Federal Register publication sets a mid-November effective date
The U.S. Interior Department published the rule Friday in the Federal Register, allowing hunters to bait bears with bacon, doughnuts, meat scraps and other human foods typically used to kill the animals at close range. The change takes effect in mid-November and replaces a Biden administration rule issued in 2024 that prohibited the practice.
The federal rule does not list specific foods that hunters may use. It defers to Alaska rules, which allow baiting, and hunters typically use “the cheapest and most effective food, which is high fat and high sugar,” Nicholas Arrivo, managing attorney at Animal Protection Law, said. Hunters typically put food in a steel drum or garbage can, monitor the bait, then set up from a nearby blind to kill the bear at short range, Arrivo said.
In a press release, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the rule was developed in response to demands from Alaska residents. Burgum called it a “commonsense framework and gives Alaskans a stronger voice in decisions affecting the lands, wildlife and traditions they know best.”
Opponents said baiting can make bears more aggressive around humans and alleged the rule change was a political gift to largely right-wing trophy hunters. Environmental groups called the move “indefensible and inexcusable.” Drew Robertson, senior regulatory specialist for Humane World for Animals, said the baiting provision was “cruel and dangerous, not only to wildlife but the public as well.”
Robertson said the practice is “a more extreme practice than the hunting traditions that people think of” and that many hunters “would not see this as a fair chase.” He also said the rule’s political direction shows “a political motivation, not something that seems to be derived from careful consideration.”
The rule has a long policy history. The Obama administration first banned bear baiting, the first Trump administration undid that ban, and litigation upheld the Obama rule while overturning the Trump rule. The Biden administration reimplemented the ban in 2024, largely because scientific findings showed that baiting makes bears more aggressive and can put park visitors’ lives at risk.
The latest reversal came at the direction of Donald Trump through the executive order “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” issued early in his second administration.
The change follows other Alaska and federal decisions since 2023 that have expanded access to controversial hunting practices. Sport hunters have been allowed to shoot bears from helicopters, shoot swimming caribou from motor boats, kill wolf pups in dens and use artificial lights to draw bears from dens before killing them. Critics have described those practices as barbaric and unethical.
Bear baiting is not highly unusual across the United States. About a dozen states allow similar practices, while more do not.
Arrivo disputed the administration’s rationale for giving Alaska more control. He said the lands are federal and Congress created the federal land program to give the federal government decision-making power, not state governments. The rule is “anathema to federal land management goals … of preserving wildlife diversity,” Arrivo said.
No decision has been made on a lawsuit. Arrivo said the Interior Department’s decision to scrap the 2024 rule, which underwent a more robust scientific process, “doesn’t smell right and raises questions about the legality of this rule.” The new rule remains scheduled to take effect in mid-November.