Inaction by the Biden administration on rules that would prevent bear baiting in national preserves in Alaska has reopened litigation over those rules.
At issue are rules that would allow hunters on national preservers to use donuts and grease-soaked bread loaves to lure in bears, to kill bear cubs and wolf pups in their dens, and to hunt caribou from motorboats. While the Obama administration reversed those rules, the Trump administration reinstated them. Under President Biden, the National Park Service again began work to revise the regulations to ban those practices, but it’s been more than a year since those rules were proposed and nothing has been done. While environmental groups went to court to overturn the Trump rules, that litigation was stayed while the Biden administration was working to once again reverse the regulations.
That stay expired in May, clearing the way for the litigation to resume next month. That is not a good thing, according to Jeff Ruch, Pacific director for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
