Enormous Win for Alaska Native Communities – Statewide Federal Protections Finalized

By Hal Shepherd

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.

~ Deb Haaland, Department of Interior Secretary

On Tuesday, August 27, the Secretary of the Interior issued a Record of Decision protecting 28 million acres of public lands in Alaska, saving them from extractive industrial development. In 1971, to allow the Secretary of the Interior time to determine whether these protections should remain in place in the public interest, Congress authorized all unreserved lands in Alaska to be withdrawn from mineral entry and oil and gas development under Section 17(D)(1) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

However, 50 million acres of BLM-managed D-1 lands remained vulnerable to the swipe of a pen. Alaskans came so close to losing these important protections when, at the last minute before exiting the White House, the Trump Administration moved to open 28 million acres of these lands to industrial development. That decision ignored people, tribes, and communities around Alaska who rely on these lands for subsistence and recreational purposes. 

Over the last several years, the BLM has undergone an extensive environmental review process and provided input on how the lands under review (including the Bay (encompassing Southwestern Alaska), Bering Sea-Western Interior, Eastern Alaska, Kobuk-Seward Peninsula, and the Ring of Fire planning areas) are of critical importance to the way of life for Alaska Native communities on the Seward Peninsula. These lands support vast, intact fish and wildlife habitat that support our communities, feed our families, and protect Alaska’s cultural and ancestral heritage.  In addition, intact lands within the planning areas will undoubtedly help buffer these critical subsistence resources from the dramatic effects of climate change now and for future generations.

The most recent Record of Decision adopted and implemented the BLM’s preferred “No Action” alternative in the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which analyzed the environmental consequences of the previous Administration’s decision. The analysis found that revoking the protections would likely harm subsistence hunting for an estimated 44 to 117 Alaska Native communities and that these communities would lose federal subsistence priority over certain lands. The EIS also found that lifting all or even some withdrawals could negatively impact wildlife, vegetation, and permafrost.

According to Emily Murray, Vice President of the Norton Bay Watershed Council:

“BLM has recognized potential D-1 withdrawal lands that possess and serve as culturally significant subsistence and sacred areas for tribes who live on or near these areas. These vital tributaries and ecosystems provide habitat and protection for moose, salmon and migratory birds our subsistence economy depends on. As tribes seeking grants for necessary infrastructure, we are listed as ‘economically disadvantaged’ because we highly depend on our subsistence activities for the health and wellbeing of our tribe as a whole.”

More than half of Alaska’s 227 federally recognized Tribal governments, more than 120 businesses, and 145,000 Alaskans and Americans support the decision. 

According to a BLM press release the final decision “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.”

According to Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. “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.”

Thanks to the Alaska Native communities and others for their outpouring of support this year and for standing up for these places and the values we cherish in our public lands.