Since the 1970s, over 150 million acres of land across Alaska have been protected from fossil fuel and mining leasing and extraction – protecting our lands and waters, caribou and salmon, and the Indigenous communities who depend on these intact life-giving ecosystems

This “D-1 land” – known as such because it was withdrawn pursuant to article 17(d)(1) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act – is now under threat. The Bureau of Land Management is considering opening nearly 28 million acres of D-1 lands across the state to leasing, which could expand industrialization on lands important to the health of ecosystems, animals, recreational areas, and local communities. 

At least 78 Alaska Native Tribes have spoken out against removing the D-1 protections, stating in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland, that: “BLM-managed lands support important subsistence resources and serve as the breadbasket for thousands of Athabaskan, Aleut, Denaʼina, Inupiat, Yup’ik, and Tlingit peoples. For Alaska Native communities off the road system, over 80% of food consumed comes directly from the surrounding lands and waters.”