Native Claims and Conservation

In 1963, the Wilderness Society held its annual meeting in Alaska at Denali National Park. The purpose was to raise awareness of Alaska conservation issues for national environmental organizations. Delegates produced a statement calling on state and federal officials to ensure that wilderness areas were preserved in any plans for future land use. The State of Alaska was unresponsive to the request and generally focused on economic development instead of conservation. Environmental organizations realized that Congressional action would be the best way to protect any wilderness in Alaska. 

During this same time, Congress was finalizing the ANCSA legislation. The mammoth land settlement was a potential threat to conservation, but also an opportunity to protect Alaskan wilderness. In early 1971, a number of national conservation groups came together to lobby Congress to include conservation withdrawals in the ANCSA claims bill. They called themselves the Alaska Coalition. 

The willingness of most of America's environmental organizations to pool their resources to deal with Alaskan environmental issues shows the importance of Alaska land to the American people. When the ANCSA bill passed, it included section 17(d)(2), which provided that within eight years of passage of the act, Congress would create 80 million acres of new conservation units from federally owned land in Alaska. The "d-2" provision, as it would become known by, became the center of a major national political debate.

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