Donuts and bacon used to lure bears? Feds may bring back the practice in Alaska

Interior proposes lifting bear baiting ban

The Department of the Interior wants to change hunting rules on Alaska’s national preserves, and the biggest shift would let sport hunters bait bears again.

The proposed rule, announced March 7, would drop federal restrictions and follow Alaska’s own wildlife rules instead.

Bear baiting means setting up food stations with things like donuts, bread, and bacon grease to lure bears in for a shot. The rule hit the Federal Register on March 10, and the public has until April 9 to weigh in.

Den hunting and pup kills could return

Bear baiting grabs the headlines, but the rule goes further. Sport hunters could also use artificial light to find and kill black bears inside their dens.

Taking wolves and coyotes, including pups, during denning season would also be back on the table. Alaska already allows all of these practices on state lands.

The proposed change only covers sport hunting.

Subsistence hunting by rural Alaskans, protected under a different part of federal law, would stay the same.

Twenty-two million acres hang in the balance

Alaska has about 22 million acres of national preserves, and they work differently than national parks. Congress set them up under a 1980 law called ANILCA specifically to allow hunting and trapping.

Sport hunting is banned in Alaska’s national parks but legal in its 10 preserves, which include parts of Denali and Wrangell-St. Elias.

The proposed rule would change how hunting works across every one of those preserves.

The administration calls it a course correction

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the rule cuts federal overreach and honors what Congress intended when it passed ANILCA.

The administration argues that preserves operated under state-friendly rules for more than 30 years before the Obama administration added restrictions in 2015.

The rule follows an executive order President Trump signed on his first day back in office, aimed at expanding resource use in Alaska.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game backed the proposal, saying it respects the state’s role as the lead wildlife manager.

Conservation groups push back hard

Defenders of Wildlife said the Park Service would be walking away from its job to protect wildlife.

The National Parks Conservation Association warned that the rule ignores the agency’s conservation duties and could put park visitors at risk.

The Alaska Wildlife Alliance pointed out that the Safari Club International, a sport hunting group, pushed for the change, not subsistence users.

One conservation coalition compared bear baiting policy to a “political light switch” that flips with every new president.

Even Alaska’s own Denali State Park has banned bear baiting, which critics say shows the state itself sees a safety problem.

Bait stations could draw bears toward people

When the Park Service first banned bear baiting in 2015, it found that bait stations create a safety risk.

Bears that find human food at these stations can start linking people with food, and that raises the odds of dangerous run-ins with hikers and campers.

Critics also say the Park Service has a legal duty to keep natural wildlife behavior and predator-prey relationships intact.

Deferring to state rules built around reducing predator numbers, they argue, clashes directly with that mission.

This fight has gone back and forth for a decade

The Obama administration first banned bear baiting and other predator-targeting practices in 2015. The first Trump administration reversed those bans in 2020 and handed control back to the state.

Conservation groups sued, and in September 2022 a federal judge ruled the reversal was flawed and sent it back to the agency. The court said the Park Service was wrong to claim it had to follow state hunting rules.

This 2026 proposal is the latest round in a decade-long tug of war.

Biden’s 2024 rule would be wiped out

In July 2024, the Biden administration finalized a narrower rule that banned bear baiting for sport hunters based on safety concerns. That rule still lets rural Alaskans bait bears for subsistence hunts.

It also said practices like killing wolves during denning season clashed with Park Service policy but stopped short of banning them outright.

The new 2026 proposal would erase the 2024 rule entirely and start fresh with state-aligned regulations.

Both sides claim the same law supports them

ANILCA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, is the largest land conservation law in U.S. history. President Carter signed it on Dec. 2, 1980, protecting over 100 million acres.

The law created national preserves specifically to allow hunting and trapping. Both sides in this fight claim ANILCA backs their position.

Supporters of the new rule say it gives Alaska primary authority over wildlife.

Opponents say it gives the Park Service the power to override state rules when they threaten conservation.

Alaska’s predator programs raise more questions

Alaska already runs an aggressive predator management program in western Alaska that has used helicopters to kill bears. The goal is to help the struggling Mulchatna caribou herd recover.

Nearly 200 brown bears died through that program in 2023 and 2024, according to court filings. A state court found problems with how officials adopted the program.

Conservation groups point to efforts like this as proof that deferring to the state could bring heavy-handed practices to national preserve lands.

Public comments close April 9

The public can submit comments on the proposed rule through April 9 through the Federal Register or the federal regulations website.

The Park Service has started reaching out to Alaska Native tribes and Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act corporations, and formal tribal consultation will happen during the rulemaking process.

After comments close, the Department of the Interior will review everything before issuing a final rule. Given the history, legal challenges from conservation groups are widely expected if the rule goes through.

The rule is not final yet

Nothing has changed yet. This is still a proposal, and the current rules remain in place.

The change would only affect national preserves, not national parks, in Alaska. Sport hunting, not subsistence hunting, is at the center of the debate.

The Park Service keeps the authority to close specific areas for conservation or public safety even under this proposal.

Americans can weigh in during the comment period by searching for RIN 1024-AE96 on the federal regulations website.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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