16. Department of the Interior · Notable

Cede fish and game management on Alaska federal lands to the state

Attempted

Printed page 531 16. Department of the Interior

“Recognize Alaska’s authority to manage fish and game on all federal lands in accordance with ANILCA as during the Reagan Administration, when each DOI agency in Alaska signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game ceding to the state the lead on fish and wildlife management matters.”

What has happened

Mar 10, 2026 Attempted
The Park Service's proposed rule would "[r]emove provisions that unnecessarily preempt State wildlife management authority" and restore state-authorized harvest practices in Alaska's national preserves, which Interior framed as honoring "the commitments Congress made in ANILCA". That is the direction the Quote asks for, but it is a proposal, it reaches preserves rather than "all federal lands in Alaska", and no memorandum of understanding ceding the lead on fish and wildlife management to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game — the Reagan-era arrangement the Quote names — was found in Interior's orders, the Federal Register or its press releases.
- NPS proposed rule: Alaska; Hunting and Trapping in National Preserves — restoring the pre-2015 ANILCA framework
  Primary Executive branch Mar 10, 2026
- Interior press release: Interior Proposes to Restore State-Aligned Hunting Regulations on Alaska National Preserves
  Primary Executive branch Mar 6, 2026
Jul 18, 2025 Attempted
Interior transferred the Federal Subsistence Management Program's regulations to the Office of the Secretary — SO 3413 having moved the Office of Subsistence Management there — and opened a program review by proposed rule on 2025-12-15, renewed on 2026-02-13. A reorganization and a review; no management authority had passed to the State.
- Interior final rule: Federal Subsistence Management Program; Transfer of Regulations
  Primary Executive branch Jul 18, 2025
- Interior proposed rule: Program Review—Subsistence Management for Public Lands in Alaska
  Primary Executive branch Feb 13, 2026

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

Two moving parts: the Park Service rule that would stop preempting state harvest rules, and the Federal Subsistence Management Program, which Interior pulled into the Office of the Secretary and then opened for review.

Resolved — Executive Order 14429 is moved-nearby, not this ask (reviewed 2026-09-24; read in full 2026-09-23). Reinvigorating America’s Hunting Heritage, signed 2026-09-17, published 2026-09-22 (91 FR 60289, FR 2026-19416), read in full at govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-09-22/html/2026-19416.htm.

It directs no memorandum of understanding with any State fish and game agency and gives no State the lead on fish and wildlife management. It does not mention Alaska, ANILCA or the Federal Subsistence Management Program. What it has on federal–State relations is policy language — “promoting cooperative federalism” (§1) — and §4, under which the Secretaries of War, the Interior and Agriculture “shall coordinate with State agencies to align management practices and conservation plans to promote the growth of game species populations”. Coordination and alignment leave the federal agencies as managers; the Quote asks that they cede the lead. That is action nearby on the ask’s subject, recorded here and not as an event, for the reason #1489’s note gives. Status unchanged: attempted (2026-03-10). A Federal Register API search from 2026-08-01 on Alaska subsistence management found no new program-review action, and none on the NPS preserves rule since the April extension.

EO 14430, the angling order signed the same day, was read too (#1875’s note): it is about recreational saltwater fisheries data, permits and artificial reefs, and says nothing about Alaska or State management leads. The two orders do not cross over.

Action: transfer
Object: Fish and game management authority on federal lands in Alaska
ID: 1490