President Donald Trump signed two executive orders, titled 'Reinvigorating America's Hunting Heritage' and 'Restoring American Saltwater Angling and Recreation', at a White House Rose Garden dinner attended by more than 100 hunters, anglers and outdoor officials, according to The Hill. The hunting order directs Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to expand hunting access on federal lands and to permit hunting within 90 days at California's Castle Mountains National Monument and Idaho's Craters of the Moon National Monument, allows hunting there only for species not protected under 16 U.S.C. 1533 of the Endangered Species Act, and instructs Burgum to encourage states to expand Sunday hunting within a year, The Hill reports. In a separate action reported by Euronews, a memo from Fish and Wildlife Service director Brian Nesvik sent to FWS field offices earlier this week calls for reinterpreting 'take' under the 1973 Endangered Species Act as 'affirmative conduct intentionally directed against a particular animal or animals', which would exclude incidental harm caused by economic activity; the Interior Department confirmed the memo's authenticity to the AFP news agency, according to Euronews.
Trump issues hunting and fishing orders as wildlife agency reinterprets Endangered Species Act 'take' rule
President Donald Trump signed two executive orders, titled 'Reinvigorating America's Hunting Heritage' and 'Restoring American Saltwater Angling and Recreation', at a White House Rose Garden dinner attended by more than 100 hunters, anglers and outdoor officials, according to The Hill. The hunting order directs Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to expand hunting access on federal lands and to permit hunting within 90 days at California's Castle Mountains National Monument and Idaho's Craters of the Moon National Monument, allows hunting there only for species not protected under 16 U.S.C. 1533 of the Endangered Species Act, and instructs Burgum to encourage states to expand Sunday hunting within a year, The Hill reports. In a separate action reported by Euronews, a memo from Fish and Wildlife Service director Brian Nesvik sent to FWS field offices earlier this week calls for reinterpreting 'take' under the 1973 Endangered Species Act as 'affirmative conduct intentionally directed against a particular animal or animals', which would exclude incidental harm caused by economic activity; the Interior Department confirmed the memo's authenticity to the AFP news agency, according to Euronews.
According to The Hill, the hunting order expands on an August order that opened more than 92 million acres across 32 states to hunting, and directs Burgum to reverse what it describes as years of overregulation under previous administrations. The Hill reports that Castle Mountains National Monument protects almost 21,000 acres in the Mojave Desert near Nevada, and that Craters of the Moon lies in south-central Idaho between Boise and Yellowstone National Park and contains a 618-square-mile lava field. Trump wrote in the order that he had determined appropriately managed hunting would not put at risk the historic and scientific objects the monuments protect, according to The Hill.
The Hill reports the hunting order also directs the administration to authorise the use of traditional lead ammunition and tackle within 180 days. Under former President Joe Biden, the US Fish and Wildlife Service expanded a ban in 2023 on lead tackle and ammunition in eight national wildlife refuges, a step The Hill says was intended to safeguard those areas from potential lead poisoning risks. Republican lawmakers and hunters have opposed those restrictions, citing higher costs for alternatives to lead products, according to The Hill. At the Rose Garden event, Trump said he did not understand the lead ammunition issue but that those present had wanted the change and that he was there for them, The Hill reports.
Burgum said in a social media post on the day of the signing that the administration is committed to putting American hunters, fishermen and outdoorsmen first, and that sportsmen are among the country's greatest conservationists who help protect public lands and wildlife, according to The Hill.
Euronews reports that the Fish and Wildlife Service memo is intended to narrow the meaning of 'take' — the term covering pursuit, killing or capture of a species under the 1973 Endangered Species Act — so that incidental harm from economic activity is not covered. The memo cites former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in a 1995 case, giving the examples of a vessel whose course was not set against a whale that it strikes, and of felling a tree that bats are roosting in unless the tree is felled to kill or capture them, according to Euronews. The document was obtained and shared by the Center for Biological Diversity and follows a previous rule change rescinding the regulatory definition of 'harm' under the act, Euronews reports. The Interior Department told AFP that the memorandum accurately reflects Fish and Wildlife Service guidance following that rule and that the prohibition on 'take' continues to bar conduct including harassing, pursuing, hunting, shooting, wounding, killing, trapping, capturing or collecting protected wildlife, according to Euronews.
- The sources do not give the exact date on which the executive orders were signed; The Hill says only that it was a Thursday. Euronews likewise does not date the memo precisely, saying it was distributed earlier this week and publishing its report on 18 September 2026.
- No source establishes whether the hunting and fishing orders and the Endangered Species Act 'take' memo are connected, coordinated or issued as part of the same directive.
- None of the sources quantifies how many species, acres, permits or activities would be affected by the reinterpretation of 'take', or whether the memo will face litigation.
- No source reports comment from Fish and Wildlife Service director Brian Nesvik, who issued the memo, or from the hunting and angling organisations represented at the Rose Garden event, or from state wildlife agencies that would run expanded Sunday hunting.
- Beyond the description of the stated purpose of the 2023 lead rule, the sources contain no independent scientific assessment of the risks of lead ammunition and tackle.
- Two of the four supplied sources address unrelated events - a Supreme Court ruling on mailed ballots (The Guardian) and a dispute over AI regulation policy (Vox) - so no single event is covered by all four sources, and those reports were not drawn on here.
- The Hill — original — by Sarah Davis
- The Guardian US — by George Zornick
- Vox — by Andrew Prokop
- Euronews — by Nathan Rennolds