Interior Department Orders National Park Service To Reconsider Hunting Regs In National Preserves In Alaska

In a move that could have dire effects on wildlife in national park lands in Alaska, the Interior Department has ordered the National Park Service to reconsider wildlife regulations that are at odds with hunting and trapping regulations enforced by the state of Alaska. The directive, while legally questionable, could greatly impact bear populations on National Park System lands, such as national preserves, if the Park Service reversed rules designed to protect predators.

The order, signed by Virginia Johnson, currently Interior's acting assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, directs the Park Service to reconsider rules it adopted in October 2015 regarding hunting and trapping on national preserves in Alaska where sport hunting is allowed. Under those regulations, hunters on national preserves cannot:

• Use bait (donuts, grease-soaked bread, etc.) to hunt bears;
• Use of artificial light to spotlight dens to kill black bears; and
• Kill bear cubs or sows with cubs.

"I have concluded that it would be prudent to reassess the need for the rule and give further consideration to certain elements," wrote Ms. Johnson on July 14 in a memo to Mike Reynolds, the Park Service's acting director. "I anticipate that you will focus this recommendation on certain aspets of the rule that I believe are particularly worthy of additional review. 

"Most notably, these include the various prohibitions that directly contradict State of Alaska authorizations and wildlife management decisions, thereby potentially reducing opportunities for sport hunting and commercial trapping on National Park Service lands."

Tom Crosson, the Park Service's chief spokesman, told the Traveler on Friday in an email that the agency "has received the Assistant Secretary's memo and is working with the Office of the Assistant Secretary and Department's solicitors to determine the best way to implement the memo's instructions. We expect to provide additional information and opportunities for public comment throughout the process."

A similar directive regarding wildlife regulations was sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

The directive to the Park Service drew immediate condemnation from the National Parks Conservation Association President and CEO Theresa Pierno.

“U.S. Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke’s directive to the National Park Service is shameful. The National Park Service must have the authority to prevent the potentially indiscriminate killing of bears and their cubs on national parklands," she said. "The directive also ignores the years, taxpayer dollars and investment by individuals who spoke up in support of bears and wolves on national park land in Alaska during the lengthy public process.

"In fact, more than 70,000 Americans 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," she added.

At PEER, Rick Steiner, a retired University of Alaska professor and PEER board member, noted the inherent conflicts between the state of Alaska's approach to wildlife and what the Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service are mandated to do.

“Alaska's national parks and wildlife refuges are required by federal law to be managed not as private game reserves but to protect natural diversity, including natural predator-prey dynamics,” he said. “The State of Alaska’s unethical predator control practices have no place in modern society, and certainly not on Alaska’s magnificent national parks and refuges.”

According to PEER, it could take the Park Service years to reconsider the regulations. Beyond that, the group said the memo from Ms. Johnson is legally tenuous.

"The factors cited by Ms. Johnson are political in nature and not a legitimate basis for regulation. Further, the NPS is constrained by statutory mandates that a Trump White House cannot fiat away," a PEER release said. "Thus, assuming a new rule is promulgated before Trump leaves office, it will almost certainly be swarmed by litigation challenging its validity."

Desires by Alaska wildlife officials to reduce the number of predators while boosting elk and caribou populations for hunters have led to the wiping out of wolf packs that roamed Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve.

Back in 2015 when the Park Service adopted the regulations in question, the agency noted that sport hunting in national preserves continues to be primarily regulated by the State of Alaska. But, the state-authorized practices being prohibited conflict with National Park Service law and policy, Park Service officials said in a release at the time.

Units of the National Park System are managed for naturally-functioning ecosystems and processes. While sport hunting is allowed in national preserves in Alaska, NPS policies prohibit manipulating native predator populations, typically bears and wolves, to increase numbers of harvested species, such as caribou and moose, they added.