In Alaska, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees some of the largest intact landscapes left in the country. From the temperate rainforests of Southeast Alaska to north of Nome, these areas hold cultural and spiritual significance as well as essential subsistence for Alaska Indigenous communities, connect tens of millions of acres of important habitat, provide natural climate refuge for numerous species of wildlife, and provide world class recreational opportunities.
In the 1970s, section 17(d)(1) – or D-1 for short – under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act allowed for about 57 million acres of this land to be set aside and protected from fossil fuel and mining extraction. Those protections came under threat during the Trump administration and, until now, 28 million acres of Alaska’s D-1 Lands have been at high risk of harmful extractive industrial development.
On June 28, 2024, the Bureau of Land Management released a Final Environmental Impact Statement that recommended these 28 million acres of public lands remain protected from extractive industrial development, as they have largely been since the 1970s. On August 27, 2024, Secretary of Interior Haaland announced a final decision to permanently protect this landscape.
This region holds cultural and spiritual significance and is key subsistence food gathering for Alaska’s Native communities. In fact, approximately 80 percent of Alaska Native villages are within 50 miles of these 28 million acres of threatened BLM lands. These intact and well-connected BLM public lands also represent a vital buffer against the impacts of climate change for salmon, caribou and other wildlife.
TCA is grateful to have worked with conservation partners including Native American Rights Fund, SalmonState, Wild Salmon Center, and United Tribes of Bristol Bay, and alongside many of our business members to see this landscape protected. We celebrate with the more than 140 Alaska based tribes who called on the BLM to protect these areas.
