Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

16. Department of the Interior · Notable

Revoke NPS and FWS predator control and bear baiting rules in Alaska

Attempted

531 16. Department of the Interior

“Revoke National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rules regarding predator control and bear baiting, which are matters for state regulation. Such revocation is permitted under the 2017 Congressional Review Act.”

What has happened

  1. Attempted

    The National Park Service proposed to amend its Alaska hunting and trapping regulations to "restore National Park Service interpretations of law, policies, and regulations adopted to implement the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 that were in effect for over three decades", rescinding the 2015, 2017 and 2024 rulemakings that preempted state-authorized harvest methods — the predator-control and bear-baiting restrictions the Quote names. The comment period was extended on 2026-04-10 and no final rule had issued by 2026-08-27. The Fish and Wildlife Service refuge rule was already gone: P.L. 115-20 repealed it under the Congressional Review Act in April 2017, outside the window.

Research log

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

Research notes

The Fish and Wildlife Service half was done in 2017, by the Congressional Review Act resolution the Quote itself points at — before the evidence window. What remains is the National Park Service rule, and that is a proposal.

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. At first only its title could be read.

  • It does not name the 2015, 2017 or 2024 rulemakings, the March 2026 NPS proposal, Alaska, ANILCA or bear baiting, and it directs nothing to be finalized. Its operative sections are access and recruitment: open Castle Mountains and Craters of the Moon national monuments to hunting within 90 days (§2(a)); within 180 days propose changes to policies and regulations that restrict access to lands under War, Interior, Agriculture and Commerce, “generally allowing for hunting unless a specific closure is justified by local resource conditions, except within national parks” (§2(b)(i)); migratory game bird season-setting (§2(d)); Sunday hunting, hunter education, game donation.
  • The nearest it comes is §4(c): the Secretaries “shall coordinate with State agencies to align management practices and conservation plans to promote the growth of game species populations through the … targeted management of predators, competing species, and other population-limiting factors.” That is predator management endorsed as policy and aligned with the States, which is the direction the Quote points, but it revokes nothing and names no rule. That is action nearby on the ask’s subject.
  • No event. This item is at attempted (2026-03-10) on the NPS proposed rule, and the order adds no step toward revoking that rule. It is recorded here rather than as an event because an attempted event would claim a step the order does not take, and a not started event after the 2026-03-10 attempted would render as a downward move. Status unchanged: attempted. A Federal Register API search on “Hunting and Trapping in National Preserves” from 2026-04-01 returns only the April comment-period extension and the Unified Agenda introduction: no final rule yet.
Action
rescind
Object
National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service predator control and bear baiting rules
ID
1489