{"id":2314,"date":"2020-12-04T10:37:18","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T19:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nativecouncil.org\/natrec\/?p=2314"},"modified":"2020-12-04T10:37:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T19:37:18","slug":"alaskas-pristine-bering-sea-western-interior-at-risk-of-resource-extraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nativecouncil.org\/natrec\/?p=2314","title":{"rendered":"Alaska’s Pristine Bering Sea Western Interior at Risk of Resource Extraction"},"content":{"rendered":"

BLM draft plan rejects tribes\u2019 nominations for protection of critical watersheds<\/h2>\n

ISSUE BRIEF: <\/span>

Topics:\u00a0<\/span>Land Conservation<\/a><\/span> | <\/span>Projects:<\/span>\u00a0U.S. Public Lands and Rivers Conservation<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\"David<\/a><\/div>\n
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David W. Shaw<\/cite><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/section>\n
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This issue brief is part of a series outlining public lands in Alaska that are in danger of losing protection.<\/em><\/p>\n

Overview<\/h2>\n

Since 2016, the U. S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U. S. Forest Service have advanced five efforts that would dramatically alter protections for some 60 million acres of federally managed land in Alaska. If fully enacted, the policies and decisions outlined in those proposed and finalized plans would open vast stretches of the Bering Sea-Western Interior, Tongass National Forest, Central Yukon, National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, and unencumbered BLM land to extractive development and have significant impacts on Alaska\u2019s lands, rivers, wildlife, and the Indigenous peoples who call these landscapes home.1<\/sup><\/p>\n

Pristine watersheds threatened<\/h2>\n
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\nArnold Demoski, the Nulato Tribe\u2019s natural resources coordinator, harvests king salmon from the Nulato River. This watershed is a critical resource to the tribe and community.<\/figcaption>
Alice Demoski<\/cite><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n

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The Bering Sea-Western Interior planning region is home to over 65 Indigenous communities whose traditional ways of life, supported by abundant fish, wildlife, and plants, have nurtured countless generations.2<\/sup>\u00a0The vast area includes most of the Yukon River, Kuskokwim River, and Unalakleet River watersheds, as well as other critical ecosystems that federally recognized tribes in Alaska have stewarded for thousands of years. Future uses of 13.5 million acres will be decided in the BLM\u2019s planning process.<\/p>\n

The region\u2019s sovereign tribes have asked the BLM to protect watersheds important to local communities, but the bureau\u2019s preferred plan would open 99% of the 13.5 million acres to extractive development.3<\/sup>\u00a0(See Figure 1.) BLM\u2019s own reports have said some watersheds are \u201crare and irreplaceable\u201d and support \u201can internationally significant fisheries resource,\u201d with fish that travel more than 2,000 miles along the Yukon River to Canada and provide food for thousands of people along the way.4<\/sup><\/p>\n

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“The Nulato Tribe supports protections for our traditional lands and waterways. As Indigenous people, our cultural and traditional way of life is being threatened in multiple ways. Our salmon and our reindeer are threatened. If we lose all of our natural resources, our future generations will be fighting for survival.”<\/p>\n

\u2014Arnold Demoski<\/span>,\u00a0Nulato Tribe\u2019s natural resources coordinator<\/span><\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

The Bering Sea and Interior Tribal Commission, comprising more than two dozen tribes from the region, opposes the proposed plan and has asked BLM\u2019s Alaska director\u2019s office for better balance between extraction and conservation, and for watersheds nominated by tribes to be designated as areas of critical environmental concern. BLM has rejected the tribes\u2019 appeals.5<\/sup><\/p>\n

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The BLM is required by law to balance the many uses\u2014including development and conservation\u2014of the public lands it manages, but opening virtually all of the Bering Sea-Western Interior to potential extraction industry activity conflicts with that mandate. If the final plan mirrors the draft plan, it will put at risk essential watersheds that sovereign tribes rely on and that have historical, cultural, and economic significance.<\/p>\n

\"Smokehouse\"<\/p>\n

Western Alaska families use smokehouses\u2014like this one that belongs to Arnold Demoski\u2019s family\u2014to preserve the salmon harvest.<\/p>\n

Rosa Peter<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BLM draft plan rejects tribes\u2019 nominations for protection of critical watersheds ISSUE BRIEF: December 3, 2020 Topics:\u00a0Land Conservation | Projects:\u00a0U.S. Public Lands and Rivers Conservation David W. Shaw This issue brief is part of a series outlining public lands in Alaska that are in danger of losing protection. Overview Since \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nativecouncil.org\/natrec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nativecouncil.org\/natrec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nativecouncil.org\/natrec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nativecouncil.org\/natrec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nativecouncil.org\/natrec\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nativecouncil.org\/natrec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2315,"href":"https:\/\/nativecouncil.org\/natrec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2314\/revisions\/2315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nativecouncil.org\/natrec\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nativecouncil.org\/natrec\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nativecouncil.org\/natrec\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}