Following an extensive public process, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland today finalized the decision to retain protections for 28 million acres of public lands across Alaska, which many Alaska Native Tribes, Native Corporations and Tribal entities have noted are vital to protecting important natural, cultural and subsistence resources. Today's action comes in response to the previous Administration's unlawful decision in its final days to end the longstanding protections (known as withdrawals) without sufficient analysis of the potential impacts of such a decision on subsistence and other important resources, appropriate Tribal consultation, and without compliance with other legal requirements. This sweeping action would have opened millions of acres of public lands to extractive development activities, such as mining and oil and gas drilling, and removed the federal subsistence priority from millions of acres.
The previous Administration's decision was put on hold to ensure full consideration of the potential impacts and allow for engagement with the public and Alaska Native communities. The robust public process gathered input from Alaska Native Tribes and Native Corporations, rural and urban communities, and the public, including 19 community meetings. During the public comment period, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) heard overwhelming support for retaining the withdrawals. In total, the BLM received approximately 15,000 public comments on the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
"Tribal consultation must be treated as a requirement - not an option - when the federal government is making decisions that could irrevocably affect Tribal communities. I am grateful to the team at the Bureau of Land Management for taking the time to ensure that we approached this decision with the benefit of feedback from Alaska Native communities, and to the Tribal leaders who shared with us the impact that a potential revocation of the withdrawals would have on their people," said Secretary Deb Haaland. "Continuing these essential protections, which have been in place for decades, will ensure continued access and use of these public lands now and in the future."
Today's announcement builds on the Biden-Harris administration's actions to conserve millions of acres of lands and waters in Alaska, including implementing maximum protections for more than 13 million acres of Special Areas in the western Arctic, protecting approximately 2.8 million acres of the Beaufort Sea to place the entire United States Arctic Ocean off limits to new oil and gas leasing, and preventing irrevocable harms to Tribal subsistence uses and permafrost at the base of the iconic Brooks Range by rejecting the Ambler Road proposal.
The Record of Decision and associated Public Land Order adopt and implement the BLM's preferred "No Action" alternative in the final EIS, which analyzed the environmental consequences of the previous Administration's decision. The BLM analyzed a set of alternatives ranging from partial to full revocation. The BLM's analysis found that revoking any of the protections would likely harm subsistence hunting and fishing in communities that would lose federal subsistence priority over certain lands, ranging from 44 to 117 communities, depending on the alternative. The analysis also found that lifting all or even some of the withdrawals could have lasting negative impacts on wildlife, vegetation and permafrost.
These withdrawals, established pursuant to Section 17(d)(1) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), stretch across BLM's Bay, Bering Sea-Western Interior, East Alaska, Kobuk-Seward Peninsula and Ring of Fire planning areas.
Today's decision does not impact acres already available for selection by eligible individuals under the Alaska Native Vietnam-era Veterans Land Allotment Program. Secretary Haaland has made these lands available to the approximately 1,900 Alaska Native Vietnam-era Veterans eligible to select their 160-acre land entitlement under the Dingell Act.
The Public Land Order will be published in the Federal Register later this week.
