Federal land directive signals major policy shift in Alaska By Dermot
Cole, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
The announcement by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to conduct a
"wilderness inventory" of BLM land in Alaska and to create a new category
called "Lands with Wilderness Characteristics" signals the biggest change
in federal land policy in years.
Federal land directive signals major policy shift in Alaska By Dermot
Cole, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
While Salazar said his plan "does not 'lock up' western lands from other
uses, as I am sure some people will claim," the move may lead to new
restrictions on the use of millions of acres in Alaska managed by the
Bureau of Land Management.
The 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is subject to this
new level of regulation.
"The BLM must inventory the lands in NPR-A and may designate Wild Lands
in NPR-A as part of its integrated activity planning for the area.
Consistent with controlling law, the BLM will continue to conduct an
expeditious program of competitive oil and gas leasing in the reserve,"
an Interior Department statement said.
The addition of "Wild Lands" in NPR-A could create a new tool to oppose
oil and gas development in that part of Alaska. It could also have
implications for development on various other parts of the other 50
million acres under BLM management.
Salazar, who announced this change just before Christmas, has given new
marching orders to the Interior Department to overturn the planning
approach that has been in place since 2003 on BLM land in Alaska.
There has been an off-again, on-again planning system for BLM land in
Alaska over the past 30 years.
In 2003, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said the Bush administration
wanted to accommodate the views of Alaska's political leaders, who
opposed additional restrictions on federal land. She reversed the
position taken by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in 2001. Babbitt, for
his part, had reversed the position that had been in effect for 20 years.
In dumping the Babbitt approach, Norton concluded that BLM wilderness
study proposals could only proceed if they had "broad support among the
state and federal officials representing Alaska." They didn't have broad
support, so they didn't take place.
The federal stance has changed again under Salazar, who says that the
Obama administration "accepts the invitation extended by Congress" in
1980 to "identify public lands in Alaska suitable for designation as
wilderness."
His department released a Q&A on the new policy that says, "There has
never been a statewide wilderness inventory in Alaska."
However, the BLM and other federal agencies have released many reports
over the years that say, "Alaska lands were exhaustively inventoried,
reviewed and studied for their wilderness values under the Wilderness Act
criteria, beginning in 1971, when Congress enacted the Alaska Native
Claims Settlement Act."
Most of the 1970s were consumed by reviews of Alaska land to determine
which should be called wilderness and which should be placed in parks,
refuges, forests, etc.
Congress settled the future of Alaska land, or at least it was thought to
be settled, when it chose to put 150 million acres in "conservation
units." This is more than 40 percent of the land in Alaska and 60
percent of the federal land.
A total of 57 million acres was designated as wilderness, which means
that there is to be no lasting sign of man's presence on the land.
The Interior Department said that before new "Wild Lands" are named in
Alaska, there will be "robust public comment and involvement."
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