Is Trump allowing hunting in national parks? We tracked down the facts

In May 2026, social media posts claimed that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump was allowing hunting within the country's national parks.

A popular Facebook post shared by The Other 98% on May 9 claimed that "America's national parks are now open to trophy hunters," adding that "Trump's Interior Secretary Doug Burgum quietly signed an order gutting hunting restrictions across 55 sites in the lower 48 states under National Park Service jurisdiction" in January 2026. The post also included an image of a sign for Yellowstone National Park.

Other posts circulating on Reddit claimed the Trump administration was lifting hunting restrictions for national parks, refuges and wilderness areas. Meanwhile, several Snopes readers searched the website and emailed asking whether the administration had eased restrictions on hunting at national parks.

In sum, the claims combined real policy developments with misleading statements and unverified information. 

The Trump administration is easing hunting restrictions for some sites managed by the National Park Service, but the changes aren't universal. As of this writing, it was unclear which, if any, of the 63 congressionally designated national parks would change their hunting rules. Furthermore, the changes do not apply to many major national parks, such as Yellowstone or Yosemite, which remain protected from hunting by separate federal laws. 

Snopes confirmed that at least nine NPS-managed sites had eased their hunting and fishing rules, based on research from the National Park Conservation Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and strengthening U.S. national parks.

After we shared our findings with the Department of the Interior, the agency confirmed via email that the NPS is easing hunting restrictions for 36 parks among the 433 units it manages, but did not elaborate on the locations. In a follow-up email, we requested a list of the specific parks and await a reply.

Origin of the claims

The rumors stemmed from a May 4, 2026, New York Times report that said an April 21, 2026, memo from Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum ordered the lifting of hunting restrictions across multiple National Park Service "units," or sites, the day the story was published. The report also cited a spreadsheet detailing the changes set to take effect, including permission to wash and process game in restrooms at Lake Meredith National Recreation Area in Texas. 

According to the Times, the memo and spreadsheet resulted from Secretarial Order 3447, which Burgum issued in January 2026. In that order, Burgum tasked the National Park Service with reviewing current hunting restrictions and providing "recommendations for expanding opportunities."

As a page on the NPS website showed (archived), 76 of 433 NPS sites in the U.S., which include some national parks, preserves, wildernesses and and recreation areas, already allow hunting with restrictions designed to protect animal populations, vegetation and visitors' safety. Examples of NPS units where hunting was allowed before the recent changes include Badlands National Park (which permits tribal hunting), Grand Teton National Park (where an elk population reduction program is in place), Lake Clark National Park & Preserve and Ozark National Scenic Riverway. As of this writing, it was unclear whether these specific parks would see even fewer hunting restrictions.

Many major national parks, including Yellowstone and Yosemite, will still prohibit hunting due to separate federal laws requiring an act of Congress to change. While some social media posts suggested otherwise, the New York Times report clarified that Yellowstone and other major national parks wouldn't be subject to the policy change.

Neither the Interior Department nor the NPS confirmed the existence of the April 21 memo and spreadsheet.

NPS and DOI responses

The NPS said in an email to Snopes that Burgum's order "advances a commonsense approach to public land management by expanding access to hunting and fishing opportunities where it can be done safely and responsibly." The agency did not provide further information about the policy changes. 

In a separate email, the DOI, which oversees the NPS, told Snopes that it had eased hunting restrictions across 36 parks. Specifically, the agency said it aimed to eliminate rules that duplicated state and federal requirements, or exceeded necessary protections for public safety and resources: 

The changes affect park-specific hunting requirements that were identified for removal because they duplicated state wildlife regulations, repeated existing federal requirements or imposed restrictions beyond what was necessary to comply with law or for public safety or resource protection. 

In total, 36 parks removed or partially removed a closure or restriction that resulted in 110 total removals. Examples of changes include aligning certain hunting seasons and requirements with state regulations, removing unnecessary administrative requirements, and lifting closures and restrictions that exceeded what was necessary to achieve management objectives.  

In a follow-up email, we requested a list of the specific parks and await a reply.

The DOI confirmed this information after Snopes shared a comparison of archived rules pages on nine NPS units' websites — none of which was among the 63 congressionally delegated national parks — showing they began easing hunting restrictions as early as April 24. 

The NPCA has been carrying out a review of rules at various NPS sites, comparing archived documents from before April 21 to current rules to identify changes. It tracked the changes on an in-progress document, which is available as a PDF below. The document includes all current and archived links so readers can compare for themselves. 

Snopes verified changes at all nine of these sites — though one of them, Oregon Coves National Monument and Preserve, had removed its most recent rules, which were initially published on April 30.

The NPCA's review is an ongoing effort, meaning its document did not yet include all of NPS units' rules as of this writing. 

"We believe around 50 national park sites are impacted by this order and since it doesn't have a public process, it's been up to us (so far) to do the online searching to find changes which could be problematic to how parks and their wildlife are protected," NPCA spokesperson Kati Schmidt told Snopes in an email.

Confirmed changes

On May 4, the NPCA published a post expressing concern about the reported changes, indicating it had confirmed them at two sites:

Jean Lafitte National Historic Site in Louisiana has lifted a ban on alligator hunting and a restriction that says weapons may not be fired from, towards, or across a trail at Curecanti National Recreation Area in Colorado has also disappeared.

When asked whether the NPCA had deepened its review of the regulations, Schmidt provided the following document, which highlights removals in yellow and additions in green:

The document reveals hunting restrictions had been lifted for at least nine NPS sites as of this writing, including Big Cypress National Preserve, Canaveral National Seashore and Cape Cod National Seashore. 

Each current rules page showed the date it had been updated: 

• Obed Wild and Scenic River (archived) lifted hunting restrictions on April 24, three days after the reported memo. 
• The rules (archived) at Curecanti National Recreation Area changed on April 29. 
• Big Cypress' rules "compendium" (archived) shows it was updated on May 1, 2026.
• Canaveral's compendium was updated on May 2 (archived). 
• At Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, restrictions were lifted on May 4.
• Padre Islands National Seashore also updated its rules (archived) on May 4.
• Cape Cod's rules changed on May 5 (archived).
• Gulf Island's National Seashore's new rules (archived) took effect on May 8. 

NPCA also included reported updates at Oregon Caves. However, both the 2025 compendium (archived PDF) and the April 30, 2026, compendium (archived PDF) had been removed from the site as of this writing. This suggested more changes to come. We will update this report if and when we learn more. 

All of these changes eased hunting and fishing restrictions. Key changes included extending hunting seasons, allowing firearm use near trails or developed areas, and lifting bans on hunting stands. Additionally, the use of previously prohibited nets and traps is now allowed in some areas.

For further reading, Snopes confirmed in March 2025 that Trump signed an executive order fast-tracking logging on federal land.

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