Explaining the Department of the Interior’s Proposed Deregulations

On May 26th the Department of the Interior announced its intention to expand access to large swaths of public land for hunting in what it calls “the largest expansion of hunting and sportfishing opportunities in the history of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

The plan claims to open up over 1,450 new opportunities, including 111 wildlife refuges and fish hatcheries, on 92 million acres of public land. This comes as a part of President Trump’s January 2025 executive order Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation and implements Secretary Burgum’s January 2026 order directing the Interior Department to remove unnecessary barriers to hunting and fishing access. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum had this to say:

“For too long, access to hunting and fishing on federal lands has been limited by unnecessary restrictions and disconnected federal rules. Under President Donald J. Trump’s leadership, we are opening more land, aligning with state expertise, and putting decision-making back where it belongs. This is about commonsense access, supporting rural economies, and ensuring the next generation can experience the outdoors the same way so many of us did growing up.”

The proposed changes earned the praise of several conservation groups and outdoor publications including Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Meat Eater, and Outdoor Life. In a statement to Independent Institute, Luke Hilgemann, CEO of the hunting and conservation foundation the International Order of T. Roosevelt added:

“The International Order of T. Roosevelt strongly supports the Department of the Interior’s proposed rules to dramatically expand hunting and fishing access on America’s public lands. As we continue to fight for the constitutional rights to fish and hunt in states across the country, this represents the largest expansion of such opportunities in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Servicehistory—opening or expanding  more than 1,450 opportunities across 111 stations in 32 states and making over 92 million acres available—while directly advancing Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy of conservation through responsible use and upholding the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. The proposal also simplifies more than 500 outdated regulations and better aligns federal requirements with state wildlife management, cutting unnecessary bureaucracy for hunters and anglers. These common-sense changes will increase public access to the outdoors, support rural economies, and strengthen science-based conservation for future generations. We commend the Department for this leadership and urge all who value America’s hunting heritage to support these rules.”

Indeed, this policy change is massive in scale, and will affect thousands of outdoorsmen and women across the country, but not necessarily in terms of acreage open to hunting. 91 million of the 92 million acres of National Wildlife Refuge System land is already open to hunting in some form. Without scrutiny, readers could draw the conclusion that the Interior Department is opening up federal land the size of Montana to hunting and fishing for the first time, but in real numbers, there will likely be closer to several hundred thousand acres of new land made available to sportsmen. Many new opportunities stem from the lifting of unnecessary regulations on land already open to hunting and fishing. For instance, on Minnesota’s Mississippi River National River and Recreation Area, a ban on tree stands will be lifted, while hunting deer from the ground was already legal. Some areas will see bans lifted on hunting certain species, or taking part in certain activities. For instance, the longtime ban on alligator hunting will be lifted in Louisiana’s Jean Lafitte National Historical Park.

Some members of outdoor media have downplayed the changes as the Trump administration throwing red meat to the base, as the majority of hunters are right-wing, but that misses the most consequential part of Secretary Burgum’s plan. For decades, federal agencies operated under the assumption that hunting and fishing opportunities require special permission. Burgum’s Secretarial Order 3447 flips this presumption. Instead of federal land being “closed unless opened,” under the new framework, lands managed by the Interior Department are presumed open to hunting and fishing unless there is a documented legal, safety, or conservation-related reason to restrict access.

Hunters and anglers have long occupied a unique place in the American conservation tradition. Through license fees, tags, duck stamps and excise taxes on guns, ammunition, and archery equipment under the 1937 Pittman-Robertson Act, sportsmen and women have funded billions of dollars in habitat restoration and wildlife management. The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation became the global gold standard for wildlife management because it combines sustainable use with public ownership. In President Theodore Roosevelt’s day, many species of American game animals were on the brink of extinction, but he understood that conservation was not meant to lock Americans out of the land that they paid to preserve. The Department of the Interior’s plan marks a move towards Roosevelt’s vision of cooperation between outdoorsmen and the state, far outweighing what may turn out to be small or incremental increases in access.

Public comments are open until June 26th. You can make your thoughts known to the Interior Department here.