Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has a new agenda for the National Park Service: more hunting and fishing.
Under a secretarial order he issued Jan. 7, NPS has about four months to pinpoint and begin rolling back restrictions in certain national parks.
The order broadly mandates the expansion of hunting and fishing across public land agencies, which along with NPS include the Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation. The agencies are charged with reviewing “outdated” restrictions and reducing “unnecessary regulatory burden.”
Hunting and fishing advocates have largely embraced the push, though some have raised concerns about whether staff shortages at the National Park Service could hinder its execution and broader land stewardship.
