The United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has completed a whirlwind tour of Alaska, collecting public input on the potential removal of protections for roughly 28 million acres of wilderness lands throughout the state, known as “D-1” lands. In the end, residents of Kuskokwim River communities who depend on much of the land in question said that far too much is at stake, and that protections must be maintained.
As early as this summer, the U.S. Department of the Interior under Secretary Deb Haaland will issue its decision on whether to lift or maintain protections for the lands. While supporters of opening the lands, including the mineral extraction industry, Alaska’s Republican senators, and the state of Alaska itself, say that it is long overdue, more than half of the 229 federally recognized tribes in Alaska say that the move would directly threaten Indigenous ways of life.
Over the past two months, BLM officials traversed the state gathering public input for an environmental impact statement that will ultimately determine the status of the lands in question. On Feb. 13, they made the final stop of their tour in Bethel, where dozens showed up to voice their opposition to withdrawing protections.
Most, like Bethel Elder Walter Larson, spoke about the risks of opening the door to future development.
“We can't eat gold. I can eat moose, caribou, fish, all kinds of fish, ducks, and geese. I can eat those and I can live off of ‘em,” Walter said. “So please listen to us. At least listen to us.”
The majority of the 28 million acres lie in the vast western reaches of the state, with portions overlapping the range of the declining Western Arctic Caribou herd, and others located along the massive Yukon and Kuskokwim River systems that serve as the lifeblood of the region.
Charlie Charlie of the lower Kuskokwim River community of Tuntutuliak spoke in Bethel about how he had lived through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), but had only recently become aware of the D-1 lands issue. Charlie works as a Yugtun interpreter for KYUK, but attended the meeting in his capacity as an individual.
“We were young people when ANCSA was developed. I was eight years old at that time. I didn't know there was land that has been set aside for future development,” Charlie said. “We’re always gonna be here. We are here still, my kids are here still, and they still eat what I'm eating right now.”
Of the 19 public hearings held by BLM, only two took place on the Kuskokwim River: one in Bethel and one in the upriver community of Aniak. Bethel Elder Gloria Simeon said in the Bethel hearing that the federal government has a duty to better inform and seek input from residents of the region.
“The BLM also has an obligation to conduct hearings in every village in, abutting, around, downstream from, and downhill from these D-1 lands,” Simeon said.
As noted in the findings of a draft environmental impact statement released in December 2023, tribes could see a loss of a federal subsistence priority in cases where the state gains ownership of previously protected lands. Simeon expressed her distrust of the state’s intentions supporting the opening of the lands, which Gov. Mike Dunleavy has criticized as being “locked up as de facto parks.”
“The state of Alaska gets good money for selling our resources to non-Natives,” Simeon said. “And that's what they want to turn us into is beggars on our own land because we can't afford to pay the market fee to feed ourselves.”
The BLM will consider four possible recommendations, or alternatives, ranging from leaving protections in place to partially or completely removing them.
The third option, known as “Alternative C,” would only remove barriers to development for around 8 million acres of land considered to have high mineral potential. At the hearing in Aniak on Feb. 6, resident and fisheries biologist Dan Gillikin noted that thousands of those acres lie in an area of critical salmon spawning habitat feeding the Kuskokwim River known as the Holitna Basin.
“It provides probably close to 30% of all the salmon within the Kuskokwim drainage,” Gillikin said. “If anything is a jewel in the crown of the Kuskokwim River, I believe it should receive as much protection as possible.”
Aniak resident Emerie Fairbanks-Diehl also criticized the idea of opening up D-1 lands in the region, citing the fact that clean-up efforts are still ongoing for highly toxic projects on the Kuskokwim River like the Red Devil Mine.
“How can we possibly be considering opening up BLM lands for further development when we can't even afford to clean up the current abandoned mines directly on our river?” Fairbanks-Diehl said.
Multiple people who came out to voice their concerns in both Bethel and Aniak noted that the D-1 lands issue was difficult to wrap their heads around.
Aniak resident Amanda Hoeldt said that Elders with limited command of English had been left out by the lack of translated materials made available by the BLM.
“Having none of these translated to any of our traditional languages, not even Yup’ik, which is one of the most widely spoken traditional languages, is frankly unacceptable,” Hoeldt said. “Our Elders still speak Yup’ik as a first language, and they are teachers. They are people we rely on as things change to see how we should act and how we should continue.”
Attending the Bethel hearing remotely, BLM-Alaska Planning and Environmental Coordinator Racheal Jones said that in addition to the 19 public meetings, her team had contacted all of the tribes within the scope of the study area by phone, mail, and email, and had publicized the issue via social media and in local newspapers. While the comment period for the environmental impact statement has passed, Jones noted that the door had not closed for tribal concerns to be heard.
“I will also say that ANCSA corporations and tribes can consult with the Bureau of Land Management on this project at any time that they choose,” Jones said.
Even if Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland does decide this summer to leave protections for the 28 million acres in place, Jones acknowledged that the long-term fate of D-1 lands is anything but certain.
“I cannot predict what future administrations, what their priorities will be and what they will direct the Bureau of Land Management to evaluate, or if they have a different agenda. I can't speak to the future,” Jones said.
While tribes and community members from across the state are also left wondering what the future holds, comments made in Aniak and Bethel appear to indicate that when it comes to preserving traditional ways of living, residents of the region do not view removing D-1 protections with optimism.
Dave Cannon of Aniak contributed audio/visual materials for this story.
