Doug Burgum<\/a>, directing agencies to remove what he termed “unnecessary regulatory or administrative barriers” to hunting and fishing, and to justify any regulations they wish to maintain.<\/p>\nBurgum stated, “Expanding opportunities for the public to hunt and fish on Department-managed lands not only strengthens conservation outcomes, but also supports rural economies, public health, and access to America’s outdoor spaces.” <\/p>\n
He added, “The Department’s policy is clear: public and federally managed lands should be open to hunting and fishing unless a specific, documented, and legally supported exception applies.”<\/p>\n
![\"Hunting](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/101639404.jpg\")
Hunting is currently allowed across about 51 million National Park Service acres spanning 76 sites (Patrick Baert\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Order clears the way for tree stands, training dogs and more<\/p>\n
The order applies to 55 sites in the lower 48 states under the National Park Service’s jurisdiction, according to the National Parks Conservation Association. Managers at various locations have already lifted prohibitions on hunting stands that damage trees and training hunting dogs, using vehicles to retrieve animals and hunting along trails, according to an NPCA review of site regulations the organization recently performed after learning of the order. The New York Times was the first to report on the changes.<\/p>\n
The hunting season in the Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts, for example, would be extended through the spring and summer. Hunters in the Lake Meredith National Recreation Area in Texas would be allowed to clean their kills in bathrooms. And hunters would be allowed to kill alligators in the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in Louisiana.<\/p>\n
An effort to save hunting?<\/p>\n
Burgum\u2019s order comes as hunting continues to decline in the face of increasing urbanization. Only about 4.2% of the U.S. population identified as a hunter older than 16 in 2024, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Census data, leaving state wildlife agencies short on revenue from license sales and excise taxes on guns and ammunition.<\/p>\n
Hunting advocates and conservative policymakers have been exploring multiple avenues to keep hunting alive, including promoting the sport to women and young children, creating seasons for more species and expanding hunter access to public land.<\/p>\n
Hunting is currently allowed across about 51 million National Park Service acres spanning 76 sites, although only about 8 million of those acres lie in the contiguous United States with the rest in Alaska, according to the NPS website. Fishing is allowed in 213 sites. NPS sites typically adopt state hunting and fishing regulations although they can impose restrictions that go beyond them to protect public safety and wildlife resources, like prohibiting shooting along a trail or near buildings.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019d love to know the problem we’re trying to solve’<\/p>\n
Dan Wenk, a former Yellowstone National Park superintendent and NPS deputy operations director, said park managers established their regulations by talking with stakeholders and, as a result, most of the restrictions have been widely accepted. He said it makes no sense for the Trump administration to upend that structure without substantial public discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cProcess never seems to stand in the way of many things with this administration,\u201d Wenk said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. \u201cThis was never a big issue. I’d love to know the problem we’re trying to solve. Then I could understand the costs that it’s going to take to solve it in terms of resources and visitor safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interior Department spokesperson Elizabeth Peace said in an email that the order is a \u201ccommonsense approach to public land management” and promised that any closures or limits needed for public safety, resource protection or legal compliance will remain in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor decades, sportsmen and women have been some of the strongest stewards of our public lands,” she said, \u201cand this order ensures their access is not unnecessarily restricted by outdated or overly broad limitations that are not required by law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked in a follow-up email about the extent of any public outreach efforts, if any, Peace said only that the department had given the AP its statement on the order.<\/p>\n
Hunting groups applaud the order<\/p>\n
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, which works to preserve access for hunting and fishing, posted a statement online in January calling the order a balance between wildlife management and outdoor traditions hunters and anglers support. Ducks Unlimited posted a statement in March saying Burgum’s order recognizes duck hunters’ \u201cvital role.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis process will streamline federal regulations, make them more consistent with existing state rules, and provide more public-land access for outdoor recreation. Thank you, Secretary Burgum, for prioritizing America\u2019s hunters and anglers,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
Elaine Leslie, former head of the NPS’ biological resources department, said Trump is undermining a process that was put in place in good faith and the order does not reflect science-based management.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t want to take my young grandchildren to a park unit only to have a hunter drag a gutted elk they shot across a visitor center parking lot. Nor enter a restroom where hunters are cleaning their game,\u201d Leslie said in a text to the AP. “There is a time and place for hunting, trapping and fishing … but that doesn’t mean every place has to be open to every activity especially at the expense of others and degrading our public resources.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-948078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116544099308609832","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}