Sponsors (6)
Redesignates the Apostle Islands lakeshore as Apostle Islands National Park and Preserve, splits it into Park and Preserve, preserves tribal rights, and directs Interior to manage the unit under Title 54 with boundaries set by an official map.
The bill strengthens federal protection and public education while explicitly preserving tribal hunting, fishing, and gathering rights, but that protection may impose new limits on recreational uses and raise federal costs and administrative burdens.
Indigenous and subsistence users retain treaty and statutory rights to hunt, fish, and gather in the Park and Preserve, and existing Preserve hunting/trapping rules are preserved, maintaining access and livelihoods.
Residents, visitors, and rural communities benefit from the area’s redesignation as a unified National Park System unit, which brings stronger federal protection and likely more resources for natural and cultural resource conservation.
Visitors, students, and local communities gain improved public education about regional history and Ojibwe tribes through required interpretive signage and Act copies at visitor centers.
Recreational hunters and local recreationists may face new or tighter restrictions on hunting and trapping in lands newly designated as National Park, limiting some traditional uses.
Taxpayers could see higher federal management costs or shifted National Park Service priorities to support the new Park unit, increasing public expenditures.
Local, state, and federal agencies will need to update planning documents and regulatory references to reflect the new status, creating administrative work and short-term costs.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Official title: To provide for the designation of Apostle Islands National Park and Preserve, and for other purposes.
Introduced September 18, 2025 by Thomas P. TIFFANY · Last progress September 18, 2025
Redesignates the existing Apostle Islands National Lakeshore as the Apostle Islands National Park and Preserve, splitting the area into a National Park and a National Preserve with boundaries shown on an official map. It directs the Interior Department to administer the two pieces as a single National Park System unit, preserves treaty and statutory tribal rights (including hunting, trapping, fishing, and gathering), maintains hunting/trapping rules in the Preserve as they existed immediately before enactment, prohibits hunting and trapping in the Park except as allowed by tribal authorities, and requires visitor signage and public availability of the official map.