The National Park Service has four months to develop ideas for how to increase elk hunting in Grand Teton National Park following a directive from U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. A Jan. 7 secretarial order requires federal land managers to come up with recommendations for increasing hunting and fishing opportunities on public lands managed by the U.S. Department of Interior.  Typically, the Park Service doesn’t allow hunting — the agency’s founding legislation, the 1916 Organic Act, generally prohibits it. But there are dozens of parks where Congress made an exception, and Grand Teton National Park is one of them.  Teton Park spokeswoman Emily Davis referred WyoFile to the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. for questions. The 310,000-acre park is still awaiting specific guidance regarding Burgum’s order, she said.  U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum speaks in June 2025 at the Western Governors’ Association conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. (Ellen Jaskol) But the secretarial directive makes it clear that Teton Park has until May 8 to provide recommendations for “expanding opportunities” related to hunting authorized by Congress. Additionally, park staff must review regulations to “identify restrictions on hunting or fishing” that exceed their authorities and then identify “appropriate” modifications.  In Grand Teton, elk hunting is the only type of hunting authorized by Congress. Language in the park’s enabling legislation calls for a “controlled and managed reduction” of elk by “qualified and experienced hunters” who are considered “deputized rangers.” Partly because of the setting — it takes place near roads and sometimes in view of tourists — the annual park hunt has proven controversial at times, even triggering litigation.  The Park Service sets hunting seasons and quotas for Grand Teton’s annual fall hunt, dubbed a “reduction program,” in consultation with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.  Portions of Grand Teton National Park open to elk hunting are outlined in this map. (National Park Service) Because the Jackson Elk Herd has hovered slightly below its 11,000-animal objective and long-distance migrating elk pass through Teton Park, hunting there has been scaled back significantly. Although hundreds of licenses were once available for the hunt, tag numbers have fallen to 20 in the park, classified as hunt area 75 by Wyoming.  Wildlife disease experts predict the Jackson Herd will shrink considerably in the years and decades to come because of the effects of chronic wasting disease. A planning process is underway to alter the historic practice of elk feeding and avert the worst consequences of the always-fatal disease.  A Grand Teton National Park elk hunter treads through the timber on Blacktail Butte in 2018. (Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile) Those factors may make it difficult for federal and state wildlife managers to achieve Burgum’s vision and ramp up elk hunting opportunities in Teton Park.  “The Wyoming Game and Fish Department objective for the Jackson Elk Herd is 11,000, and it’s been below that for the last three years,” Wyoming Wildlife Advocates Executive Director Kristin Combs told WyoFile. “It seems like Game and Fish would not want to increase hunting within Grand Teton National Park.”  The Wyoming Game and Fish Department declined an interview for this story.  Grand Teton isn’t the only park that may run into difficulties, National Parks Conservation Association lobbyist Kristen Brengel said. There are nearly 70 Park Service units where hunting is permitted, including the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway, where hunting seasons are broader and mirror those set by Game and Fish. But the Congressional language authorizing park-specific hunts is oftentimes quite restrictive, she said.  “You can’t abandon the Organic Act to hunt,” Brengel said. “That’s why I think this is going to be a fruitless exercise.”  Brengel also questioned the wisdom of adding duties — in this case, requiring a planning process — for national parks that have been steadily shedding staff. The Park Service has lost a quarter of its staff since the second Trump administration began, she said, and as of October, Grand Teton’s full-time, year-round workforce had dwindled by 20%.  “If Doug Burgum wants more of something, he should focus on more staff,” Brengel said. “You’re not going to get any of these things that he wants done with the amount of staff he has now at the Park Service.”  Although Park Service advocates have not met Burgum’s directive favorably, the reception has been warmer in other circles. The order applies to all Interior Department agencies, including those where hunting is more commonplace, such as the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Thousands of elk hoofprints dot a snowy slope in November 2022 on the National Elk Refuge. The herds often pass through Grand Teton National Park on their way to their wintering grounds. (Angus M. Thuermer, Jr./WyoFile) Greg Sheehan, president and CEO of the Mule Deer Foundation, called the directive “one of the most important conservation and access actions taken in decades.”  “Secretary Burgum is reaffirming that hunting and fishing are not fringe activities on public lands,” Sheehan said in a statement. “They are foundational to how wildlife is conserved, funded, and managed in America.” In a Congressional hearing Tuesday, Wyoming resident and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik cited Burgum’s order as an example of the good he believes the Trump administration is doing for public lands.  “I don’t believe that anybody should be worried about what this administration is doing with public lands,” Nesvik said.  The post Trump administration wants to boost hunting in Grand Teton National Park appeared first on WyoFile . ...read more read less