WASHINGTON — On Oct. 9, the U.S. Senate passed a joint resolution of disapproval seeking to overturn the protection of federal land in the Central Yukon region of Alaska and open lands designated for conservation to the mining industry.
The resolution already passed the House and is now on its way to the president for his signature. Once signed into law, it will remove federal subsistence protections for Alaska Native tribes and open the region up to development.
This comes after President Donald Trump approved plans in the same region for the 211-mile industrial Ambler Road on Oct. 6 to “unlock Alaska’s mineral potential.”
The Central Yukon includes roughly 13.3 million acres of federally managed public lands in central and northern Alaska. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) denied the Ambler Road Project a grant to build on federal land in the summer of 2024 on account of its potential environmental harm.
Now, after the new law is signed by Trump, federal protections on the land will be removed. Without them, it may soon be possible to turn acreage over to state management — allowing the state to authorize development with less input from BLM.
The Ambler Road Project would connect the Ambler Mining District with the Dalton Highway, which is the main throughway in the region. The proposed route would cut through part of the Gates of the Arctic National Park and affect over 60 Alaska Native villages.
“My first thought was just shame on our federal leaders,” said Cooper Freeman, Alaska director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “At the swipe of a pen, just ripping this plan up and throwing these incredible public lands and this really wonderful, exemplary plan — revving it up and throwing it to the wayside and putting that decades-plus-long collaborative effort into a trash can.”
BLM passed a land management plan in November 2024, which established 21 new areas for environmental protection and restricted mining activity in the region.
Both Alaskan senators led the joint resolution to remove these federal protections and allow mining companies to once again apply for grants to develop federal land.
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said in a news release that overturning the management plan would free public lands from federal “lock-up.”
“Despite objections from me, from Sen. Sullivan, the state of Alaska, many Alaska stakeholders, BLM kind of plowed ahead (with the November 2024 plan),” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said when she addressed the Senate before the vote Oct. 9. “They finalized a plan that overwhelmingly prioritizes conservation but fails to reflect the principle of multiple use — multiple use that is required with our public lands.”
The Department of the Interior declined to comment on how the rollback would affect conservation in the area.
Conservationists like Freeman say they are worried removing these protections will prioritize economic gains over the natural landscape and wildlife.
“They all think that they can have it all, that we can carve roads and put in oil and gas development and log old growth forests and mine, mine anywhere we want, and then it’ll all stay the same,” Freeman said. “That’s a complete fantasy. All that will do is turn Alaska into a wasteland and result in the loss of the subsistence culture that is in our amazing wildlife. It’s so much of what it means for Alaska to be Alaska.”
THE FIGHT FOR CONSERVATION MEETS A QUICK END
For over a decade, federal workers collaborated with Alaska Native tribes, Alaskan residents, federal agencies and state representatives to develop a federal strategy to manage public lands in the Central Yukon.
The years of work culminated in November 2024, when BLM finalized its rule.
The resulting Central Yukon Resource Management Plan designated 21 areas for conservation — totaling roughly 3,611,000 acres. On these lands, mining and development companies must submit a full plan for their operations for review, which considers environmental impacts, before receiving federal authorization to continue with their project.
Mickey Stickman, the former First Chief of the Nulato Tribe and Bering Sea-Interior Tribal Commission executive board member, participated in the discussions that led to the management plan and said he is shocked that it is now in jeopardy.
“We’re just living our culture,” Stickman said. “We’re just trying to live our lifestyle, and it’s just a way of life, but people don’t understand it, because there’s no money involved.”
The management plan designated caribou, Dall sheep, moose and North American beaver as “priority species” for the region, and it set several protections for specific habitats. These management policies include mitigating risks to wildlife when authorizing certain activities in conservation areas and closing a few habitats to mineral leasing, development or disposal.
It similarly designated several rivers as ‘areas of critical environmental concern’ to protect fish spawning grounds and closed some floodplains to mineral disposals.
The management rule also protects habitat corridors, which enable species like caribou to safely migrate in search of food, breeding grounds and more. Freeman said these corridors are important for maintaining the natural Alaskan landscape and supporting key food sources for Indigenous peoples.
“Every time we bring a whole moose into the village, there’s no monetary value put on that moose,” Stickman said. “The state don’t care because they only want money.”
NOW, THESE FEDERAL PROTECTIONS WILL END
Freeman said Alaska is one of the last states with its wilderness untouched, which allows its residents and Indigenous peoples to live off the land as they have for generations.
However, this wild landscape is changing — and with it, the way of life for some of its inhabitants, particularly Alaska Natives.
Stickman said last year was the first time the Western Arctic Caribou Working Group imposed hunting quotas for Alaska Natives, limiting families to five caribou each year in order to protect the herd. Families once could hunt up to five caribou in one day, he said. Salmon catches have also yielded fewer fish than in previous years, he added.
If signed into law, the resolution would further endanger food security, Stickman said. He emphasized that overturning the federal subsistence protections opens wildlife up to people who hunt for sport, and removing conservation protections endangers species that support Indigenous ways of life.
“I’m not going anywhere anytime soon, and that’s the difference between being Indigenous and being white,” Stickman said. “We like to live with our homelands forever.”
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