www.AKRDC.org 27 VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 3 | FALL 2024 There’s a history to those 28 million acres held in limbo, and possibly aimed for preservation, by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. These are the “d-1” lands, a relic of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, or s, that were withdrawn under Public Land Orders that were temporary at the time but now, over 50 years later, never released. But this was just part of a series of major Alaska land actions that began with statehood in 1959. Before Alaska became a state the bulk of its 365 million acres, except for the Tongass and Chugach National Forests and Denali National Park created by Congress, were federally-owned “public domain” lands administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. These were open to mining claims and homesteading. It was when Congress awarded Alaska 102 million acres in 1959 as its statehood land entitlement that a great Alaska land game began. It continued through 1971 when 45 million acres were returned to Alaska Natives in ANCSA and to 1980 with enactment by Congress of the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands and Conservation Act, which put over 100 million acres of Alaska lands into protected status. In the carving up of Alaska’s lands one could argue Alaska Natives came up short with 45 million acres. National conservation groups, which played a long-range strategy when they saw ANCSA moving through Congress in 1970, achieved putting 100 million acres into new Alaska national parks, wildlife refuges and national forests. The state has meanwhile achieved most of its 102 million-acre land entitlement with about 5 million acres left to select. When ANILCA passed in 1980 Denali National Park was greatly enlarged to six million acres and the 19.2 million-acre Alaska National Wildlife Refuge was created, with big parts of both of conservation land units put into congressionally-designated wilderness, the most restricted form of land protection under U.S. law. Large new national parks were created like 7.5-million-acre Gates of the Arctic in the Brooks Range and the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, at 13.2 million acres, in eastern Alaska, with many of these lands designated as wilderness. There were big unresolved issues left in the wake of these actions. The unresolved 28 million acres of “d-1” lands is one of them. Another is the status of 1.5 million acres in ANWR’s coastal plain left open for its oil and gas potential by Congress in 1980, under Section 1002 of ANILCA, is still controversial. In 2019, under President Donald Trump, the 1002 area was opened to leasing for exploration. In 2020, after he took office, President Joe Biden effectively closed the area, cancelling leases that had been sold. National conservation groups, continuing their long-game strategy, are pushing to have the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain designated as wilderness along with much of the rest of ANWR. Many of these actions violate the spirit of compromise Alaska negotiated in 1980 with national conservation groups. This includes the “no more” clause of ANILCA, which promised no more Alaska lands being put into wilderness. Another example is the federal government ignoring a provision of ANILCA on the promise that a road corridor across a part of the Gates of the Arctic park will be made available for access to state-owned lands in the Ambler Mining District in northwest Alaska. The Department of the Interior denied the state permission to build the road through the corridor. It is needed to reach areas where mining companies are exploring. The state has filed a lawsuit over the denial. But there is also de facto new wilderness created by federal administrative land actions, such as new rules in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska allowing expanded protected areas, which the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is now pursuing. — Tim Bradner STATEHOOD TO ANCSA AND ANILCA: LONG HISTORY TO ALASKA LAND ACTIONS
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