Trump Administration’s Alaska Lands Giveaway

WASHINGTON, D.C. —  Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced a series of decisions that increase threats to Alaska landscapes, wildlife, and local communities.

In a brief ceremony with members of Alaska’s congressional delegation and governor, Burgum announced a decision opening vast swaths of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, along with formal approvals for two controversial road-building proposals, one cutting across one of our most well-preserved national parks and one through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. The department transferred nearly 23,600 acres of national public lands to the state of Alaska as part of the Ambler Road decision.

The Arctic Refuge decision repeals the Record of Decision (ROD) for the leasing program in the Refuge issued by the previous administration. Burgum also announced Interior would make the entire Coastal Plain, the ecological heart of the Refuge, open for oil and gas development. The Arctic Refuge is one of the largest areas of intact public lands in the United States. Its lands and waters support hundreds of species and fragile ecosystems, and the Gwich’in people rely on it to support their subsistence way of life. The Gwich’in, who have called the region home for centuries, refer to it as “the sacred place where life begins.”

Earlier this month, Donald Trump signed an executive order advancing the controversial Ambler mining road, which will cut a 211-mile commercial corridor across some of the country’s wildest lands, including a section through Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, and impact more than sixty Alaska Native villages.

The Izembek decision will allow a new land exchange between the Department of the Interior and King Cove Corporation to cut a road through the heart of the Izembek Refuge. This plan allows for limitless use of the road, which threatens to disturb fragile ecosystems and wildlife populations.

In response, Dan Ritzman, Director of Conservation at Sierra Club, released the following statement:

“Today’s announcements are the latest step in Donald Trump’s plan to sell out our wildest landscape and natural heritage to corporate polluters. Alaska Natives have called these landscapes home since time immemorial, and wildlife rely on them to survive and thrive. These decisions will collectively wreak havoc on fragile Alaska ecosystems in the most disruptive way possible, causing long-term environmental damage, all to boost the bottom lines of CEOs. The Sierra Club and its millions of members and supporters across the country stand with the Gwich’in and Alaska Native communities to oppose these actions, and we will work to keep these landscapes protected, not polluted.”

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.