Last week the National Park Service enacted a rule repeal (Pub. L. 115-20) that allows hunters to venture into Alaska’s National Preserves and engage in inhumane practices outlawed since 2015 (see 80 FR 64325), including baiting mother bears and cubs with doughnuts, shooting swimming caribou from planes, and using artificial light to enter dens to slaughter sleeping wolf mothers and pups.  

The rule repeal was proposed in 2018 during the tenure of disgraced former Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, who resigned that year under an ethics cloud for conflicts of interest and self-dealing.  The park service had previously argued more than sixty times that such hunting methods were inappropriate on federal lands.  Apparently the State of Alaska allows these hunting methods on state property, more than 97 million acres. 

The rule repeal goes into effect on July 9, 2020.  Why put it into effect now?  The Interior Department and the park service have offered no explanation.  Perhaps it is because the nation is distracted with more pressing matters.  David Bernhardt, the current Secretary of the Interior, is a prolific lobbyist for extractive industries and the subject of multiple ethics inquiries.  It’s clear that Secretary Bernhardt believes the park service can implement the rule repeal now to satisfy the desires of a few without much public repercussion.

Please sign this petition to say “No.” In implementing the rule repeal, the Interior Department and the park service are kowtowing to special interests and abusing their power.  The rule repeal will allow hunting practices that may be tolerated on Alaskan state lands, but such methods violate the National Park Service’s founding mandate of preserving wildlife on federally protected land.  Thank you.

P. S. Please also submit comments to the Interior Department, referencing the repeal of 80 FR 64325, at http://www.regulations.gov/