The Trump administration has ordered managers at 55 national park sites to tear down hunting restrictions they spent years building, sparking a clash between rural hunters seeking access and park officials worried about visitor safety and wildlife.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued the directive in January, telling agencies to strip away what he called "unnecessary regulatory or administrative barriers" to hunting and fishing. The move applies to sites across the lower 48 states under National Park Service control, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.
Managers have already begun complying. They have lifted bans on hunting stands that damage trees, eliminated prohibitions on training dogs, allowed vehicles to retrieve dead animals, and opened trails to hunters. At Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts, the hunting season would stretch into spring and summer. At Lake Meredith in Texas, hunters can now butcher kills in bathrooms. Louisiana's Jean Lafitte Historic Park would permit alligator hunting.
Burgum framed the order as pro-conservation and pro-economy. "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," he wrote. The administration's position is blunt: federal lands should be open to hunting and fishing unless a specific, documented legal reason says otherwise.
The directive arrives as the hunting population dwindles. Only 4.2% of Americans over 16 identified as hunters in 2024, according to Fish and Wildlife Service data. State wildlife agencies depend on hunting license sales and excise taxes on guns and ammunition, leaving them scrambling to revive the sport through new seasons, youth recruitment, and expanded public land access.
Park managers, however, see a problem being solved that nobody asked them to fix. Dan Wenk, former Yellowstone superintendent and NPS deputy operations director, questioned the urgency. "This was never a big issue. I'd love to know the problem we're trying to solve," Wenk told the Associated Press. "Then I could understand the costs that it's going to take to solve it in terms of resources and visitor safety."
Wenk noted that park restrictions were built through stakeholder conversations and earned broad acceptance. The Trump administration's move to overturn them without substantial public input bypasses that process entirely.
Interior Department spokesperson Elizabeth Peace defended the order as "commonsense public land management," promising that closures or limits needed for safety, resource protection, or legal compliance would remain. She did not detail any public outreach efforts when asked.
Hunting and fishing advocates cheered. The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership called it a balance between wildlife management and outdoor tradition. Ducks Unlimited praised Burgum for recognizing duck hunters' "vital role" in stewardship.
Critics, however, painted a darker picture. Elaine Leslie, former head of the NPS's biological resources department, said the order abandons science-based management and creates scenarios she finds unacceptable. "I 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," Leslie said.
National Park Service sites currently allow hunting across about 51 million acres spanning 76 locations, though only about 8 million of those acres are in the contiguous United States. Fishing is permitted at 213 sites. Parks typically adopt state hunting regulations but can impose stricter rules to protect visitors and wildlife.
Author James Rodriguez: "Burgum's order solves a political problem, not a practical one, and it dismisses the careful work park managers did to balance competing interests on public land."
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