Interior moves to lift restrictions on hunting bears, wolves

**Swordsmyth** · 05-21-2018, 11:24 PM

The Trump administration is moving to reverse Obama-era rules barring hunters on some public lands in Alaska from baiting brown bears with bacon and doughnuts and using spotlights to shoot mother black bears and cubs hibernating in their dens.The National Park Service issued a notice Monday of its intent to amend regulations for sport hunting and trapping in national preserves to bring the federal rules in line with Alaska state law.
Under the proposed changes, hunters would also be allowed to hunt black bears with dogs, kill wolves and pups in their dens, and use motor boats to shoot swimming caribou.
These and other hunting methods — condemned as cruel by wildlife protection advocates — were outlawed on federal lands in 2015. Members of the public have 60 days to provide comment on the proposed new rules.
"The conservation of wildlife and habitat for future generations is a goal we share with Alaska," said Bert Frost, the park service's regional director. "This proposed rule will reconsider NPS efforts in Alaska for improved alignment of hunting regulations on national preserves with State of Alaska regulations, and to enhance consistency with harvest regulations on surrounding non-federal lands and waters."
Alaska has 10 national preserves covering nearly 37,000 square miles (95,830 square kilometers).
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game was "pleased to see the National Park Service working to better align federal regulations with State of Alaska hunting and trapping regulations," Maria Gladziszewski, the state agency's deputy director of the Division of Wildlife Conservation, said in an email to The Associated Press.
She said the proposal is "progress in that direction, and we appreciate those efforts. Alaskans benefit when state and federal regulations are consistent."
Gladziszewski said the state doesn't conduct predator control in national preserves. "Predator control could be allowed in preserves only with federal authorization because such actions are subject to NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) review," she said.
Expanding hunting rights on federal lands has been a priority for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a former Montana congressman who displays a taxidermied bear in his Washington office along with mounted heads from a bison and an elk.

More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/interior-...-politics.html

**oyarde** · 05-21-2018, 11:33 PM

It is Alaska resources . These resources are managed . It is what people there eat all yr . They do not shop at a store .If Alaskans determines these are OK there is no valid reason for others opinions to matter .

**oyarde** · 05-21-2018, 11:43 PM

I imagine nobody in North Africa will be calling me and asking my opinion on setting hunting laws for the Barbary Partridge this yr . , or the Taiwan Partridge even though I have the best recipes ........