DOI releases 1.3M Alaska acres Photo courtesy Bureau of Land Management Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (left) and Assistant Secretary of the Interior Joe Balash shake hands after Balash signed the release of more than 1.3 million Alaska acres for future resource development.
SPECIAL TO THE ALASKA MINER The U.S. Department of the Interior has issued two Public Land Orders (PLO) opening up approx- imately 1.3 million acres of public lands in the Fortymile Subunit of the Eastern Interior and the Bering Glacier area in Southcentral Alaska for de- velopment. The PLOs revoke, in part, PLOs issued in 1972 under Sec. 17(d)(1) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Joe Balash announced the release at the recent Alaska Resource Development Council membership lunch in Anchorage. “Signing these PLOs is a return to a coopera- tive partnership with the people of Alaska. These decisions are the product of years of review and analysis, resulting in an action that delivers on overdue federal promises made to Alaskans in the Statehood Act and the Alaska Native Claims Set- tlement Act and to Alaska Native veterans in the recently passed John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management and Recreation Act,” Balash said. “We are proud to continue to foster economic
prosperity for local communities, ensure contin- `POLNNP^^_Z[`MWTNWLYO^QZ]S`Y_TYRLYOʭ^STYR for generations to come — both sport and sub- sistence — without compromising stewardship of our nation’s lands.” “These actions are the product of close work between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and State of Alaska Department of Natural Re- sources,” said BLM State Director Chad Padgett. “These collaborations are in keeping with the Secretary’s intent of being a good neighbor and following through with the recommendations we have made in our Resource Management Plans. We’re looking forward to many more collabora- tions in the near future.” This revocation will not impact ANCSA 17(b) easements, which ensure public access to public lands as directed by Secretarial Order 3373. ?SPZ]TRTYLW;7:^LʬPN_POMd_SP^PLN_TZY^bP]P analyzed in the Eastern Interior — Fortymile Re- source Management Plan in 2016, and the East Alaska Resource Management plan in 2007, re- spectively. Both plans recommended these actions.
The Alaska Miner
July 2019
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