General Congressional Update
September marked Congress’s final stretch of legislative work before members returned home to campaign ahead of the November midterm elections. The House completed its scheduled legislative business on September 17, while the Senate remained in session into early October. Congress also enacted a short-term continuing resolution that funds the federal government through December 11, 2026, avoiding an immediate shutdown but moving the next major appropriations deadline into the post-election session. Lawmakers continued discussing changes to the federal permitting process, including a new legislative proposal introduced shortly before the recess.
With limited floor time remaining in the 119th Congress, substantial work remains unfinished. Full-year government funding, permitting legislation and numerous public-lands and conservation bills will compete for attention when lawmakers return after the elections.
Executive Order 14429: Reinvigorating America’s Hunting Heritage
On September 17, President Trump signed Executive Order 14429, “Reinvigorating America’s Hunting Heritage,” directing federal agencies to expand hunting and fishing access, strengthen wildlife management and reduce barriers to participation in America’s outdoor traditions. Among its most significant provisions, the order directs federal agencies to generally allow hunting on eligible federal lands unless a closure is justified by local resource conditions. It also calls for improved access through infrastructure, voluntary easements, land exchanges and cooperative agreements; greater use of habitat-management tools to support game populations and wildlife movement; expanded opportunities for youth, veterans and hunters with disabilities; support for school archery and hunter-education programs. Additional provisions address Forest Service river-access lotteries, migratory game-bird seasons, Sunday hunting, wild-game donation programs and the use of qualified volunteers in wildlife and invasive-species management. Most national parks and national monuments remain outside the order’s general hunting-access provisions.
BHA strongly supports Executive Order 14429 and its recognition of hunters and anglers as essential partners in conservation. The order advances several longstanding BHA priorities, including opening up Castle Mountains National Monument for hunting, improving habitat connectivity, promoting active wildlife management, prioritizing hunter recruitment and retention, and improving coordination among federal agencies, states and private landowners. Many provisions require agencies to develop new regulations, policies or guidance, and implementation may involve environmental review, public comment, appropriations, and site-specific decisions. BHA will remain engaged to help ensure the order is carried out in ways that expand responsible hunting and fishing opportunities while conserving wildlife habitat, migration corridors, water quality and the broader public-land resources on which those opportunities depend.
For more detail, read BHA’s Executive Order 14429 explainer.
Forest Service Roadless Rule Rescission
The public comment period on the U.S. Forest Service’s proposal to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule closed on October 6, following a 15-day extension of the original September 21 deadline. Approximately 58.2 million acres of National Forest System land are classified as inventoried roadless areas nationwide. The proposed blanket rescission would remove the 2001 rule’s protections from 44.7 million acres, including approximately 9.3 million acres in the Tongass National Forest. The 44.7-million-acre figure excludes approximately 9.3 million acres in Idaho and 4.2 million acres in Colorado, where separate state-specific roadless rules would remain in effect. The proposal would eliminate nationwide restrictions on road construction, road reconstruction and timber harvest within the affected areas, leaving future management primarily to individual forest plans and site-specific agency decisions. Although rescission would not itself authorize new roads or timber projects, it would remove the national regulatory protections that currently limit those activities.
Throughout September and early October, BHA worked with conservation partners, chapter leaders and members to build opposition to rescission and explain what the proposed change could mean for intact habitat, clean water and high-quality backcountry hunting and fishing. BHA rallied our membership base to send 98,981 messages to the Forest Service and members of Congress opposing the recission of the Roadless rule and supporting a no action alternative.
With the public comment period now closed, the Forest Service must review the comments and address substantive concerns as it completes the environmental review and develops any final rule. BHA will closely examine how the agency evaluates habitat fragmentation, watershed health, wildlife security, public access and the long-term costs of constructing and maintaining additional roads. We will continue advocating for durable roadless protections as the Forest Service moves toward a Final Environmental Impact Statement and final decision.
Forest Service Travel Management Rule
The initial public comment period on the Forest Service’s proposed overhaul of the 2005 Travel Management Rule closed on September 23. The current rule generally requires each national forest to designate the roads, trails and areas open to motor vehicles and to display those decisions on motor vehicle use maps. The new proposal would establish a national policy including a presumption that existing roads, trails, airfields and other access points are open unless an agency decision closes or restricts them. It would also remove the existing national minimization criteria used to reduce motorized-use impacts on soil, water, wildlife habitat and other resources; create new processes for limited off-route motorized use for activities such as game retrieval, firewood collection and dispersed camping; and exempt Class 1 e-bikes from motor-vehicle designation requirements on trails where traditional bicycles are allowed. Existing travel maps would remain in place until revised, meaning the rule would establish a framework for future decisions rather than immediately opening every currently closed route.
BHA supports responsible motorized recreation and recognizes that well-planned roads and trails provide important hunting and fishing access. We are concerned, however, that an “open unless closed” approach, the elimination of national minimization requirements and broader off-route exemptions could undermine decades of work to balance access with habitat conservation, enforceable route systems and quality backcountry experiences. BHA carried those concerns directly to decision-makers during a September fly-in to Washington, D.C., coordinating nearly 30 meetings with congressional offices, administration officials and conservation partners. Chapter leaders met with USDA Under Secretary Michael Boren, members of Congress and their staff, and William Keller of the White House Domestic Policy Council, while also participating in the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation banquet. The Forest Service is expected to publish a proposed rule and Draft Environmental Impact Statement in spring 2027, and the Bureau of Land Management may begin a separate travel-management rulemaking in the coming months. BHA will remain engaged with both agencies.
Arctic Mine Development Project
A public comment period is open for the proposed Arctic Mine Development Project in Alaska’s Ambler Mining District. On September 18, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened public scoping for an Environmental Impact Statement covering a proposed open-pit mine in the southern Brooks Range. The project would process approximately 11,000 short tons of ore per day to produce copper, zinc and lead concentrates, with commercial quantities of gold and silver also expected. Because the development would affect wetlands and other waters of the United States, the project requires authorization from the Corps under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. Scoping comments are being accepted through November 2, 2026.
The mine is closely connected to the proposed Ambler Road, an industrial access corridor intended to connect the mining district with Alaska’s existing highway system. Although the mine and road are proceeding through separate federal reviews, their effects are closely linked. BHA is encouraging hunters, anglers and other public landowners to ask the Corps to analyze impacts to fisheries, wildlife and game populations, wetlands, surface water and groundwater, subsistence resources, habitat connectivity and backcountry recreation. The Corps should also fully consider the cumulative effects of the mine, the Ambler Road and other reasonably foreseeable development across the Brooks Range. Comments submitted during scoping will help determine which issues, alternatives and mitigation measures receive detailed analysis in the EIS.
Speak up and Comment on the Arctic Project through BHA’s Action Alert here: https://takeaction.io/bha/speak-up-for-the-brooks-range-tell-the-army-corps-what-the-arctic-project-could-mean-for-alaska-s-fi/
A River Runs Through It Act
On September 9, Representative Ryan Zinke announced the A River Runs Through It Act, a locally developed Montana public-lands package shaped by more than two decades of collaboration among conservation organizations, sportsmen and women, timber interests, recreation groups and communities in the Blackfoot and Clearwater valleys. The legislation was formally introduced as H.R. 10529 on September 21 and referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources. Covering approximately 430,000 acres, the bill combines the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship and Lincoln Prosperity proposals. It would designate roughly 100,000 acres of new Wilderness, establish six forest-restoration areas covering approximately 180,000 acres, create designated recreation areas, maintain and expand hunting and fishing access, and provide long-term management direction for several Wilderness Study Areas.
BHA strongly supports this locally driven legislation and appreciates Representative Zinke’s leadership in bringing it before Congress, as well as Representative Troy Downing’s engagement and support for the collaborative effort. The bill offers an opportunity to advance forest restoration, conserve important fish and wildlife habitat, reduce wildfire risks near communities and protect a wide range of hunting, fishing and recreational opportunities. BHA has an active action alert encouraging members to contact their representatives and ask them to support the legislation. We will continue working with Montana partners and congressional offices to build support and advance the bill before the conclusion of the 119th Congress.
Help us support the bill through BHA’s Action Alert here: https://takeaction.io/bha/support-a-river-runs-through-it-act/
57