News
Mission:
To protect and promote the natural, recreational and historic resources of Voyageurs National Park.
Policy Could Affect Voyageurs National Park
Proposed changes in legislation now in the Senate may allow loaded guns within national parks. Senator Norm Coleman was one of 51 Senators who signed a letter sent to Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, that called for a review of the 25-year-old regulation that currently requires guns in national parks to be unloaded or stored away.
If amended, there are some possible effects to Voyageurs National Park. Ensuring visitor safety in the Park could require more law enforcement Rangers during a time of staff shortages due to chronic budget shortfalls. Proposed changes in gun regulations would also make it more difficult for Park Rangers to enforce laws that protect Park wildlife from poaching. Within the Park’s borders there are 52 private properties on which hunting is legal. Unmarked boundaries already complicate the ability to distinguish legal hunting from poaching on protected lands.
For more information on the proposed legislation, listen to this National Public Radio broadcast from March 18, 2008.