**Interior Department Upholds Protections on 28 Million Acres of Alaska Public Lands**
In a significant move aimed at preserving natural resources and indigenous cultural heritage, the US Interior Department announced on August 27, 2024, that it will retain protections on 28 million acres of D-1 public lands in Alaska. This decision reverses a Trump-era effort to open these lands to oil and gas leasing and mining activities.
The move comes as part of the Biden administration’s initial actions after taking office. The administration paused the Trump-era orders allowing industry use of the land and initiated an extensive environmental review to assess the potential impacts on fish and wildlife habitats, subsistence resources, and Alaska Native communities that rely on these lands for hunting and fishing.
“The previous administration’s hasty action to remove decades-long protections without adequate analysis was unlawful and disregarded the needs of subsistence communities and their resources,” a statement from the Interior Department read. “This sweeping decision would have exposed millions of acres to extractive development, compromising federal subsistence priorities andIgnoring tribal consultation requirements.”
Congress enacted the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971, which authorized the protection of these lands from mineral and oil and gas development. These D-1 lands, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), span across Northwest, Southwest, Southcentral, and Southeast Alaska, encompassing regions such as the Bay, Bering Sea-Western Interior, East Alaska, Kobuk-Seward Peninsula, and Ring of Fire planning areas.
The Interior Department conducted 19 community meetings and received approximately 15,000 public comments on the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The final EIS revealed that lifting the protections would severely harm subsistence hunting and fishing activities, as well as threaten wildlife, vegetation, and permafrost ecosystems.
The Biden administration’s decision received overwhelming support from Alaska Native groups, who emphasized their reliance on these lands for food and cultural practices. For communities off the road system in Alaska, more than