The National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska (Western Arctic), is our nation’s largest single unit of public land, spanning nearly 23 million acres (roughly the size of Indiana) across Alaska’s North Slope. The Western Arctic has been recognized for globally significant habitat that sustains extraordinary biodiversity, including migratory birds, large caribou herds, the threatened polar bear, walrus, beluga whales and more. The Iñupiat have inhabited this region for thousands of years, and subsistence activities from the lands and waters of the Western Arctic support more than 40 communities today.
Congress charged the Department of Interior to provide “maximum protections” for areas that hold these unique values, through the administration designating “Special Areas.” Today, five unique landscapes – the Teshekpuk Lake, Colville River, Kasegaluk Lagoon, Utukok River Uplands and Peard Bay Special Areas – have some level of protection as designated Special Areas. This new regulation envisions Special Area review once every ten years, where additional geographically specific protections will be considered across the entire landscape.
Advocacy from Alaska Wilderness League and others will help the administration gather necessary feedback for Special Areas for potential action in late 2024 or early 2025 by the Secretary. The strategy is designed to show public interest in expanded Arctic protections through early 2025. As the sponsor and a co-chair of the recently revitalized Arctic Defense Campaign, AWL helped design and lead a strategy that engages a network of national, in-Alaska and constituency led groups that share a vision for stronger Arctic Refuge and Western Arctic land and water protections.
