The public's best opportunity to influence the future of Alaska's public lands is by participating in development of plans by which these lands will be managed for the next 15 to 20 years. The Department of the Interior, which has responsibility for National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges and the national heritage lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, will develop plans for many of these lands in the years ahead. The Wilderness Society and its partners will be part of this process, working to ensure that wilderness quality lands remain wild and that designated wilderness is managed such that its values endure.
Planning Process Begins
Over the next few years, the Department of the Interior will draft plans that will provide the management framework for much of the public land in Alaska. That land encompasses millions of acres of deserving candidates for permanent wilderness protection.
These planning processes afford the public its best and most effective opportunity to help determine the future of public lands. The Wilderness Society will participate actively in the creation of the plans and will keep you apprised of opportunities to help influence their shape.
The Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has begun planning for 20 million acres of public land, including almost 10 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
In 1980, then Interior Secretary James Watt ordered the BLM not to inventory 70 million acres of BLM-managed land in Alaska for its suitability for protection as wilderness and wild and scenic rivers. In 2001, Secretary Bruce Babbitt lifted that directive and freed the agency to review wilderness values on BLM lands in Alaska.
The planning processes now underway provide the first opportunity to evaluate the wilderness potential of these lands.
Alaska's National Parks
The National Park Service has begun developing Backcountry Management Plans for Denali, Gates of the Arctic, Glacier Bay and Wrangell St. Elias National Parks. Together, these great places encompass 21 million acres of designated wilderness and another 9 million acres of potential wilderness.
Among the most important plans is the one pending for Denali National Park. It will tell us much about how this administration will respond to its legal obligations under both the National Park Service Organic Act and the Wilderness Act of 1964, and will tell us, as well, whether it will listen to the voice of the American public.
In the current climate, Alaska conservationists are fearful that the National Park Service will authorize snowmobile use in areas of Denali National Park that have been found suitable for wilderness designation. The agency is likely to claim that snowmobile use will not impair wilderness values in candidate areas and will not impede future wilderness designation. Common sense and a long history of wilderness politics in the Lower 48 make both claims absurd.
National Wildlife Refuges
Alaska's 16 National Wildlife Refuges contain some of the most remote and prized fish, wildlife and wilderness resources in the entire refuge system. The Alaska refuges span 70 million acres; 53 million acres qualify for wilderness designation and over 18 million are already permanently protected as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System.
Over the next four years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expects to revise plans for all 16 Alaska Wildlife Refuges, a process that will set management direction for the refuges. Wilderness reviews are very much a part of that planning process and present a remarkable opportunity to add significantly to the wilderness system.
The service has already begun revising plans (called Comprehensive Conservation Plans) for several units: the Alaska Peninsula-Becharof, Kodiak and Togiak National Wildlife Refuges. Within these three are an estimated 7 million acres of potential wilderness.
Alaska and its People
Mardy Murie's prayer for Alaska was as much for its people as for its places. Many Alaskans are connected to the land through subsistence hunting and fishing. Still more are connected through their recreational activities. Often, the respect for the land that emerges from this unique relationship puts many Alaskans at odds with development.
Alaska belongs to all Americans. That fact was embodied in the title of the landmark law of 1980: The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. Yet those fortunate enough to live in Alaska must play a central role in shaping Alaska's future. Alaskans must be involved in land planning, deciding land uses and advocating for permanent land protection. To maintain an Alaskan way of life, we must invest in protecting the wild Alaska that people love and depend upon.
This is nowhere more true than with Alaska's Native peoples. The Inupiaq, Siberian Yuup'ik, Cup'ik, Athabaskan, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian Alutiiq/Sugpiaq, Unangan/Aleut and Eyak are distinct cultures that have existed in Alaska since time immemorial. The societal and cultural integrity of Alaska's indigenous peoples depends upon the preservation of wild lands to maintain their traditional way of life.
This way of life is more commonly known as subsistence. Native peoples' relationship to the land is older, deeper, richer, closer than anyone's. The land has nurtured their ancestors and nurtures Alaska Natives today. It must continue to do so into the future. If we fail to honor that special relationship, we shall ultimately fail to truly protect wild places in Alaska.
The conservation community in Alaska and the Alaska Native community first worked together in the 1970s to craft a strong measure that would protect our common interests. That measure was ANILCA. Threats to Native subsistence practices are as extreme as threats to Alaska's wildlands. Common interests continue to bring us together to protect the extraordinary place that is Alaska. The Wilderness Society works with Native peoples to ensure a bright, enduring future: When we protect wildness, we protect equally lands that sustain Native subsistence and other cultural and spiritual activities.
For More Information
