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Will the Federal Government Reverse Course, Retain Protections on Intact Alaskan Landscapes?
The Ray Mountains are among the millions of acres that could soon be open to mining and other industrial activity.
David W. Shaw
This issue brief is part of a series outlining public lands in Alaska that are in danger of losing protection.
Overview
Since 2016, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service have advanced five efforts that would dramatically alter protections for some 60 million acres of federally managed land in Alaska. If fully enacted, the policies and decisions outlined in those proposed and finalized plans would open vast stretches of the Bering Sea-Western Interior, Tongass National Forest, Central Yukon, National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), and unencumbered BLM land to extractive development and have significant impacts on Alaska’s lands, rivers, wildlife, and the Indigenous peoples who cal
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]NCHORAGE – BLM Alaska conveyed 39,995 acres to the State of Alaska in the Goodnews Bay area recently pursuant to the Alaska Statehood Act of 1959. This is the largest single conveyance of land to the state in eight years. “This conveyance is just one of many we anticipate in the near future,” said Ted […]