Breaking: Interior Department proposes restoring state-aligned hunting rules on Alaska national preserves

By SUZANNE DOWNING

March 6,, 2026 – The US Department of the Interior on Friday announced a proposed rule to roll back several federal wildlife regulations on Alaska’s national preserves, restoring a framework that aligns more closely with Alaska state hunting and trapping laws.

The proposal would rescind regulatory changes adopted in 2015, 2017, and 2024 and would return management of hunting and trapping on national preserves to a structure that governed the lands for more than three decades.

“I want to thank President Trump and Secretary Burgum for listening to Alaskans and restoring the commonsense framework Congress established in ANILCA. Alaska’s fish and wildlife are best managed by the people who live closest to the resource, and this proposal respects the state’s authority while protecting subsistence and conservation. I appreciate the administration’s commitment to working with Alaskans to ensure our wildlife resources remain healthy and available for future generations,” Governor Dunleavy said in a statement to The Alaska Story.

Interior officials said the change is intended to bring regulations back into alignment with the intent of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the 1980 law that created or expanded many federal conservation units in Alaska while allowing continued hunting and trapping in designated national preserves.

The action follows **Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14153, titled “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” which directs federal agencies to reduce what the administration describes as unnecessary federal regulation affecting Alaska’s natural resources.

“For decades, Alaska’s national preserves were managed under a framework that respected the State’s authority, protected subsistence uses and ensured conservation of wildlife resources,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. “This proposed rule restores that balance. It reduces unnecessary federal overreach, aligns federal regulations with state law, and honors the commitments Congress made in ANILCA.”

Alaska’s national preserves are unique within the National Park Service system because Congress specifically authorized hunting and trapping there under both state and federal law. Under ANILCA, the Park Service must conserve wildlife and other resources while protecting subsistence harvest rights for rural residents under Title VIII of the law.

Beginning in 2015 under the Obama Administration, however, federal rule changes imposed additional restrictions on certain predator-control hunting practices authorized under state law. Those rules limited or prohibited some methods used by hunters and trappers and expanded the Park Service’s authority to close areas or restrict certain activities. Subsequent rulemakings and court challenges over the years created regulatory uncertainty for hunters, tribes, wildlife managers, and park users.

“For years, federal agencies under Democratic administrations ignored the clear intent of Congress in the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) and attempted to override the State of Alaska’s authority to manage fish and wildlife on our lands,” said Senator Sullivan. “We saw this repeatedly during the Biden administration, which issued 70 executive orders and regulatory actions exclusively targeting Alaska—many of them restricting access to our lands and undermining the state’s authority to manage its own resources. One example was the National Park Service rule that attempted to usurp Alaska’s fish and wildlife management authority on federal lands, despite Congress having already rejected a nearly identical effort in legislation I authored in 2017. These actions consistently ignored the expertise and voices of Alaskans—state scientists and biologists, local communities, and Alaska Native people who have relied on these lands for generations. I want to thank President Trump and Secretary Burgum for their partnership with Alaska to restore a management framework that aligns federal regulations on Alaska’s national preserves with state law. This proposal implements President Trump’s Day One Executive Order, ‘Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential, by correcting years of federal overreach, respecting the rule of law, and restoring Alaska’s sovereignty in managing fish and wildlife on our lands.”

The Interior Department said the proposed rule would restore state-authorized harvest practices in national preserves, reinstate longstanding public notice and consultation procedures before closures or restrictions are imposed, remove provisions that preempt state wildlife management authority, and eliminate regulatory language added in recent rulemakings that federal officials say is duplicative or unnecessary.

The department emphasized that the proposal would not alter federal subsistence hunting regulations established under Title VIII of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which prioritizes subsistence harvest by rural Alaskans on federal lands when wildlife populations require limits on overall harvest.

Interior officials said environmental analyses associated with previous rulemakings concluded that hunting and trapping levels under Alaska’s wildlife management framework would not result in population-level impacts on wildlife. Where localized concerns arise, the National Park Service would still retain authority under ANILCA and existing regulations to implement targeted closures or restrictions after consultation with the state and other stakeholders.

The proposed rule will be published in the Federal Register and opened for a 60-day public comment period. The department said the National Park Service has begun outreach with tribes and Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act corporations and will conduct formal tribal consultation during the rulemaking process before a final rule is issued.