In a final environmental impact statement released Friday, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management outlined several options for managing 28 million acres of public property across Alaska. The “preferred alternative” calls for retaining protections for these lands that the Trump administration had proposed revoking.
In a separate announcement Friday, the Bureau of Land Management finalized its decision to block a controversial road in northern Alaska. Although Ambler Road would be crucial to operating a planned copper and zinc mine, the agency determined that its construction would cause irreparable harm to Alaska Native communities and the alreadydeclining Western Arctic caribou herd.
“Today, my Administration is stopping a 211-mile road from carving up a pristine area that Alaska Native communities rely on, in addition to steps we are taking to maintain protections on 28 million acres in Alaska from mining and drilling,” Biden said in a statement. “These natural wonders demand our protection.”
The 28 million acres under consideration stretch across five regions in Alaska, including the Bristol Bay watershed, one of the world’s biggest salmon spawning grounds. They also provide critical habitat for brown bears, caribou, muskox and hundreds of migratory bird species.
The fate of these areas has fostered a fierce debate for more than a half-century. In 1971, Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which directed Interior to transfer millions of acres of land to Alaska Native corporations and villages. But Section 17(d)(1) of the law allowed Interior to decide whether to permanently protect some other areas, commonly known as D1 lands.
In the final days of the Trump administration, then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, a former oil and gas lobbyist, proposed scrapping the protections for 28 million acres of D1 lands. But Trump officials did not finalize the proposal before leaving office, prompting Biden officials to pause its implementation while studying its environmental impacts.
In the analysis released Friday, BLM found that revoking some or all of the protections would probably harm hunting, fishing and other subsistence activities in 44 to 117 Alaska Native communities. It also found that lifting the protections could have lasting negative effects on wildlife, vegetation and permafrost.
The analysis is not a final decision. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland plans to issue a final decision based on the findings in the coming weeks, the agency said in a news release.
If former president Donald Trump wins a second term, his administration would probably propose nixing the protections yet again. Doing so, however, could inspire a lengthy legal battle with environmental advocates and some tribes.
At least 183 Alaska Native villages are within 50 miles of D1 lands. Many of these villages had urged the Biden administration to retain the protections, saying these areas are essential to their cultures and subsistence lifestyles.
“D1 lands in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region are vital to our people’s way of life — these protections ensure future generations will be able to live safely with and on the land, carrying our customary and traditional knowledge,” said Anaan’arar Sophie Swope, executive director of the Mother Kuskokwim Tribal coalition, a group supporting tribes in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region.
Millions of acres of D1 lands in southwestern Alaska surround a controversial mining project. If completed, the Donlin Gold Project would be one of the world’s largest open-pit gold mines, producing an estimated 1 million ounces of gold a year.
Alaska politicians in both parties have voiced strong support for the planned mine, saying it could provide hundreds of jobs and economic development in one of the poorest parts of the state. But environmental groups and some tribes have fought the project, saying its construction could destroy habitat for wild salmon in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
“We can eat a lot of salmon, but we can’t eat gold,” said Eugene Paul, chairman of the Bering Sea-Interior Tribal…
Read More: U.S. moves to protect 28 million acres in Alaska from drilling, mining