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Stop the Rollback of Wildlife Hunting Safeguards on Public Lands

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Sponsor: The Animal Rescue Site

Federal officials are loosening hunting limits across public lands. Wildlife protections and visitor safety need science, transparency, and public input.

Silhouette of a hunter aiming a shotgun on a ridge at sunset, with glowing orange clouds filling the sky.

The Trump administration is pushing managers at national parks, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas to scale back hunting restrictions. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued an order directing agencies to remove barriers to hunting and fishing unless a specific legal reason supports keeping them in place.1

The order affects public lands that already carry complex responsibilities. National parks and refuges are not just recreation areas. They are habitat, migration routes, nesting grounds, family destinations, and places where wildlife protection and visitor safety are supposed to guide management decisions.

Wildlife And Visitors Could Pay The Price

Managers have lifted or may lift restrictions involving tree stands that can damage trees, dog training, vehicle use to retrieve animals, and hunting near trails.1 The National Parks Conservation Association warned that changes at more than 50 national park sites in the lower 48 could compromise long-term wildlife protection and visitor safety.2

Specific rollbacks include changes at Big Cypress National Preserve, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, and Curecanti National Recreation Area.3 These are not minor paperwork changes. They can alter how wildlife habitat is used, how visitors experience public land, and how local managers protect fragile resources.

Dozens of National Park Service sites could be affected and former Park Service leaders are raising alarms about safety-first conservation being undermined.4

Public Lands Need Public Process

Hunting and fishing have a place on many public lands when managed carefully. The issue is not whether hunting can ever be allowed. The issue is whether federal officials should strip local safeguards through a broad directive without full public input, site-specific science, or clear evidence that existing rules are unnecessary.

The Interior Department directed land managers to rapidly end some hunting rules on federal lands.5 That pace raises concerns for wildlife advocates, former park officials, and visitors who expect national parks and refuges to be managed first for conservation and public safety.

The U.S. Secretary of the Interior has authority over the Interior Department and can pause the directive, require public review, and direct agencies to retain restrictions needed to protect wildlife, habitat, and visitors.

Sign now to urge the Interior Department to stop rolling back hunting safeguards and restore science-based public review before restrictions are removed from parks, refuges, and wilderness areas.

More on this issue:

  1. Todd Richmond, Associated Press (8 May 2026), "Trump is lifting restrictions on hunting in national parks, refuges and wilderness areas."
  2. National Parks Conservation Association, National Parks Conservation Association (May 2026), "Expanded Hunting Directive in Some National Park Sites Defies Long-Term Protection."
  3. Kurt Repanshek, National Parks Traveler (5 May 2026), "UPDATED | National Parks Silently Allowing More Hunting And Trapping Access."
  4. Outside Staff, Outside (10 May 2026), "The Feds Are Lifting Hunting Bans at 55 National Park Sites. We Found Out Which Ones."
  5. Center for Western Priorities, Center for Western Priorities (5 May 2026), "Trump administration orders rapid end to some hunting rules on federal lands."

The Petition

To the U.S. Secretary of the Interior,

I urge the Department of the Interior to pause its directive loosening hunting and trapping restrictions in national parks, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas until each proposed change receives full public review, site-specific scientific analysis, and clear justification.

Public lands belong to everyone. They protect wildlife habitat, migration corridors, wetlands, forests, trails, rivers, and places families visit to experience nature safely. Hunting and fishing may be appropriate in many areas when carefully managed, but removing safeguards through a broad directive risks undermining the conservation and public safety duties of the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other Interior agencies.

Recent reporting shows that managers at multiple sites have already lifted or may lift restrictions involving tree stands, dog training, vehicle retrieval of animals, hunting near trails, and other practices. These changes may affect wildlife, habitat, visitors, and local staff tasked with balancing multiple public uses.

The question is not whether hunting should ever occur on federal lands. The question is whether science-based, locally developed safeguards should be removed without meaningful public participation. Former park officials and conservation organizations have raised serious concerns that this approach bypasses the careful process normally used to protect resources and visitors.

Please pause the directive, require public notice and comment before restrictions are removed, and direct land managers to retain any safeguard needed for wildlife protection, habitat conservation, visitor safety, and legal compliance. Please also publish a full list of affected sites, the rules being changed, and the scientific or management rationale for each change.

National parks and refuges should not be managed by pressure to erase protections as quickly as possible. They require careful stewardship.

Please restore transparent, science-based review before any hunting or trapping safeguard is removed.

Sincerely,

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