In a win for Alaska wildlands, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland finalized a decision to retain protections for 28 million acres of public lands across the state. These treasured lands support Alaska Native communities, cultural traditions, subsistence resources, commercial fishing, and outdoor recreation and tourism, as well as provide refuge for caribou, moose, bears, all five species of Pacific salmon, migratory birds, and countless other wildlife.
Known as D-1 lands, they have been protected for decades under section 17(d)(1) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) until the Trump administration proposed, but never finalized, sweeping public lands orders that would have opened 28 million acres to extractive industrial development, including mining and oil and gas drilling.
The Biden administration paused the implementation of those orders, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) engaged in an environmental review process to determine the fate of those 28 million acres. In June, BLM issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement analyzing the environmental consequences of the previous administration’s proposal and recommending the “No Action” alternative that would retain current protection for D-1 lands. This week’s decision adopts and implements BLM’s recommendation, which are “necessary to protect the public interest in maintaining important resource values.”
BLM’s decision to maintain protections for 28 million acres of D-1 lands across Alaska is a major victory for Tribes, businesses, communities, and conservation organizations—including NRDC—across Alaska and throughout the United States who have for years relentlessly opposed opening up these public lands to industrial development.
The decision locks in historic public land protections across Alaska. And it preserves vital landscapes.
It is a spectacular win for Alaska wildlands—and the people, wildlife, and economies those lands support.
