Western Arctic - Reserve
The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (Reserve) is the largest single unit of public lands in the nation. Encompassing 22 million acres, the Reserve harbors rich and vital wild lands and wildlife, important in their own right and to the Inupiat people of Alaska’s North Slope for their subsistence culture. President Harding established the Naval Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in 1923. Congress transferred management of the area from the Navy to the Interior Department in 1976 and required the Secretary of Interior to provide “maximum protection” for its critical biological and cultural resources.
In 2013, the Department of the Interior (DOI) adopted a management plan that received strong public support and put in place sensible conservation protections for 11 million acres in the Reserve, setting aside five Special Areas of exceptional wildlife and wilderness value: Teshekpuk Lake, Colville River, Utukok River Uplands, Kasegaluk Lagoon and Peard Bay. DOI spent years working with the tribal community, local governments, the state of Alaska, the Western Arctic Caribou Herd Working Group and the public on the current management plan. The vast majority of commenters supported strong protections for key areas and resources.
Now DOI has started an environmental review process likely seeking to undo protections put in place under the Obama administration in Reserve Special Areas. One of the reasons the Trump administration is moving to open up protected areas in the Reserve is ConocoPhillips interest in more acreage within the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area. ConocoPhillips is doubling down on development in the Reserve, pushing forward with current projects and buying hundreds of thousands of acres for future development, continuing to build upon its growing spider web of oil and gas development projects.
