Latest news with #WesternArctic
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump officials open up millions of acres in Alaska to drilling and mining
Millions of acres of Alaska wilderness will lose federal protections and be exposed to drilling and mining in the Trump administration's latest move to prioritize energy production over the shielding of the US's open spaces. Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, said on Monday that the government would reverse an order issued by Joe Biden in December that banned drilling in the remote 23m-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), the New York Times reported. The former president's executive order was part of a package of protections for large areas of Alaska, some elements of which the state was challenging in court when he left office in January. Burgum was speaking in Alaska on Monday accompanied by the Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin, and the energy secretary Chris Wright. He said the Biden administration had prioritized 'obstruction over production' and Biden's order was 'undermining our ability to harness domestic resources at a time when American energy independence has never been more critical'. In a post to Twitter/X, Wright said oil production was the 'engine of economic growth' in Alaska, funding more than 90% of the state's general revenue. 'Unleashing American energy goes hand in hand with unleashing American prosperity,' he wrote. Donald Trump declared a 'national energy emergency' on the first day of his second term of office in January, promising an avalanche of executive orders friendly to the fossil fuel industry and supporting his campaign message of 'drill, baby, drill'. Environmental groups had long feared Alaska would be the US president's number one target given the state's abundance of untapped oil and gas reserves, and immediately criticized the move to open up drilling in an area crucial to the survival of imperiled Arctic species. 'The Trump administration's move to roll back protections in the most ecologically important areas of the Western Arctic threatens wildlife, local communities, and our climate, all to appease extractive industries,' Kristen Miller, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, said in a statement. Related: 'Protect our future': Alaskan Indigenous town fights 'destructive' uranium mine project 'This is another outrageous attempt to sell off public lands to oil industry billionaires at the expense of one of the wildest places left in America. 'These lands are home to caribou, migratory birds, and vital subsistence resources that Indigenous communities have relied on for generations. The public fought hard for these protections, and we won't stay silent while they're dismantled.' The NPR-A lies about 600 miles north of Anchorage, and is bordered by the Chukchi Sea to the west and Beaufort Sea to the north. It is the largest single area of public land in the US, the Times reported. It was created at the beginning of the 20th century as an emergency fuel reserve for the military, and expanded to full commercial development in 1976 by an act of Congress. Lawmakers, however, ordered that land conservation measures and wildlife protections should be given prominence. Trump's efforts to turbocharge drilling in Alaska, however, have not been as popular as he would have liked. Despite a promise to 'open up' the 19m-acre Arctic national wildlife refuge, a proposed auction of leases in January, authorized by the previous Congress but a crucial plank of the incoming president's energy strategy, did not attract any bidders. 'There are some places too special and sacred to exploit with oil and gas drilling,' Laura Daniel-Davis, the acting deputy secretary of the interior department, told the Times.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The BLM Public Lands Rule Has Been ‘Marked for Death'
Sources working closely with the Bureau of Land Management say a Biden-era rule that made conservation a legitimate use of BLM lands — putting it on par with grazing, mineral extraction, recreation, and other uses — has been put on the chopping block by the Trump administration. They say that by quietly filling an online rescission notice of the rule Tuesday the administration has signaled its intentions to kill the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, also known as the Public Lands Rule, that was enacted in August under the Biden administration. A BLM source who was only authorized to speak on background says the rescission of the Public Lands Rule was not yet official Wednesday. They say the timing of that official decision is unknown. The same rescission notice mentions another Biden-era rule that established stronger protections against drilling in the Western Arctic. Neither of these moves is unexpected, but they are a blow to the conservation community. It is also unclear at this point whether the rule could be rescinded via executive order, or by the agency itself, even though the BLM is currently without a director or a deputy director and is still reeling from ongoing staff cuts. But conservation groups who've been closely following the administration's moves around public lands say — as one source at The Wilderness Society puts it — that the rule has effectively been 'marked for death' after Tuesday's notice. 'They are actively moving forward now with steps to revoke the rule,' says Michael Carroll, BLM campaign director at The Wilderness Society. 'The question now is whether they will go through a public process to make sure the American people can comment on it … Or do they just go around the process and get rid of it.' Read Next: Why Is the New BLM Rule So Controversial? That public process was followed precisely according to regulations when the Public Lands Rule was made public and being discussed, Carroll points out. He says of the roughly 200,000 comments received by the BLM during the public comment period, roughly 92 percent of them were in support of the rule. And although it faced an uphill battle in Congress, with many Republican lawmakers calling it another example of government overreach under Biden, the Public Lands Rule was celebrated by conservationists when it was implemented in August. By elevating conservation priorities alongside other traditional uses of BLM land, such as mining and grazing, and giving the BLM tools to better balance those uses, the rule represented a big step toward the agency's long-held goal of actually managing its lands for multiple uses. 'The challenge with all of this is that since the establishment of the BLM, they have not had the regulations, or the conservation framework, in place to effectively do what we would refer to as real multiple use management. So you've seen an agency that has had basically its entire management history focused on prioritizing extraction over other uses,' Carroll tells Outdoor Life. 'Having the Public Lands Rule in place gives all of those people who want to use these lands for hiking, fishing, hunting, camping, all of those things — it allows them to say, 'Hey, there are regulations that actually can govern this land that put those values on equal footing with extraction.'' Judging from recent executive orders, however, Carroll doubts that there will be much of an opportunity for public comment, if any, around the impending rescission of the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule. Read Next: New Executive Order Aims to Make Mining the Primary Use of Public Lands at 'As Many Sites As Possible' One such order, issued exactly a week ago on April 9, calls for the repeal of unlawful regulations, including the 'onerous regulations that impede' the administration's top priorities of economic growth and American innovation. The executive order directs agency heads to 'finalize rules without notice and comment' when necessary, and it allows federal agencies to 'dispense with notice-and-comment rulemaking when that process would be impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.' This would be a major shift from the precedents set over the past few decades, including the public process that has long guided how public lands are managed.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Yahoo
Would you venture to some of these least-visited national parks?
Millions flock to the national parks every year to witness spectacular fall color light up the Great Smoky Mountains or to see the otherworldly geothermal pools in Yellowstone. Last year, in particular, was a banner year for national park visitation, according to newly released figures from the park service: The parks welcomed 331.86 million visitors to the more than 400 national park sites. The visitation numbers are up 2.6% from 2023, marking a full rebound from the years leading up to the pandemic when the parks saw nearly 330 million visitors. While parks like Smoky Mountains, Grand Canyon, Zion, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone national parks continue to be the most popular parks in terms of the number of visitors they attract, park rangers in recent years have said they're noticing that more people are coming during shoulder season and some lesser-known parks are breaking their visitation records. In 2024, there was also a 2.6% increase from 2023 for overnight stays in concession and NPS-operated facilities. Still, there's some parks, many in Alaska, that are mostly undiscovered and receive less than 1% of the parks visitors every year — and it's not because these places aren't just as beautiful as the most popular ones, but rather because they're far more difficult to reach (and some even require backcountry survival skills as a prerequisite for visiting). Ahead, see the most popular national parks, then get an intro to some of the lesser-known parks that are most certainly worth the trek. America's most popular national parks each draw millions of visitors each year. The Smokies top the list with more than 12 million visitors. The park straddles the Tennessee and North Carolina border and is a known destination for leaf peepers who come to see sugar maples, sweetgum, and hickories change colors. It's also a popular place in late-April to June when visitors take a shot with the lottery system to get in and see the synchronous fireflies. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (12.2 million) Zion National Park (4.94 million) Grand Canyon National Park (4.92 million) Yellowstone National Park (4.74 million) Rocky Mountain National Park (4.15 million) Yosemite National Park (4.12 million) Acadia National Park (3.96 million) Olympic National Park (3.71 million) Grand Teton National Park (3.63 million) Glacier National Park (3.21 million) Some of the country's least visited national parks are only accessible by seaplanes or ferries, so their remote locations are likely what's keeping their visitation numbers low. But these lesser-known parks are most certainly worth the trek, and adventurous visitors who make it to these more far-flung spots might see caribou in Gates of the Arctic or see the Northern Lights in the night sky over Michigan. Here's five of the least visited national parks, and what to see while there. Annual Visitors: 11,907 With no trails (unless you count those made by the Western Arctic caribou herd), roads or pre-established campsites, this 8.4-million acre swath of untouched wilderness is north of the Arctic Circle in the Brooks Range, which is the northernmost mountain range in Alaska. Visitors to this remote park need to have solid outdoor survival skills if they're visiting the park on their own, though outfitters and guide services also guide rafting, canoeing, backpacking, or packrafting trips in Gates of the Arctic. The most common way to get into this wildland is to fly in with an air taxi, starting in Fairbanks with several small airlines that provide flights into communities close to the park, including Bettles, Anaktuvuk Pass, and Coldfoot. With glacial valleys and rugged mountains, visitors come to fish for Arctic char and trout as well as float and raft the rivers and hike the Arctic valleys. Annual Visitors: 22,567 This is the only national park that's located south of the equator. The remote park about 2,600 miles southwest of Hawaii, and located in the south Pacific Ocean, is spread out over three tropical islands (Tutuila, Ta'ū, and Ofu) in the Territory of American Samoa. Visitors come here to birdwatch, see fruit bats with three-foot wingspans, and snorkel coral reefs. The park is made up of tropical rainforests, volcanic mountain slopes, and the surrounding water is teeming with reefs that are home to 950 fish varieties as well as endangered sea turtles. The park is also dedicated to protecting Samoan the customs, beliefs and traditions of the 3,000-year-old Samoan culture. Hawaiian Airlines has limited flights from Honolulu to Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa. Annual Visitors: 18,505 Most visitors arrive at Lake Clark National Park via small planes, as the park, which is 120 air miles southwest of Anchorage, doesn't have any developed roads. Visitors come from far and wide to see the brown bears, who feast on salmon and hang out in spots like Chinitna Bay, Crescent Lake in the Chigmit Mountains, and Silver Salmon Creek. The park also has some great half-and full-day hikes, including the Tanalian Falls trek, which is 4 miles round-trip where you'll witness a waterfall over a 30-foot cliff that's made of ancient lava. Annual Visitors: 17,233 Nation park rangers caution that Kobuk Valley isn't for the average tourist, as the Alaskan park is best suited for experienced backcountry explorers. Getting here is a challenge, too, with most visitors arriving via an air taxi from Kotzebue or Bettles. The must-see here are the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, which are more reminiscent of the Sahara Desert than a national park that's 35 miles north of the Arctic Circle. During the summer months, park-goers also boat, float, fish and photograph the landscape. Winter is a tougher visit, but for those well versed in Arctic winter survival skills may come to ski. Annual Visitors: 28,806 Isle Royale is located in the middle of Lake Superior, and those interested in seeing this remote island wilderness can arrive by ferry, seaplane or a private watercraft. The park is open April 16 to Oct. 31, and shuts down in the colder months because of extreme weather conditions. Isle Royale is a destination for scuba divers because of the well-preserved shipwrecks. Hiking, paddling, bikepacking, and camping are other popular activities in the park, though you can also stay in cabins or lodge rooms at Rock Harbor Lodge. South of the Canadian border in the northwoods, visitors to Isle Royale have a shot at seeing Northern lights paint the sky during the shoulder season months. Thanks to its jagged peaks, North Cascades National Park is considered "America's Alps" and visitors here can hike a portion of the iconic Pacific Coast Trail. So it makes sense thtop questions at one of the about North Cascades on Google is: "Why does no one visit?" The short answer: It's a tough park to get to, but those who journey 105 miles northwest from Seattle are rewarded with rugged beauty and a remote wilderness.
