1. United States
2. Miss.
3. Letter

Please push back on Secretary Burgum's January order dismantling hunting restrictions across 55 national park sites. I've hunted, and I respect the tradition — but national parks exist for a different purpose. They preserve intact ecosystems and give every American access to land that still looks the way it did before we got here. Expanding hunting access in these spaces undermines both of those things. The changes already underway are a real problem. Managers have lifted bans on tree-damaging hunting stands and unleashed hunting dogs, and are now allowing vehicles and hunting along trails — putting visitors and wildlife at serious risk. Under proposals tied to this order, hunters at Lake Meredith National Recreation Area in Texas could clean kills in park bathrooms, and alligator hunting could be permitted at Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in Louisiana. Families on a nature walk shouldn't have to stumble into a field-dressing or a gator kill they never signed up for. Former Yellowstone superintendent Dan Wenk and former NPS biological resources chief Elaine Leslie have both said this order bypasses science-based management and skipped any meaningful public process. Block this rollback and require that any changes to national park hunting policy go through proper environmental review and public comment before taking effect.