Latest news with #AlaskaNationalInterestLandsConservationAct
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Federal appeals court upholds emergency subsistence hunt in Southeast Alaska village of Kake
The shoreline of Kake, a Tlingit village of about 500 people, is seen in 2012. (Photo provided by the Alaska Division of Community Affairs) A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the board which regulates subsistence hunting on federal lands within Alaska acted legally when it created an emergency hunt for a Southeast Alaska village during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency. The order, issued Monday, is the latest chapter of a five-year-old legal dispute stemming from a hunt authorized by the Federal Subsistence Board because the emergency in 2020 disrupted the normal food supply for the Southeast Alaska village of Kake. The emergency hunt resulted in the harvest of two moose and five deer, which were distributed to local residents. The state of Alaska later sued the board, arguing that approving the emergency hunt was beyond its authority and that the board acted inappropriately by delegating the hunt's administration to the Kake tribe. The Organized Village of Kake joined the lawsuit on the side of the Federal Subsistence board. The state's initial lawsuit was ruled moot by U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason, but the 9th Circuit overturned that decision and sent the case back to Gleason, who ruled partially in favor of the state and partially in favor of the board. The state appealed again to the 9th Circuit, but on Tuesday, federal judges Carlos Bea (appointed by George W. Bush), Lucy Koh (Barack Obama) and Jennifer Sung (Joe Biden) confirmed that the hunt was legal. With Bea writing a statement on the ruling for all three judges, they said that the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act permits access to subsistence resources on federal land, not just access to the land where those resources may be found. Bea cited Section 811 of ANILCA, in which Congress directed the Secretary of the Interior to ensure 'reasonable access to subsistence resources on the public lands.' 'Congress intended that the Secretary ensure that rural residents of Alaska have the reasonable opportunity to reach and use subsistence resources that can be found on federal land in Alaska,' Bea wrote. The decision implies that the board has the authority to create hunts, not just end them, as the state had argued. The judges also overruled part of a U.S. District Court decision that was partially in favor of the state, saying Gleason improperly handled prior instructions by the 9th Circuit. 'We hold that under Title VIII of (ANILCA), the Board has the power to authorize an emergency subsistence hunt on federal public lands for rural residents of the state of Alaska,' Bea wrote on behalf of the board. Court of Appeals decisions are considered final, unless appealed to a higher court, such as the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision by the three judges could also be appealed to the entire 9th Circuit. Doug Vincent-Lang, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said in an emailed statement that the department doesn't agree with the decision. 'We are disappointed and disagree with this decision. It is both bewildering and perplexing that the court could rule against the plain language of the Alaska National Interest Claims Act, especially in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Chevron deference. This ruling fundamentally alters the carefully crafted agreement that Congress made in adopting their language,' he said. 'We are currently reviewing our next steps.' Attorneys representing Kake said by email that the tribe is pleased with the result. 'Today's decision from the 9th Circuit is a significant victory for the Organized Village of Kake and Alaska Native subsistence rights,' they said. 'The 9th Circuit rejected the State of Alaska's shameful, politically-motivated attempt to gut ANILCA's subsistence provisions, and confirmed the Federal Subsistence Board's authority to open a small hunt to provide desperately needed access to healthy and traditional food to a remote Alaska community at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today's victory is an affirmation of the promises that Congress made to protect subsistence rights, and comes at a time when the State is still seeking to erode those rights in other litigation and actions. The Tribe is very pleased with the result.'
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why there won't be significant logging in the Tongass
The setting sun casts pink hues in the Craig District of the Tongass National Forest on June 15, 2020. (Photo by Amy Li/U.S. Forest Service) Industrial-scale logging in the Tongass National Forest was due to monopolies created by the federal government and taxpayer subsidies. Two proposed pulp mills were granted 50-year logging contracts in territorial days: Ketchikan Pulp Company in Ketchikan was awarded 8.25 billion board feet in 1951 and Alaska Pulp Company in Sitka 4.975 billion board feet in 1956. Wrangell Lumber Company also received a 50-year contract that allowed them to harvest 60 million board feet of timber annually from the early 1960s until 1990. The sawmill minimally processed the trees into what are known as 'cants' and shipped them overseas. The 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act exempted the Tongass from complying with the National Forest Management Act of 1976, which led to very low stumpage fees, or the cost timber harvesters had to pay the federal government. The U.S. Forest Service had to spend an enormous amount of staff time surveying timber tracts and building roads in remote areas. A study by the Southeast Conservation Council calculated the federal government spent $386 million for preparation and sale of Tongass timber while collecting only $32 million in stumpage fees from 1982 to 1988. While the heyday of the timber industry supported about 4,000 jobs, many were nonresidents or recent arrivals who left when the pulp mills closed. Most of my former colleagues at the Sitka mill went 'back home' to Washington when the mill ceased operation. The pulp mills closed primarily because of tree farms in warmer climates such as South Africa, where forests grow much faster than the Tongass. Many fruit and vegetable farms in the southern U.S. converted to tree farms. The 2016 Tongass Land and Resource Management Plan created a 16-year transition period from harvest of old growth trees to second-growth timber. The first 10 years would allow the annual cutting of 34 million board feet of old growth and 12 million board feet of second growth before shifting to 5 million board feet of old growth and 41 million board feet of second-growth trees. This plan was upset by the 2001 'Roadless Rule,' which set aside 58.5 million acres of national forests, including 9.2 million acres in the Tongass. The national rule forbade 'road construction, road reconstruction and timber harvesting' in the set-aside acreage. The first Trump administration ended the Roadless Rule, but the Biden administration reinstated it. Now President Trump again wants to strike it down. Second-growth forests require massive thinning operations in remote locations and very little thinning has been accomplished in the old clearcuts. The only trees with market value are old growth, which takes a century to reach maturity in the Tongass. So, are there enough standing old-growth trees to support a vibrant timber industry in the Tongass? It depends upon who you ask. As a young journalist in Ketchikan, I interviewed a couple of men who took part in the initial surveys of Tongass timber that helped support the 50-year contracts. They said the surveys were accomplished by flyovers with a very few boots on the ground, and grossly overestimated the volume of harvestable timber. In a recent interview by the Juneau Empire, Joel Jackson, president of the Organized Village of Kake, pointed out that 'nobody touched' numerous past timber sales on Kupreanof and Kuiu islands, as the cost of accessing the trees and getting them to market overwhelmed the market value. If the 'DOGE' cuts to the U.S. Forest Service are left in place, the foresters would be hard-pressed to do the groundwork necessary to make sales. Those looking to resurrect industrial-scale logging in the Tongass are chasing an old dream that fails to recognize the current importance of tourism, which relies upon healthy forests and wildlife. The salmon fishermen of the Tongass need healthy streams, not clearcuts. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - Trump has the chance and the legal tools to tap Alaska's minerals and energy
President Trump returned to office committed to delivering our country to a position of energy dominance. And his executive order unleashing the extraordinary natural resources in Alaska set a positive tone by seeking to override many harmful Biden-era actions. When it comes to both energy exploration and the search for critical minerals, the President can and should use the full authority of his office to allow America's Last Frontier to achieve its full potential. For decades, leftist environmentalist crusaders have used permitting processes and litigation to drown projects vital to Alaska's interests in red tape. But last year's Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo provides the Trump administration with a clear pathway to cutting through the bureaucratic thicket. By eliminating excessive deference to an unaccountable administrative state, the Court returned power to the political branches, handing Trump the machete he needs to slash unnecessary delays. Take, for instance, Alaska's Ambler Mining District, home of critical minerals including gold, silver, cobalt, and billions of pounds of copper and zinc. In 2020, the Trump Administration approved permits for a 211-mile road that would link the district to Alaska's highway system, allowing for exploration and development of these important natural resources. But upon taking office, the Biden Administration pulled the right of way permits, and then initiated a supplemental environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act permitting process. Last June, the Bureau of Land Management under Biden denied the permit that Trump had previously approved, in an act which one local publication rightly said 'could limit future resource development in Alaska.' Apart from the fact that Native tribes and the bipartisan Alaskan congressional delegation opposed the action, the Biden Administration's denial also violated federal law. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, signed in the final days of Jimmy Carter's presidency in 1980, included a congressional finding that 'there is a need for access for surface transportation purposes' in the Ambler Mining District, and directed that 'the Secretary [of the Interior] shall permit such access.' The law even specified a streamlined permitting process, stating that 'such analysis…shall not be subject to judicial review.' Yet Biden Administration bureaucrats decided to countermand the explicit actions made by a prior Democratic Congress and Democratic President. President Trump's Day One executive order directed his Administration to review the Biden rejection of the permit, and restore the decision made in his first term allowing the road to proceed. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum should act swiftly to reverse the actions of his predecessor and should cite both Loper Bright and the Carter-era law in doing so. Congress was very clear about its desire to promote access to the Ambler Mining District, and no unelected bureaucrat decades later should have the ability to reverse that clear intent. More broadly, the Trump Administration can and should use similar grants of authority from Congress to steamroll the dilatory tactics of environmental activists intent on holding back our country's untapped potential. As with the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act clarified Congress' desire for energy exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Secretary Burgum should invoke that statute liberally, to prevent a recurrence of the illegal tactics the Biden Administration utilized over the past four years to prevent Alaska from developing its full potential. From the lower oil and gas prices resulting from energy exploration in ANWR to the renewable batteries and defense products associated with Ambler's critical minerals, Alaska can provide the resources necessary to power our country through the 21th century — and beyond. Doing so only requires an administration dedicated to following the law, rather than thwarting it. I hope and pray that Trump will do just that. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, is Alaska's 12th governor. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
22-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Trump has the chance and the legal tools to tap Alaska's minerals and energy
President Trump returned to office committed to delivering our country to a position of energy dominance. And his executive order unleashing the extraordinary natural resources in Alaska set a positive tone by seeking to override many harmful Biden-era actions. When it comes to both energy exploration and the search for critical minerals, the President can and should use the full authority of his office to allow America's Last Frontier to achieve its full potential. For decades, leftist environmentalist crusaders have used permitting processes and litigation to drown projects vital to Alaska's interests in red tape. But last year's Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo provides the Trump administration with a clear pathway to cutting through the bureaucratic thicket. By eliminating excessive deference to an unaccountable administrative state, the Court returned power to the political branches, handing Trump the machete he needs to slash unnecessary delays. Take, for instance, Alaska's Ambler Mining District, home of critical minerals including gold, silver, cobalt, and billions of pounds of copper and zinc. In 2020, the Trump Administration approved permits for a 211-mile road that would link the district to Alaska's highway system, allowing for exploration and development of these important natural resources. But upon taking office, the Biden Administration pulled the right of way permits, and then initiated a supplemental environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act permitting process. Last June, the Bureau of Land Management under Biden denied the permit that Trump had previously approved, in an act which one local publication rightly said 'could limit future resource development in Alaska.' Apart from the fact that Native tribes and the bipartisan Alaskan congressional delegation opposed the action, the Biden Administration's denial also violated federal law. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, signed in the final days of Jimmy Carter's presidency in 1980, included a congressional finding that 'there is a need for access for surface transportation purposes' in the Ambler Mining District, and directed that 'the Secretary [of the Interior] shall permit such access.' The law even specified a streamlined permitting process, stating that 'such analysis…shall not be subject to judicial review.' Yet Biden Administration bureaucrats decided to countermand the explicit actions made by a prior Democratic Congress and Democratic President. President Trump's Day One executive order directed his Administration to review the Biden rejection of the permit, and restore the decision made in his first term allowing the road to proceed. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum should act swiftly to reverse the actions of his predecessor and should cite both Loper Bright and the Carter-era law in doing so. Congress was very clear about its desire to promote access to the Ambler Mining District, and no unelected bureaucrat decades later should have the ability to reverse that clear intent. More broadly, the Trump Administration can and should use similar grants of authority from Congress to steamroll the dilatory tactics of environmental activists intent on holding back our country's untapped potential. As with the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act clarified Congress' desire for energy exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Secretary Burgum should invoke that statute liberally, to prevent a recurrence of the illegal tactics the Biden Administration utilized over the past four years to prevent Alaska from developing its full potential. From the lower oil and gas prices resulting from energy exploration in ANWR to the renewable batteries and defense products associated with Ambler's critical minerals, Alaska can provide the resources necessary to power our country through the 21th century — and beyond. Doing so only requires an administration dedicated to following the law, rather than thwarting it. I hope and pray that Trump will do just that.
