Opinion: Jimmy Carter’s legacy to Alaska and America

The universal response to President Jimmy Carter’s passing was perhaps best stated by his son Chip as the loss of “a hero to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love.” To millions of people around the world, he exemplified a lifetime journey of compassion, care and courage. From governor of Georgia and president of America to a carpenter building homes for the homeless with Habitat For Humanity, to Sunday school teacher, and to a world traveler aiding victims of disease and starvation, he never stopped serving others and helping them to a better life.

As we remember and celebrate his life of service, let us not forget one of his greatest achievements as president — enactment of ANILCA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. This legislation, which was developed and signed by President Carter during his last days in office, was a historic and everlasting commitment to conservation and natural resource protection for Alaska and for America.

This act designated an area of 157 million acres, larger than the states of California and Washington combined, as national parks, national wildlife refuges, national monuments, wild and scenic rivers, and national forests. It was the single largest expansion of protected lands in America’s history. ANILCA guaranteed that current and future generations would have access to the lands and natural resources necessary to sustain the economy, preserve our culture, and put food on the table.

[Jimmy Carter shaped modern Alaska in profound, lasting ways]

Of course, ANILCA was not embraced with unanimous support. As a former politician, I know Alaska is a place where there are often more opinions than there are people. One major objection was that it “locked up our lands and resources.”

Yes, by law, it did not allow any unauthorized private use or abuse of the natural resources on those lands. However, for the first time, it opened up vast areas of Alaska to broad public use for seeing and experiencing our unique wildlife and natural beauty.

In 2009, the Interior secretary asked me to chair the National Park System Advisory Board, which I did for nearly eight years. I saw firsthand that the designation of 43 million new acres of national parks in Alaska under ANILCA, which more than doubled the size of America’s entire National Park system, did not lock up but rather opened up this land to millions of visitors from Alaska, the U.S. and around the world. Today, more than half a million visitors experience Denali National Park annually. There are nearly 3 million visitors yearly to all of Alaska’s national parks. Each year, hundreds of thousands of visitors also go to the 77 million acres of national wildlife refuges, the 25 new wild and scenic rivers, and the enlarged Tongass and Chugach national forests, the two largest in America.

Opening, rather than locking, up the land in our national parks and wildlife refuges, national forests, and wild and scenic rivers for these millions of visitors generates a massive economic benefit to Alaska businesses, Alaska jobs and communities. And, for the future, as long as these lands and waters are protected, they will bring prosperity and create a clean and sustainable economy.

ANILCA also, for the first time, addressed the long-promised legal protection of subsistence use on federal lands by rural residents by prioritizing their harvesting of fish and wildlife to put needed food on the table, as well as embracing the traditional cultural values of living off the land and waters. While this provision has also generated some controversy, it has reinforced our fundamental values as a state committed to supporting our Indigenous population.

As we look back more than 40 years, we can thank President Carter for the lasting conservation and sustainable environmental legacy he envisioned and accomplished under ANILCA. It created benefits and opportunities that have served us well and will continue to serve many generations into the future. And in his memory may we all be inspired to see, experience, and protect these extraordinary natural treasures.

Tony Knowles was governor of Alaska from 1994 to 2002 and was chair of the National Park System Advisory Board from 2009 to 2017.

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