Trump Ready to Allow Extreme Wildlife Hunting in Alaska

UncategorizedMay 30, 2018

In another attempt to overturn his predecessor’s environmental legacy, Trump has proposed a strike against rules established by Obama which protects wildlife in Alaskan federal land from hunting practices. Now, environmentalists are condemning the US President’s proposition which could drive some of Alaska’s most iconic predators into extinction.

The National Park Service just published a new proposal in the Federal Register which gives game officials in Alaska the power to decide which animals can be hunted, killed or poison

Rolling Back Wildlife Protections

The National Park Service just published a new proposal in the Federal Register which gives game officials in Alaska the power to decide which animals can be hunted or killed. The rule will allow unrestrained hunting of bears including cubs and mothers, shooting of wild caribou in waters from boats, and killing other animals from snowmobiles and planes. Hunters can also lure in animals they wish to kill with poisonous bate, according to the proposal.

Apparently, the proposal was drawn out after Secretary Ryan Zinke gave Park Service the order to accede to the administration’s goal of expanding recreational hunting. The officials of National Park Service said that the proposed rule will make sure that sport hunting regulations in Alaska’s national preserves are in line with the state regulation to bring more consistency within hunting regulations in Alaska’s non-federal areas including the national preserve lands.

The roll-back decision was taken in conjunction with secretarial orders from the Interior Department which wants all U.S. states to determine their own wildlife protection laws

Alaska to Determine its Own Protections

The rule will take away protections of various endangered species like black bears and cayotes in Alaska which were installed in 2015 under Obama and banned all hunting and harvesting practices in the state’s pristine lands. The roll-back decision against wildlife protection was taken in conjunction with secretarial orders from the Interior Department which wants all U.S. states to determine their own wildlife protection laws. The current regulations in Alaska ban hunting practices in some public areas while allowing them in others.

Tuesday’s proposal came after Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that Obama’s prohibition rules were in direct contradiction with Alaska’s wildlife management and hunting decisions, but critics have condemned the agency’s assessment saying that the new rule could have an adverse impact on Alaska’s wildlife population. The National Park Service is planning to conduct a thorough assessment of the proposal to weigh out its pros and cons for the environment. The agency is also opening a public comment period till July 23 to get the Alaskans’ opinions on the proposed rule.

Republicans and Democrats React

While the administration’s action was condemned by environmentalists and Democrats, the Republican congressional delegation of Alaska welcomed the plan with enthusiasm. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said that she is glad that the congress decided to give Alaska the power to create its own fish and wildlife laws just like all other federal regulations. She added that Alaska takes environmental issues very seriously and it will make sure to protect the wildlife to the best of its abilities.

Another Republican representative called the Obama-era protection laws a ‘power grab’ and said that National Park Service’s proposal is has been long-awaited to correct Alaska’s troublesome hunting and wildlife laws.

National Parks Conservation Association director Jim Adams says that the new rule will seriously endanger the predator population in Alaska

Other congressional Democrats didn’t have the same positive reaction to the proposal. Representative Earl Blumenauer, who also oversees the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, said that the roll-back on wildlife protections is disgraceful and it will only bring Alaska’s old hunting practices to life. The democrat condemned practices like shooting wolf pups, poisoning animals with bait and targeting black bears from air. He said that wildlife is what makes Alaska’s national preserves beautiful – without it, the public lands are just scenery.

A retired Park Service employee, Phil Francis, said that the new proposal is extremely bizarre and nothing like the Park Service he used to work for years ago. He added that the agency’s purpose is to conserve wildlife, and that is the only reason why it was established in the first place. Francis believes that hunting is an extremely inhumane practice and one doesn’t have to be a conservationist to know that allowing the practice to return to Alaska is simply immoral on the agency’s behalf.

The proposal also aggrieved National Parks Conservation Association said that ending Alaska’s wildlife management regulations is shocking and nonsensical. Director of the association, Jim Adams, said that the rule will only empower hunters and significantly reduce the population of predators.