Lawsuit challenges Trump’s massive public lands giveaway in Alaska

Ten Alaska and national groups sued the Interior Department today for unlawfully  removing federal protections over public lands in an area stretching from the Yukon River to the  Brooks Range. These lands had been protected for over 50 years and subject to federal oversight that intended to ensure Arctic health and a stable corridor for the Dalton Highway and  Trans-Alaska Pipeline.  

“Alaska has some of the last truly wild places left in the United States, and they are protected by law,” said Dan Ritzman, Sierra Club’s Director of Conservation. “Industrial proposals like the  Ambler Road and expanded LNG production will cause irreversible damage to these precious  landscapes. We’re taking the Trump Administration to court to protect these public lands for the  next generation.”  

The removal of federal protections, put in place in the early 1970s via Public Land Orders  5150 and 5180, will make way for a takeover of these lands by the State of Alaska and open  these lands for mining claims and other activities. Transferring these lands to the State of Alaska  would lower the bar for protecting subsistence and mitigating impacts when permitting  extractive projects. This decision removes vital protections for subsistence users who depend on  the area for their way of life.  

“These public lands orders should never have been revoked without a thorough  environmental review, public accountability, and meaningful consultation with the communities  the most directly affected,” said Krystal Lapp, President of the Board for Northern Alaska  Environmental Center. “These two million acres form an essential ecological connection  between Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge  and support world-renowned wildlife migrations, subsistence hunting and fishing, and intact  Arctic ecosystems. Eliminating these protections opens the door to state land selections, mining  claims, and industrial development in one of the most ecologically significant landscapes in  North America.” 

Handing these decades-long protected federal lands to the state benefits mining  interests and industrial projects like the proposed Ambler mining road and would take the  corridor encompassing the Trans-Alaska Pipeline out of federal ownership. The Interior  Secretary made this decision in February without taking any public comments and held no hearings in affected local communities, despite acknowledging that this land giveaway would  have severe environmental impacts and harm subsistence users. 

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Anchorage, asserts that agencies violated  the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act,  the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act by  failing to meet legal obligations to protect land, wildlife, waterways, subsistence use, and  communities.  

“The Trump administration conjured up flimsy and vacuous reasons about ‘putting  America first’ to try to justify transferring public lands out of federal management to benefit  billionaires,” said Bridget Psarianos, senior staff attorney with Trustees for Alaska. “Removing  protections panders to the mining industry and disregards the public’s interest in sound  decision-making, community health, public land use, and transparency about how decisions get  made. This administration continues its agenda of giving public lands to private interests  through any means possible, no matter what laws get broken and what communities get hurt.” 

Nonprofit law firm Trustees for Alaska represents ten clients in the case: Northern Alaska  Environmental Center, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Alaska Wildlife Alliance, Alaska  Wilderness League, Center for Biological Diversity, Earthworks, National Parks Conservation  Association, Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, and Winter Wildlands Alliance. 

Client statements: 

“The Dalton Corridor is not an empty stretch of tundra waiting to be exploited,” said Nicole Schmitt, executive director of Alaska Wildlife Alliance. “It is a vast ecosystem spanning boreal  forest, Arctic mountains, and high Arctic tundra. These ecosystems support the migration of the  Western Arctic Caribou Herd, along with salmon-bearing rivers, Dall sheep lambing grounds,  habitat for grizzly bears, wolves, and countless other species, as well as subsistence hunting  grounds for Alaska Native communities. The current administration has been clear in its intent  to open federal lands to extraction industries. Opening 2.1 million acres of the Dalton Corridor  to mining claims also sets a dangerous precedent for revoking Public Land Orders that protect  federal lands. If the land grab proceeds, it could become a playbook for federal lands across  Alaska and the West to be opened to energy and mineral development.” 

"We will not allow our public lands to be stripped of protections and opened for industrial  mining," said Pamela Miller, Executive Director of Alaska Community Action Toxics. "These  actions would lead to irreparable harm to the lands, fish, and wildlife in one of the most fragile  and culturally rich places in the world. The administration has an obligation to protect the food  security, sovereignty, health, and human rights of the Alaska Native communities that call this  place home.”

“Alaska’s public lands – and the traditions that rely on them – are under attack across Alaska  today, and this area in northern Alaska requires vigorous action to halt industrialization,” said Andy Moderow, Senior Director of Policy of Alaska Wilderness League. “Alaska’s clean air,  lands, waters, and healthy wildlife populations allow for so many traditions. Fortunately, there  are laws in place that protect what makes Alaska extraordinary. We look forward to the court’s  consideration of this matter, so that future generations of Alaskans have the same opportunities  that Alaskans do today.” 

“National Parks Conservation Association rejects the administration’s latest attempt to give away America’s public lands and force through the speculative Ambler industrial mining road,”  said Jim Adams, senior Alaska director of National Parks Conservation Association. “Revoking  PLO 5150 and 5180 would allow for the transfer of 2.1 million acres of priceless public lands and  their waterways and wildlife to the state of Alaska. It’s a blatant effort to avoid national  environmental laws to allow construction of a road that will enrich foreign mining companies  and harm wild lands, Alaska Native communities, and America’s conservation legacy. Ending  these public land orders also exposes the entire eastern side of Gates of the Arctic National Park  and Preserve to state management practices along its border that devalue park wildlife and the  needs of rural residents.” 

“The Trump administration’s destructive obsession with giving away our public lands for the  benefit of mining companies has forced us to go to court,” said Matt Jackson, Alaska senior manager for The Wilderness Society. “These lands – as well as the abundant wildlife and clean  air and water they provide – have protected communities in northern rural Alaska from  unwanted development for generations and we must preserve the freedom of rural Alaskans to  continue hunting, fishing, and exploring these places now and in the future.” 

“This decision to remove protections from these irreplaceable public lands smacks of  corruption,” said Aaron Mintzes, deputy policy director at Earthworks. “On behalf of the  federal government, the administration recently bought shares in Trilogy Metals, the mining  company that would profit from the damaging Ambler road that would subsidize their  speculative mine.” 

“The Trump administration has violated the law and gambled with Alaska’s future by scrapping  these vital public lands protections,” said Rebecca Noblin, a senior attorney at the Center for  Biological Diversity. “The areas now at risk of being bulldozed and mined are packed with fish,  birds, caribou and their rich habitat. It’s incredibly important for local communities and the  health of Alaska’s wild places that we preserve this corridor and keep federal protections in  place.” 

“Alaska’s Brooks Range is one of the last truly wild landscapes left in America,” said Anneka Williams, policy director at Winter Wildlands Alliance. “The Ambler road — which could be  more easily permitted following this contemplated land swap — would intersect the migration  route of three caribou herds, destroy intact ecosystems, and eliminate one-of-a-kind  backcountry recreation experiences. The Interior Department ignored its own findings and the  law in moving forward with this decision. When agencies sidestep the legal safeguards that  protect our public lands, we have a responsibility to challenge that.”