Аляска ұлттық мүдделерді қорғау актісі

United States federal law providing protection to certain areas in Alaska

The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) is a United States federal law signed by President Jimmy Carter on December 2, 1980. ANILCA provided varying degrees of special protection to over of land, including national parks, national wildlife refuges, national monuments, wild and scenic rivers, recreational areas, national forests, and conservation areas. It was, and remains to date, the single largest expansion of protected lands in history and more than doubled the size of the National Park System. The Act provided for of new national parklands in Alaska; the addition of to the National Wildlife Refuge System; twenty five wild and scenic rivers, with twelve more to be studied for that designation; establishment of Misty Fjords and Admiralty Island National Monuments in Southeast Alaska; establishment of Steese National Conservation Area and White Mountains National Recreation Area to be managed by the Bureau of Land Management; the addition of to the Wilderness Preservation System, and the addition of to Tongass and Chugach National Forests.

In 1971 the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was signed into law to resolve the long standing issues surrounding aboriginal land claims in Alaska, as well as to stimulate economic development throughout Alaska. Section 17(d)(1) gave the Secretary of the Interior ninety days to withdraw from development any lands necessary "to insure that the public interest in these lands is properly protected." Additionally, Section 17(d)(2) directed the Secretary of the Interior to withdraw up to 80 million acres of land from development for conservation purposes. These lands, referred to as "d 2" lands, were to be available for potential congressional designation as National Parks, Wildlife Refuges, Wild and Scenic rivers, or National Forests. The "d 2" provision of ANCSA gave the Secretary nine months to withdraw lands before they would re open to development. On December 17, 1972, Interior Secretary Rogers Morton forwarded of selected lands to Congress under 17(d)(1) and 17(d)(2), known as the "Morton Proposal."

The Interior Department and the National Park Service became concerned as 1978 dragged on that no action would be taken on the "national interest lands" included in the Morton Proposal, and as early as July 1978 the Park Service had taken the first steps to secure additional protection when it began to draft national monument proclamations for proposed NPS areas. Much of the lands designated as National Monument were part of the original Morton Proposal. An additional 40 million acres were withdrawn under the authority of section 204(c) of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act by Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus.

Lands claimed by Alaska Natives under ANCSA are officially recognized. Native land claims pending as of December 18, 1971, are officially approved. Existing timber contracts are to be filled with timber from other national forest lands. If private land is surrounded by conservation system units "adequate and feasible" access must be guaranteed.

Senator Gravel, meanwhile, took considerable blame in Alaska for forcing Carter's hand with the Antiquities Act. Though Carter was hardly held blameless for the creation of the new national monuments, Gravel was taken to task for the unpopular decision as well and was denied his party's nomination for his Senate seat in the 1980 election. With the passage of time, however, and now, several decades later, support for the vision of ANILCA has increased, even among former detractors in Alaska—as the spectacular parks, monuments, refuges and other areas set aside by the 1980 legislation have become a significant boon to Alaska tourism and the State's economy. A telephone poll in 2000 showed that 45 percent of Alaskans supported the protection of the ANILCA designated 1002 coastal plain area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the most controversial aspect of ANILCA's protected areas, while 49 percent opposed the protection. The final bill accelerated logging in the Tongass National Forest, the nation's largest, by giving the US Forest Service a yearly $40,000,000 appropriation to cut timber, not subject to the appropriation laws but derived from the taxes on oil etc, and by providing that 450 million board feet of trees would be clearcut each year. This was the price conservationists paid in the compromise.

Under Title VIII, Subsistence Management And Use, not just Alaska Natives qualified but also rural residents were granted hunting and fishing rights when fish and game are not under outside threat. In addition the bill expedited the enactment of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.