Bear Baiting Will Again Be Permitted For Hunts In Alaska National Parks

After bear baiting by hunters was banned in Alaska national parks by the Biden administration, President Donald Trump’s Department of the Interior has reversed course and will again allow the method to hunt bears on national preserves in the state. Here’s more from the Alaska Beacon:

The new rule’s bear-baiting allowance in national preserves applies only to sport hunting. Subsistence hunting in federal land units is managed by the federal government, and bear baiting has been allowed for subsistence hunters.

In a statement, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said the new rule restores that deference to Alaska management and Alaska-specific conditions.

“For more than three decades, Alaska’s national parks and preserves were managed under a framework that recognized Alaska’s unique circumstances, respected the State’s role in managing fish and wildlife, protected subsistence uses and conserved these remarkable lands and resources,” Burgum said in the statement. “This final rule restores that commonsense framework and gives Alaskans a stronger voice in decisions affecting the lands, wildlife and traditions they know best, while ensuring the National Park Service continues to protect park resources for future generations.” 

Doug Vincent-Lang, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the new rule is appropriate.

“We thank the Department of Interior and the National Park Service for making these and other changes in the rule. The change represents a necessary return to the fish and wildlife management framework established by the Alaska Constitution and reaffirmed in ANILCA, which had served Alaska for three decades,” Vincent-Lang said in a statement.

Elsewhere, the Center for Biological Diversity, which has been staunchly opposed to this method for hunting bears, made a statement of its own via Alaska director Cooper Freeman:

“It’s disgraceful that the Trump administration is approving the cruel treatment of Alaska’s bears rather than fulfilling its obligation to protect wildlife on our public lands. This rule puts sport hunters’ desires over wise and sometimes urgently needed decisions to ensure the long-term health of wildlife in national parklands in Alaska. People come from all over the world to see wildlife thriving on our treasured national parklands in Alaska, and we shouldn’t allow unsporting and unscientific practices that deplete these populations.”

And some other social.media reaction: