WASHINGTON – Hunters on some public lands in Alaska will be allowed to bait bears with doughnuts soaked in bacon grease before shooting them at close range, under a rule the Trump administration released on Oct 16.
The final rule from the National Park Service revived a hunting method that the Biden administration banned in 2024 across millions of acres of Alaska wilderness. It also rekindled a long-running debate between hunters and conservationists.
Some hunters prefer to use strong-smelling, high-calorie foods like pastries, doughnuts, meat scraps or fish remains to lure bears from miles away. But some conservationists say the practice is unethical and risks making the bears accustomed to human food, which could endanger people.
The new rule also made a series of minor updates to other restrictions on hunting, fishing and trapping in national parks and preserves across Alaska. Doug Burgum, the secretary of the Interior Department, which includes the park service, said in a statement that the changes honoured the wishes of state officials and residents.
The rule “gives Alaskans a stronger voice in decisions affecting the lands, wildlife and traditions they know best, while ensuring the National Park Service continues to protect park resources for future generations,” Burgum said.
Of 33 states with black bear hunting seasons, 12 allow hunters to bait bears with human food under certain conditions. In Alaska, the practice is permitted on state and private lands but not on most federal lands, which account for about 60% of the state’s total acreage.
Animal welfare activists called the new rule barbaric.
“Baiting bears with piles of doughnuts, meat scraps and dog food to lure them into shooting range and gun them down is indefensible and inexcusable as a federal policy decision,” Kitty Block, the president of Humane World for Animals, said in a statement.
Block said the technique would teach bears to associate people with food, increasing the likelihood of encounters that injure or kill hikers and campers. She added that the group was evaluating its legal options and considering challenging the rule in federal court.
W. Laird Hamberlin, the chief executive of Safari Club International, a hunters’ rights group, did not directly comment on bear baiting but praised the Trump administration’s rule in general.
“This rule respects Alaska’s role in managing its wildlife, brings back transparency for federal closures and removes overlapping restrictions on hunting methods already regulated by the state,” Hamberlin said in a statement.
The question of whether to allow bear baiting in Alaska has inspired a legal and political fight for more than a decade.
The Obama administration first prohibited the practice in 2015. The state of Alaska and trophy hunting groups sued, and the ban was rescinded during Trump’s first term before the litigation was resolved.
The Biden administration restored the prohibition in 2024. At the time, the park service said it had surveyed 28 wildlife biologists, and 26 “thought baiting would lead to bears associating food with humans”.
But on his first day back in office in 2025, Trump signed an executive order directing the park service to reconsider the policy. And in the new rule, the Trump administration said it trusted the experience of Alaska officials more than the “speculation” of wildlife biologists.
“The state of Alaska’s decades of operational experience without documented public safety incidents are more probative than speculation without context or data,” the rule says.
The changes come 18 days before voters will decide Alaska’s hotly contested US Senate race. Representatives for Senator Dan Sullivan, the Republican incumbent, and Mary Peltola, the Democratic challenger, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the rule.
The regulation will be published in the Federal Register on Oct 19. It will take effect 30 days after publication.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.