Pew Applauds Conservation of Alaska Public Lands Important to Tribes

WASHINGTON—The Pew Charitable Trusts today applauded the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for releasing on August 27, 2024, a Record of Decision (ROD) for Alaska’s “D-1 lands,” a move that retains protections for 28 million acres of public lands. The decision comes after four Tribal Consortia organizations including 78 Tribes joined in urging the BLM to protect the acreage.

The 28 million acres in interior and coastal Alaska are ancestral lands for the area’s Indigenous people and are known as D-1 lands because they were withdrawn from development in 1971 under Section 17(d)(1) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).

These D-1 lands include BLM-managed lands in five BLM planning areas, which are regional sub-sets of Alaska where regulations govern land uses: Kobuk-Seward, Bering Sea-Western Interior, Bay, East Alaska, and Ring of Fire, which together contain critical watersheds with salmon streams, caribou calving grounds, tundra landscapes, coastal estuaries, moose habitat, and marshes important to migratory birds. The lands serve as important hunting, fishing, and gathering grounds for more than 100 Indigenous Alaska communities.

Eugene Paul, chairman of the Bering Sea Interior Tribal Commission, said, “These lands currently sustain our communities and have supported our people for generations. It is our obligation to do what is in our power to protect them. I want to thank the Bureau of Land Management for protecting our traditional lands and way of life for our children, grandchildren, and those still to come.”

Suzanne Little, an officer with The Pew Charitable Trusts’ U.S. conservation project, issued this statement:

“Pew joins Tribes across Alaska in thanking the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management for safeguarding Indigenous peoples’ traditional lands and waters. The effects of climate change are impacting local communities and safeguarding these critical lands will help ensure that Indigenous people can carry on the way of life that has sustained communities for millennia.”

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Founded in 1948, The Pew Charitable Trusts uses data to make a difference. Pew addresses the challenges of a changing world by illuminating issues, creating common ground, and advancing ambitious projects that lead to tangible progress.