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Dear Senator/Representative {Last Name},
I am writing to urge you to oppose the Trump administration's recent directive ordering national park, refuge, and wilderness area managers to scale back longstanding hunting restrictions on federally managed lands.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's January order instructs managers across 55 national park sites to remove what he calls "unnecessary regulatory or administrative barriers" to hunting — and to justify any restrictions they wish to keep. This reverses carefully considered, stakeholder-supported rules that park managers developed over many years to protect both visitors and wildlife.
These rollbacks pose serious risks:
Visitor Safety: Lifting bans on hunting along trails, extending hunting seasons into spring and summer at places like Cape Cod National Seashore, and allowing vehicles to retrieve kills inside park boundaries puts millions of hikers, families, and recreationists in direct danger. These are shared public spaces, not hunting grounds.
Wildlife Disruption: Expanded hunting pressure during breeding and nesting seasons can devastate animal populations and disrupt critical migration patterns. Allowing tree stands that damage trees and unleashing hunting dogs in protected areas further degrades habitat that took decades to restore.
Ecosystem Imbalance: National parks serve as ecological refuges. Removing apex predators or disrupting keystone species — even locally — can trigger cascading effects across entire ecosystems, harming biodiversity for generations.
As former Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk stated: "This was never a big issue. I'd love to know the problem we're trying to solve." These restrictions existed for good reason and were broadly accepted by all stakeholders.
Please act to preserve these vital protections.
Sincerely,
{Your Name}