The Biden administration released short-term protections Thursday for roughly 3 million acres on Alaska’s North Slope to benefit Alaska Native fishing and hunting.
The move is a step toward creating more permanent protections for some of the lands in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, where the Biden administration approved the ConocoPhillip’s Willow oil and gas project in 2023, over the protests of climate activists. It follows an invitation the Biden administration made last year for public input on whether to expand protected lands in the reserve and whether to identify new resources on those lands that need protections.
“Fish and wildlife have provided food for Alaska Native people in this region for millennia and, based on the information we received and our legal mandate, we have concluded it is necessary to commence a process to ensure its protection,” said acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis in a statement.
The announcement Thursday doesn’t finalize new protected habitats for subsistence resources, which is a longer process, and it could be rejected by President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to slash regulations that hamper energy development.
Roughly half of the NPR-A lands are designated as “special areas,” which carry greater environmental protections, such as limits on oil and gas development.
In a Bureau of Land Management memorandum released alongside the report, the agency said areas proposed for new protections were “suitable for designation and merit further consideration.”
BLM also recognized subsistence as a “significant resource value” both in existing special areas in the reserve and in the lands proposed for designation as special areas.
The proposed expanded protected areas include a vast wetlands around Teshekpuk Lake that’s thought to hold significant oil and gas opportunities. Other special areas that could be expanded according to the memorandum are the Colville River, Utukok River Uplands, and Peard Bay Special Areas.
The agency also recommends creating a new special area for Alaska Native subsistence use around the village of Nuiqsut in the NPR-A.
The agency released a report Thursday that summarizes more than 80,0000 comments that Interior fielded on whether to create new protected lands.
The Biden administration also inked “interim” guidance to protect subsistence resources on the lands proposed for greater protections.
“The interim measures will remain in place until the BLM completes its process to consider designating these new or expanded proposed Special Areas,” Interior wrote in its report.