Sponsors (5)
The bill reduces bear habituation and improves public safety on federal lands by banning intentional baiting/feeding, but it restricts some hunting practices and shifts regulatory and management burdens (and potential nuisance impacts) onto agencies and nearby nonfederal communities.
People recreating on federal public lands (and nearby communities) will face fewer dangerous bear encounters because the bill bans intentional feeding and baiting that habituate bears.
Visitors, property owners, and rural communities may experience reduced property and livestock damage as habituated bears become less common.
Hunters and other land users will have clearer, more consistent federal rules across BLM and Forest Service lands, reducing confusion about where baiting is allowed.
Hunters in areas where state law currently permits baiting will lose a common hunting method, altering local hunting traditions and harvest strategies.
Stricter federal bans on baiting could shift bear-management conflicts onto adjacent nonfederal lands, raising nuisance occurrences and local management costs for nearby communities and private landowners.
BLM and Forest Service must finalize new implementing regulations within one year, creating administrative and compliance costs for agencies and staff time for rulemaking.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Directs Interior and Agriculture agencies to prohibit intentional feeding of black bears on Federal public lands and requires BLM and Forest Service to finalize rules within one year.
Official title: To require the adoption and enforcement of regulations to prohibit the intentional feeding of bears on Federal public lands in order to end the hunting practice known as "bear baiting" and reduce the number of dangerous interactions between people and bears.
Introduced July 15, 2025 by Shri Thanedar · Last progress July 15, 2025
Prohibits deliberately feeding black bears on Federal public lands and directs Department of the Interior and Department of Agriculture agencies to enforce and expand existing prohibitions across National Park, Fish & Wildlife, Bureau of Land Management, and National Forest lands. Limited exceptions are allowed for animal welfare, public safety, or authorized research, and the BLM and Forest Service must issue final regulations within one year of enactment.