The Fish and Wildlife Service rule that opened 1,450 hunting and fishing opportunities across 32 refuges and rescinded non-lead requirements at nine of them is still open for comment until October 1. We reported the rule and should have said so at the time. Also open: a Bureau of Land Management notice to amend the Vernal resource management plan for oil and gas leasing, to October 5; a proposed change to the Pacific halibut catch sharing plan, October 5; and a proposal to delist the Gila chub, which closes Thursday. Comment through the docket on the Federal Register listing rather than by email.
National Public Lands Day and National Hunting and Fishing Day both fall on Saturday. Volunteer projects run at parks and forests nationwide for the first; state wildlife agencies run free family events with open ranges and borrowed equipment for the second. The thing to remember, because it catches people every year: Public Lands Day is not on the fee-free list for 2026. Volunteers at participating parks may be handed a fee-waiver coupon, in limited numbers and varying by park. The next actual fee-free date is Theodore Roosevelt's birthday on October 27.
A policy overhaul took effect on January 1 and it has been reported badly enough that it is worth setting out plainly. The America the Beautiful pass now comes in two tiers. The $80 annual pass is the version you already knew, formally designated the resident pass, covering entrance and standard day-use at roughly 2,000 federal sites run by the Park Service, Forest Service, BLM, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps.
The second tier is a $250 non-resident annual pass. Alongside it, eleven parks now charge non-residents a $100 per-person surcharge on entry. The resident pass exempts the holder from that surcharge, which is irrelevant to most American buyers and matters a great deal if you are travelling with someone who is not.
The wording is the part people get wrong, and it cuts in the generous direction: the surcharge applies to non-US residents, not non-US citizens. Permanent residents and green card holders pay the standard fee. If you live here and pay taxes here, your passport is not the question.
Fee-free days changed with it. There are eight this year and, since January, they apply only to citizens and permanent residents; a non-resident visiting on Constitution Day pays the entrance fee and any surcharge as normal. Passes bought before January 1 are honoured on their original terms until they expire.
One operational detail worth knowing before you drive up: Yosemite is now cashless at all entrance stations. Card or mobile payment only.
Constitution Day is one of the fee-free dates on the National Park Service calendar, so entrance fees are waived today. New for 2026, that waiver applies only to US citizens and permanent residents; non-residents pay the regular entrance fee and, at eleven parks, a $100 per-person surcharge on top. It is the last free date until Theodore Roosevelt's birthday on October 27, and National Public Lands Day on September 26 is still not on the list. Camping, tours, timed entry and backcountry permits are all payable as usual. Yosemite is now cashless at its entrance stations.
Correction, 2026-09-17. An earlier version of this brief said parks were free today without qualification. Fee-free days have applied only to US citizens and permanent residents since January 1, 2026. Corrected to add the residency restriction and the non-resident surcharge.
National Public Lands Day falls on Saturday, September 26, the 33rd time it has been held and the largest single-day volunteer effort on American public land. Organisers have stretched the event window to run from September 12 through October 10, and this year's theme is tied to the country's 250th anniversary.
The part worth knowing before you plan a trip: the Park Service's 2026 fee-free calendar does not include it. Eight dates carry free entrance this year, and September 26 is not among them. Volunteers at participating parks may be handed a fee-waiver coupon, but supplies are limited and the policy varies park by park. Call ahead rather than assume.
If a free gate is what you were after, the next one is close. Constitution Day, September 17, is on the list. After that the fee-free dates are Theodore Roosevelt's birthday on October 27 and Veterans Day on November 11.
The scale of the volunteer side is real. Last year more than 55,000 people turned out across some 900 events, work valued at $9.4 million. This year's signature event is a cleanup along the Lower Salt River near Mesa, Arizona.
The date has also become a focal point for a petition campaign against the sale or transfer of federal land, which is asking lawmakers to rule out sell-offs and state transfers while leaving room for small, specific exchanges.
Flash flooding through the Bright Angel and Phantom Ranch area at the end of August killed at least one person and left others unaccounted for. It also badly damaged the sole pipeline carrying water to millions of visitors a year, complicating a multi-year project already underway to replace the line. Check conditions and water availability before any inner-canyon plan this autumn.
The administration is proceeding with plans to rescind the quarter-century-old rule that has blocked road building, logging and other development across large stretches of national forest. Conservation groups and some members of Congress have pushed back, including a request to exempt specific states. If you hunt, ride or hike national forest, this is the rule change to follow.
The Interior Department announced a proposed rule on July 14 that would move day-to-day grizzly management to the four states where the bears live, while leaving them listed as threatened. The department framed it as recognition of recovery rather than a delisting, and the Secretary was explicit that responsibility, not status, is what moves.
The mechanism is a tiered system. How much decision-making and regulatory flexibility a state gets is tied to whether it has adopted conservation strategies and management plans and hit demographic objectives for the bears in its own country. Meet more of them, get more latitude.
This is the latest turn in a legal loop that has run for a decade. Wyoming, Montana and Idaho have petitioned for delisting repeatedly; two previous delistings were reversed in court. A settlement forced a final delisting decision, and that deadline now sits at the end of December.
The question most hunters will ask first is whether this opens a season. It does not, and not soon. The comment period on the rule closes September 15, and the separate delisting decision is still pending.