President Donald Trump's administration is quietly pushing national park, refuge and wilderness area managers to dramatically scale back hunting restrictions, raising questions about visitor safety and the impact on wildlife.
U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued an order in January directing multiple agencies to remove what he termed "unnecessary regulatory or administrative barriers" to hunting and fishing and justify regulations they want to keep in place. "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," Burgum wrote.
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, training hunting dogs, using vehicles to retrieve animals, and hunting along trails. The New York Times was the first to report on the changes.
Specific changes at several parks illustrate the scope of the relaxed rules. The hunting season in the Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts would be extended through the spring and summer, whilst hunters in the Lake Meredith National Recreation Area in Texas would be allowed to clean their kills in bathrooms. Hunters would also be permitted to kill alligators in the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in Louisiana.
The initiative reflects broader concerns about declining participation in hunting. 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. This decline has left state wildlife agencies short on revenue from license sales and excise taxes on guns and ammunition.
