New Biden administration report considers opening 28 million acres of Alaska lands to development

The Biden administration has moved a step closer to determining whether 28 million acres of federal land in Alaska should remain protected or be opened to potential oil and gas development and mining claims.

On Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management issued a draft report analyzing the environmental impacts of unlocking the lands, which are scattered across broad swaths of the state. The lands were protected from such development in the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

The Trump administration had taken steps to remove the protections, an effort supported by 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 wants the land opened so the half-century-old process of conveying federal land to the corporation can be completed.

But the Biden administration said it found legal flaws in the previous administration’s effort, leading to the new environmental review to determine the best use of the lands.

Conservation groups and dozens of Alaska tribes say the land should not be opened, with climate change raising new questions about the health of caribou and salmon that support traditional diets. One of their concerns is that unlocking the lands would allow an expansion of mining opportunities around the Donlin Gold mine prospect near the middle Kuskokwim River.

Calista Corp. has also expressed concerns about opening the lands 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 lands that could be opened to future development are located in Western Alaska, such as the Western Interior, Seward Peninsula and Bristol Bay regions. They’re also found in Southcentral Alaska and in eastern Alaska.

In addition to opening the door to mineral leasing, removing the protections could lead “to the conveyance of land out of federal ownership,” which would remove the federal subsistence priority from the lands, said Racheal Jones, a planning and environmental coordinator with the Bureau of Land Management, in an email.

The federal subsistence priority gives rural residents precedence for fish and wildlife.

The federal government could open some or all of the lands, or keep the protections in place, according to the 392-page draft report.

Last year, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland partially revoked the withdrawals on the lands to allow about 2,000 Alaska Native Vietnam-era veterans or their heirs to select 160-acre tracts under the Dingell Act, the agency said in a statement Thursday.

The Bureau of Land Management said the draft analysis considers whether opening the lands to development is consistent with some purposes of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which requires that “the public interest in these lands is properly protected.” That includes factors such as subsistence hunting and fishing, habitat connectivity, protection of cultural resources, and protection of threatened and endangered species, the agency said in a statement.

The agency has planned 18 meetings around the state on the topic in January and February, including four virtual meetings, plus in-person stops in Anchorage, Fairbanks and many rural communities.

A public comment period also opened this week, running through Feb. 14. Information on how to weigh in can be found at the agency’s project website.

A final report leading to a decision on how the lands should be used is expected this summer, according to the draft report.