Home > Letter > Coalition Opposes Proposed Alaska National Preserve Hunting Rule
Synopsis
On April 9, 2026, the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks submitted formal comments opposing the National Park Service’s proposed rule on hunting and trapping in Alaska national preserves. The Coalition, which says it represents more than 5,000 current, former, and retired National Park Service employees and volunteers with over 60,000 years of combined stewardship experience, argues that the proposal would give excessive deference to Alaska state hunting regulations in areas where federal law and park policy should control.
According to the comments, the proposed rule would weaken protections for wildlife and subsistence users by allowing state-authorized practices that the Coalition says conflict with the NPS Organic Act, ANILCA, and long-standing NPS wildlife management policies. The document specifically raises concerns about removing the current prohibition on bear baiting, expanding or enabling trapping-related changes affecting black bears, and redefining subsistence in ways that could disadvantage federally qualified rural users.
The Coalition also contends that NPS has not adequately analyzed the rule’s effects. It says the agency did not issue an environmental assessment or ANILCA Section 810 analysis, and may not have provided all relevant advisory councils and subsistence commissions a meaningful opportunity to review the proposal. In its closing comments, the Coalition urges NPS to abandon the rulemaking and restore the 2015 protection against adopting state regulations intended to reduce predators, including bear baiting.
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Exposing the Big Game 