
Biden Administration Add Protections For Western Arctic Land That Houses Teshekpuk Caribou Herd (Updated)

As the last days of President Joe Biden’s administration before it passes the baton back to President-elect Donald Trump for a second term, the Interior Department is doing what it can to apply some protections on Alaska lands, in this case the National Petroleum Reserve, which Trump’s presidency will likely attempt to drill on.
Here’s the Department of Interior press release on the latest safeguards that would be a huge boost for a caribou herd there:
Interior Department Takes Steps to Protect Subsistence in the Western Arctic
Public input supports new subsistence resource value; public process will consider additional management changes
01/16/2025
WASHINGTON?— The Department of the Interior today released a report summarizing public input received by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on how best to ensure maximum protection of surface resources in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A). The report outlines steps the BLM will take to protect vital subsistence resources identified by numerous comments, consistent with the agency’s statutory obligations to administer an oil and gas program and assure the maximum protection of significant surface values in the Reserve.
The?BLM received nearly 80,000 comments in response to a Request for Information it issued in July 2024, soliciting information on resources and areas of the NPR-A that may warrant additional protection.
“Throughout our efforts to receive feedback from the public, we heard significant input about the need for protecting subsistence by identifying it as a significant resource value in the NPR-A,” said?Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis. “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.”
A memorandum, also released today, provides direction on interim measures the BLM will apply to its management of the NPR-A to protect the significant subsistence resource value in existing Special Areas and in proposed new and modified Special Areas, while it undertakes a public process to more fully evaluate maximum protection measures to secure this significant resource value for current and future generations. In implementing interim measures, the BLM will exercise its discretion to protect and reduce potential impacts to subsistence use and access in those areas, consistent with the governing management prescriptions in the current management plan, or Integrated Activity Plan.
The BLM will evaluate proposed actions and apply mitigation measures that may include modifying, suspending, or denying activities related to roads, infrastructure and aircraft. In making such evaluations, the BLM’s Alaska team will document the proposed action’s potential impacts to subsistence, consideration of options to maximize protection for subsistence, and, if applicable, reasons for approving actions without adopting the approach that maximizes protection for subsistence.
The NPR-A rule establishes a process for the BLM to designate, amend and de-designate Special Areas. The rule also clarifies that the BLM may implement interim measures as necessary to protect special resource values at any time after the BLM receives a recommendation. The memorandum directs the BLM to undertake a public process, including Tribal consultation, to consider designation of a new Special Area and expansions of current Special Areas as proposed by local Native leaders and others.
The report reaches additional conclusions about the need to maximize opportunities for co-stewardship in current and potential Special Areas within the NPR-A.
The report, memo and further materials are available on the BLM’s website.
A group of Alaska Native organizations released the following statement:
Alaska Native Communities Celebrate New Protections for Teshekpuk Caribou Herd, Tribes in the Western Arctic
After Calling For More Protections, Co-Management and Tribally-led Stewardship, Alaska Native Communities Are Welcoming Measures to Prioritize Subsistence Activities and Wildlife
(Nuiqsut, Alaska) – Today, Alaska Native communities are welcoming new measures to protect their subsistence, cultural, and traditional activities. In an announcement today, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI)’s recognized significant subsistence resource values, the need for co-management, and the importance of establishing new Special Areas to protect subsistence use in the Western Arctic.
This decision comes after the administration’s efforts to protect more than 13 million acres of land in the NPR-A last year. As a part of their announcement today, the DOI released a report publishing the results of their Request for Information (RFI) and commenced a process, that will include tribal consultation, to formally recognize subsistence values, establish new Special Areas, and ensure their maximum protection. The administration also directed BLM to consider and apply interim mitigation measures to provide maximum protection for subsistence use and access.
Today’s announcement aligns with local calls for stronger subsistence safeguards and a new subsistence special area which were outlined by Grandmothers Growing Goodness, Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic (SILA), and Native Movement during the Request for Information public comment period last fall.
In response to this announcement, Grandmothers Growing Goodness and Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic released the following statements:
“I am pleased to see that our community’s voices were heard throughout the public comment process, and the Administration has put in place more protections for our land and way of life, including protecting the largest Caribou herd in Alaska, which we have relied on since time immemorial. Prioritizing our community’s needs and meaningfully integrating Indigenous Knowledge through Tribally-led co-management is critical to ensure that the lands my village depend on most for subsistence remain safeguarded from industry destruction going forward,” said Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, Founder, Grandmothers Growing Goodness. We look forward to continuing to engage with the Department of the Interior to ensure that the health of our communities, along with that of the Teshekpuk Caribou Herd, who depend on these lands, are at the forefront of decision-making.”
“Indigenous sovereignty in these matters is long overdue. We are filled with gratitude for these changes, enacting more protections and entrusting the health of the Iñupiaq lands to our people should have been the standard from the start.” Nauri Simmonds, Executive Director for Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic said. “Our people depend on the health of the land and animals for not just survival and ability to continue to live on our lands for generations to come, but our cultural identity. We appreciate any movement and help in this matter and don’t want to diminish those efforts or any support given by entities and individuals towards these changes, but this is so little and so very late. Our people deserve more. So thank you to all those who give their time and energy to make these changes happen,” said Nauri Simmonds, Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic.
Now that the Administration has taken action to ensure that industrial activity in the Arctic is better balanced with protections for the wildlife and lands that the health and livelihoods of Alaska Native communities depend on, it is essential that these lands are managed through co-management and Tribally-led stewardship; and managed to prioritize Inupiat subsistence, culture and tradition. Furthermore, prohibiting industry’s use of the existing road during periods of high subsistence or caribou use is key to further secure the safety and success of hunters and the health of their herd.
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Grandmothers Growing Goodness is an Inupiat group dedicated to elevating the understanding and protection of Inupiat culture and people in the face of rampant oil and gas development and climate change. Its core purpose is to help support equity for communities facing significant environmental justice threats and to strengthen equity for the Inupiat.
Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic’s mission is to create space for healthy communities, spiritually, mentally, and physically; fostering the connection between people, culture and land. We are empowered as frontline communities and those who have inherent connection with the land and what it provides.
UPDATE: More reaction from Earthjustice:
Earthjustice Statement on Final Biden Western Arctic Protections
Affording protections to critical caribou calving and migration areas in the Western Arctic will help safeguard irreplaceable Arctic ecosystems from fossil fuel development
ANCHORAGE, AK — The U.S. Department of Interior announced today that western and traditional science shows that public lands within the Western Arctic require increased protection from oil activities. These include areas that are critical for caribou calving and migration and for subsistence hunting, fishing, and gathering that Indigenous people have pursued for millennia.
The agency announced it is kicking off a process that would offer stronger protections against fossil fuel drilling for these public lands and will put in place interim measures to protect them in the meantime.
The new safeguards stem from regulations for the Western Arctic announced in April by the Biden Administration aimed at establishing long-term protections for the Western Arctic’s most sensitive landscapes. Following that announcement, a process began in July to seek public input on possible future actions that would enact stronger protections for public lands under threat from oil development. More than 200,000 people called on Interior to expand protections against oil and gas drilling and to set aside more lands as special areas under the law.
These important places provide irreplaceable wildlife habitat, are critical for the traditional subsistence practices of local Alaska Native people, and already face dramatic disruption due to climate change. Road-building, industrial traffic, and the mere presence of roads associated with fossil fuel development can disrupt caribou migration, which in turn can affect traditional hunting practices.
The public lands that won new protections today include an area that spans from Teshekpuk Lake to the Colville River within the Reserve and is critically important for caribou. Currently, five designated special areas, places with long-term protection from development, cover more than 13 million acres within the 23-million acre Reserve, which is the nation’s largest tract of public land.
Earthjustice released the following statement in response to today’s announcement:
“We applaud the Biden administration. It followed the science that clearly shows that these areas’ irreplaceable values require maximum protection against harm from oil drilling. This is a model of inclusive, evidence-based land management and a win for wildlife and people,” said Earthjustice attorney Erik Grafe. “The incoming Trump administration will have an obligation to acknowledge that oil development significantly harms the Western Arctic’s irreplaceable natural values.”