Biden administration takes bold conservation steps in Alaska

The federal Bureau of Land Management took bold moves for Arctic and Alaska conservation today when it issued a Record of Decision blocking a 211-mile road to the Ambler Mining District, and proposed to restore protections for 28 million acres of land created by Section 17(d)(1) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. 

By selecting the “no action” alternative on the proposal to build a road across the Brooks Range and Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, the agency effectively killed a controversial project that would have given the mining industry access to an area that is far from the state’s existing road system and would have allowed environmentally destructive development and threatened subsistence resources for the region’s remote communities. 

BLM chose to protect 28 million acres of land harboring some of the largest and most intact landscapes remaining in the nation by proposing to restore protections for “D-1 lands” created by Section 17(d)(1) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.  

 In response to today’s news, The Wilderness Society released the following statement from its interim Alaska director, Meda DeWitt:  

“We are grateful that the Biden administration is listening to the concerns of Indigenous peoples and making decisions that are environmentally just. Today’s announcements show that the Biden administration is making bold moves to protect Alaska Native communities and strengthen conservation across a broad swath of our state.”  

Just before President Biden took office in January 2021, there was an attempt to lift protections on those lands, which range from just above Glacier Bay National Park in the Southeast to Bristol Bay in the Southwest and north to the Chukchi Sea. Today’s decisions ensure continued protections from industrial development that would have threatened fish and wildlife, and natural resources on which Indigenous communities depend.   

In a letter to Secretary Haaland from dozens of Tribal governments, called BLM lands the “breadbasket” for thousands of Indigenous Alaskans. D-1 lands contain world-class fisheries and imperiled wildlife. A decision to lift protection for them would have major negative impacts on Alaska Native communities and cultures, not to mention the overall health of the ecosystem. More than half of the federally recognized Tribes in Alaska have formally called on Haaland to retain protections for the full 28 million acres of land.