ANILCA

ANILCA was sweeping legislation. The act, which has been called "the most important environmental legislation in the nation's history," turned 104 million acres of Alaska's federal land into conservation holdings, such as national parks and preserves, national forests, and national fish and wildlife preserves. Over half of this land, 56 million acres, was set aside as wilderness, including ten new national parks.

In the Interior, a vast area of reserves was created between the Brooks Range and the Yukon River. These units include the Gates of the Arctic and Kobuk Valley National Parks, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Noatak National Preserve, and the Selawick, Koyukuk, Nowitna, and Innoko National Wildlife Refuges. On the upper Yukon River, ANILCA set up the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, the Steese National Conservation Area, and the White Mountains National Recreation Area. In this region, ANILCA protected a significant area of the state previously open to mining and other development.

In the Southeast, ANILCA added 1.3 million acres to the Tongass Forests, naming 5.4 million of them wilderness. West of the Canada border, the act created the vast Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, together with the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge.  ANILCA created the Lake Clark National Park and the Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve near the Alaska Peninsula. 

In total, ANILCA created or added land to 13  national parks, 16 wildlife refuges, two national forests, two national monuments, two conservation areas, and 26 wild and scenic rivers.  In all of these areas, wildlife, water, and land resources were more fully protected than ever before.

In Washington, President Carter said of the act, "It is a victory in the long struggle to resolve this issue, and is truly an historic moment in our nation's history." Sen. Paul Tsongas, a steady conservation supporter, said the bill was "a victory for the administration and those of us in Congress who have worked for so many years to protect the staggering beauty and abundant natural resources and wildlife of the Alaska wilderness." "No single piece of legislation in our history," he said, "surpasses this act." 

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