The National Park Service is proposing a new rule that allows for cruel and grossly unethical hunting practices on America’s National Preserves in Alaska, including on over eight million acres of Wilderness. This rule, by essentially turning wildlife management over to the State of Alaska, puts wildlife at risk across 19 million acres of the most iconic wild places left in America, including Gates of the Arctic, Denali, Wrangell-St. Elias, and Katmai National Park and Preserve, a world-renowned gathering spot for brown bears. We urge you to submit a public comment by April 9 opposing the proposed rule. We've suggested talking points in the box below the background information. Background: In 2015, the Obama administration banned a number of cruel, unethical, and controversial hunting practices on National Preserves in Alaska. The banned hunting methods were authorized by the state as part of its efforts to kill as many wolves and bears as possible in an attempt to artificially increase moose and caribou populations. This included: - Killing mother bears and cubs in their dens;
- Baiting brown and black bears with donuts and other human foods;
- Killing wolves and coyotes with pups during their denning season;
- Indiscriminate and cruel trapping; and
- Using dogs to hunt bears.
In proposing the 2015 rule, the National Park Service (NPS) correctly noted that the law that established these National Preserves essentially required the agency to “conserve fish and wildlife populations and habitats in their natural diversity.” After the first Trump administration repealed and replaced the 2015 rule, Wilderness Watch and our allies successfully filed a lawsuit where a federal court found the Trump-era rule unlawful. However, the court left the Trump rule in place pending a new rule from the Biden administration. Unfortunately, the Biden-era NPS rule kept many of the egregious hunting practices, like shooting mother bears and cubs in their dens. Now the NPS proposes to replace the weak Biden-era rule with one that allows all of the cruel and unethical pre-Obama-era hunting practices. Worse yet, the proposed rule loosens the restriction that limited hunting in the Preserves to local indigenous subsistence hunters and rural Alaskans. Allowing almost anyone to hunt in the Preserves will greatly increase the number of wildlife killed and injured—including in Wilderness. Bears, wolves, and other native predators are an integral part of what makes these places truly wild and ecologically healthy. Nature should be allowed to shape these wild places, and natural processes should determine wildlife populations and distribution. Please submit a public comment by April 9 opposing the proposed rollback of wildlife protections in America's National Preserves in Alaska. | 
