The Trump administration is working to roll back a 2015 National Park Service (NPS) rule that banned controversial hunting practices on 19 million acres of America's National Preserves in Alaska, which includes millions of acres of Wilderness. We urge you to submit a public comment by Nov. 5 on the environmental assessment (EA) released in September. The Action Alternative in the EA would reverse current NPS regulations prohibiting unethical and barbaric practices in our National Preserves and Wildernesses in Alaska. The Administration is trying to re-instate the following practices, which have no place in wildlife management, let alone in National Preserves: - Killing mother bears and cubs in their dens;
- Baiting brown and black bears with donuts or other human foods;
- Killing wolves and coyotes with pups during their denning season;
- Shooting caribou from boats or shore as they cross lakes or rivers;
- Indiscriminate and cruel trapping;
- Using dogs to hunt bears.
Bears, wolves, and other native predators are an integral part of what makes these places truly wild. They should be free from human manipulation in these Preserves and their Wildernesses. Nature should be allowed to shape these wild places and natural processes should be allowed to determine wildlife populations and distribution. Please submit a public comment by Nov. 5 opposing the proposed rollback of wildlife protections in America's National Preserves in Alaska. Please write in your own words, but consider including the following points in your comment letter: - I'm writing today to demand that the Department of Interior abandon the proposed rule (RIN 1024-AE38) and adopt the No Action Alternative in its EA.
- The EA and draft regulation seek to repeal a common-sense 2015 rule that prohibited overly aggressive predator control practices on National Preserves in Alaska.
- The draft regulation will allow the State of Alaska to manage wildlife in a manner that attempts to increase moose and caribou for hunters by killing bears and wolves. This violates federal law that requires the Park Service to manage National Preserves to maintain natural diversity.
- The 2015 rule banned unethical and barbaric practices such as killing mother bears and cubs at their den sites; baiting brown and black bears with human food; killing wolves and coyotes with pups during their denning season; shooting caribou from boats or shore as they cross lakes or rivers; and using dogs to hunt bears.
- These practices have no place in wildlife management, let alone in National Preserves, and are not in keeping with the spirit or the language of the National Park Service's directive to manage our National Preserves to maintain natural diversity.
- Bears, wolves, and other native predators are an integral part of what makes these places truly wild. They should be allowed to regulate naturally in the Preserves rather than be manipulated to meet humans' desires.
- This proposed rule would overturn an existing 2015 NPS rule that is consistent with federal law and is supported by scientists and thousands of Americans who want predators to be protected from these cruel killing practices.
- The impacts of this draft federal regulation will be significant and therefore the Department of Interior must prepare an EIS.
Click here to submit your official comments before the November 5, 2018 deadline. View the EA.
Thank you for taking action to help protect wildlife on National Preserves in Alaska! | |
