As Biden administration considers future uses for vast Alaska lands, subsistence hunting and mining could be at stake

Nearly 80 Alaska tribes are calling on the Biden administration to retain decades-old protections for 28 million acres of land scattered across large swaths of Alaska.

The administration is conducting an environmental review to weigh the impacts of potentially opening some or all of the land to future uses that include mining.

The protections were created in the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, putting the lands off-limits to uses such as mineral, oil and gas extraction.

The lands include vast swaths overseen by the Bureau of Land Management in Western Alaska, such as the Western Interior, Seward Peninsula and Bristol Bay regions, as well as in Southcentral Alaska and in eastern Alaska.

Some of Alaska’s elected leaders support opening the land, including Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan. Doyon, an Alaska Native corporation and the state’s largest landowner, also supports opening the land.

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The tribes sent a letter last month urging Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to keep the protections in place, according to a prepared statement from the Bering Sea Interior Tribal Commission, which represents 38 of the tribes from Western Alaska and the Interior.

The tribes say the land should remain free of development to protect the caribou, salmon and other wildlife they depend on for food, according to their letter. They say climate change is raising new uncertainties about the health of the animals.

“In this rapidly changing environment with so many future unknowns, it is in the public interest to adopt a precautionary action and prioritize the protection of the natural environment that supports our Peoples’ subsistence resources over the industrial exploitation of intact lands and pristine waters,” the letter says.

Frank Katchatag, vice chair of the Bering Sea Interior Tribal Commission, said in an interview that people are worried that opening the lands will lead to new mining efforts, creating new pressures that could hurt subsistence stocks.

“This is basically the last protection for our cultural and traditional way of living,” said Katchatag, also president of the tribal government in the Western Alaska village of Unalakleet.

“We have surrounding river systems that are experiencing salmon crashes, and climate change with permafrost melting is happening at the same time,” he said. “We also harvest moose, and we used to harvest caribou, but they have declined quite drastically.”

Along with the tribes, conservation groups including SalmonState have called for keeping the protections in place, according to comments made as part of the environmental review.

The administration of former President Donald Trump took steps to open the lands in the administration’s final days. The public land orders in many cases came several years after the BLM had recommended lifting the restrictions.

Soon after, the Biden administration put those Trump-era efforts on hold, determining that the process that led to those plans was legally flawed. Last year, the BLM launched a new environmental review to determine the best uses of the lands.

The state of Alaska and the Alaska Miners Association have called for the lands to be opened in comments made as part of the environmental review.

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Murkowski and Sullivan introduced legislation early this year to open the land. They say the bill would return the land to “multiple use status,” allowing for selections to be made by entities that include the state and Alaska Native corporations, they said.

Doyon, an Alaska Native corporation, has also expressed concerns that the BLM environmental review is delaying the Trump-era public land orders, according to comments made as part of the review.

“It is incredibly frustrating when we engage in years-long land management planning processes only to have the decisions and recommendations made through those processes revisited with every change in power,” said Sarah Obed, senior vice president of external affairs for Doyon. “Fifty years after the passage of ANCSA, Doyon seeks to have the conveyances of our lands finalized.”

Sophie Swope, director of the Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition in the Bethel region, said the group is concerned that opening the lands would allow an expansion of mining opportunities around the Donlin Gold mine prospect near the middle Kuskokwim River. The group represents five tribes.

Alaska Native corporation Calista owns the Donlin mineral resource, but some of the federal lands that might be opened are located around the prospect.

“To think this would be expanded into something so much more, it’s nerve-wracking for the state of the river, the health of the fish and in turn the health of the people,” Swope said.

Calista said any effort to remove the land protections would be illegal unless certain criteria are met, including the conveyance of land promised to Calista and Alaska Native village corporations under the 1971 act. Calista says it’s entitled to 330 square miles of land, much of which it hasn’t selected, according to a letter the corporation sent last year to the BLM.

The federal agency is expected to release a draft environmental review soon, opening the door for public comment and later, a final recommendation from the agency.