service) Organic Act conservation mandate, nor can he override the NPS regulations implementing it, which generally prohibit hunting in national parks unless specifically authorized by Congress," Professor Keiter told the Traveler in an email. "At a minimum, Zinke would have to revise the NPS regulations (see 36 CFR 2.2) prohibiting hunting, and even that would probably not be enough to authorize hunting generally in the national parks given the Organic Act’s language about conserving wildlife and limiting the taking of animals to narrow cases.

"Moreover, in several cases, national parks (like Yellowstone) are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government, so there is no legal basis for applying state laws in those federal enclaves," he added.

Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, said the secretary's order "stunningly ignores the national commitment, and his own department’s responsibilities, for conservation of these resources."

“State wildlife agencies serve an essential role in managing resident species of fish and wildlife, but it is the federal government, acting on behalf of the American people as a whole, that has paramount authority for the protection and conservation of endangered and threatened species, migratory birds, and fish populations in the United States," added Rappaport. "The federal government manages the National Wildlife Refuge System, a network of federal lands expressly created to serve the national interest in wildlife conservation, and the other great systems of federal lands.

“It would be both inappropriate and illegal to ‘defer’ to the states in carrying out these primary federal responsibilities for wildlife conservation. How the Secretary could issue a memorandum on fish and wildlife conservation without mentioning the Endangered Species Act or the National Wildlife Refuge System is beyond me."

In their response to Traveler questions, Park Service staff noted that, "(C)onservation and management of fish and wildlife and recreation opportunities are critical to the mission of the National Park Service as defined by the Organic Act.  Regulations regarding hunting and fishing often mirror state regulations although they may vary according to federal laws, including the park’s enabling legislation. Additional policies and regulations are accomplished through collaboration with adjacent federal, private, and state land managers and through public engagement."

Already the secretary has pushed the Park Service to relax its hunting and trapping guidelines on national preserves in Alaska to bring them in line with state regulations.

The proposed regulations would match state rules that were implemented to suppress carnivore numbers in order to increase game populations. The practices, which the Park Service banned in 2015 and which are now set to be legalized, would allow:

* 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

An environmental assessment conducted to assess the impacts of such a change in NPS regulations is open for public comment through November 5 at this site. While the document notes that bear baiting led to a high percentage of bears taken from Kenai Peninsula hunting areas, "(b)ecause baiting on most national preserves would be more difficult, the percentage of brown bears taken over bait under the proposed action is expected to be lower..."

The EA did note, however, that, bears drawn to baits could become habituated to human foods and so possibly create problem bears.

As of Sunday, at least 178,403 comments had been submitted on the proposed changes.