America’s Public Lands in Alaska
Our nation’s northernmost public lands are in Alaska, the Last Frontier, and perhaps our last true wilderness. Of the more than 200 million acres of federal lands, 52.9 million acres are National Parks, 72.4 million acres are wildlife refuges, and 22.5 million acres are National Forest- not to mention 70 million acres of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) Land. This represents 68% of the nation’s National Parkland, and 83% of the nation’s wildlife refuges. The forest includes the two largest forests in the nation, the Chugach and the Tongass.
But this federal land is far from secure from development. One of the stated goals of the BLM is continuing land transfer from the federal government to the state, as well as energy development in the ecologically sensitive Western Arctic (known by the BLM as the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska). The National Forest Service does not maintain untouched forests, but instead balances recreational use, wilderness as well as development, both for logging and mining.
In addition to the intrinsic value of wilderness, the biological diversity and important effects of- and impact on- climate change from these huge federal land parcels is important to understand.