Trump signs orders expanding hunting and fishing access, rolling back Biden-era endangered species protections

President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on September 17, 2026, expanding hunting and fishing access on federal lands and reversing a Biden-era ban on lead ammunition and tackle. Concurrently, the administration issued a directive reinterpreting the Endangered Species Act to exclude incidental harm from being prosecuted as illegal "take." These actions have drawn praise from outdoor industry groups but face intense legal challenges from environmentalists, 20 states, and bipartisan coalitions in Congress.

Trump hunting fishing orders

• ▪The "Restoring American Salt Water and Angling Recreation" order, signed by President Trump on September 17, 2026, directs federal agencies to modernize data collection from sport fishermen, expand fishing seasons and quotas, and develop plans to convert decommissioned offshore oil and gas platforms into artificial reefs
• ▪President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on September 17, 2026, titled "Restoring American Salt Water and Angling Recreation" and "Reinvigorating America’s Hunting Heritage," aimed at expanding hunting and fishing access.
• ▪President Donald Trump hosted a dinner for over 100 hunters, anglers, and outdoor industry executives in the White House Rose Garden on September 17, 2026, to announce the Restoring American Saltwater and Angling Recreation and Reinvigorating America’s Hunting Heritage executive orders

Federal land access expansion

• ▪The Trump administration, through the executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on September 17, 2026, proposed expanding public land access by unlocking landlocked parcels through voluntary access easements, land exchanges, and cooperative agreements, targeting western states with significant checkerboard land ownership
• ▪According to a 2019 analysis by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, more than 6.35 million acres of state lands across 11 western U.S. states were landlocked by private lands, with Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming each having over 1 million landlocked acres.
• ▪The executive order signed by President Donald Trump on September 17, 2026, directs Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to allow hunting within California's Castle Mountains National Monument and Idaho's Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve within 90 days.

Lead ammunition ban reversal

• ▪Under President Joe Biden, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service restricted lead ammunition and tackle at eight national wildlife refuges across Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Maine to protect wildlife from lead poisoning.
• ▪The National Rifle Association and firearms industry representatives opposed the Biden-era lead ban, arguing it made hunting more expensive and difficult by forcing the use of costlier, less effective alternatives.
• ▪President Donald Trump's executive order signed on September 17, 2026, rolled back Biden-era regulations that prohibited the use of traditional lead ammunition and fishing tackle on certain federal lands and national wildlife refuges.

Endangered Species Act rollbacks

• ▪The Center for Biological Diversity criticized the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service memorandum, with government affairs director Brett Hartl stating that the policy change effectively approves the killing of protected wildlife and stabs at the heart of the Endangered Species Act.
• ▪A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service memorandum issued by director Brian Nesvik in September 2026 directed field offices to redefine "take" under the Endangered Species Act to exclude incidental or unintentional harm caused by economic activities.

Congressional legal challenges

• ▪Democratic Senators Adam Schiff and Sheldon Whitehouse introduced a joint resolution in August 2026 to force a simple majority vote in Congress to nullify the Trump administration's repeal of the Endangered Species Act's "harm" definition.
• ▪Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick and Democratic Representative Mike Quigley introduced the bipartisan Safeguarding Endangered Species Act bill in the House of Representatives to block the administration's regulatory rollback.

Wildlife habitat protection changes

• ▪In July 2026, the Trump administration repealed a 50-year-old regulatory definition of "harm" under the Endangered Species Act, which previously defined illegal harm to include habitat degradation that kills or injures wildlife by disrupting breeding, feeding, or sheltering.
• ▪A coalition of 20 states, Washington, D.C., and environmental groups filed legal challenges against the Trump administration's July 2026 repeal of the Endangered Species Act habitat protection rule.

Debatable claims

• ▪The U.S. should allow hunting in national monuments
• ▪The U.S. should ban lead ammunition and fishing tackle on federal lands
• ▪The U.S. should restore Endangered Species Act protections against habitat degradation