Press Release
BLM announces destructive Western Arctic lease sale
The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is a vitally important area for Nuiqsut and other North Slope communities that depend on its diverse wildlife, including caribou, birds and fish.
The federal Bureau of Land Management will offer more than 600 tracts totaling roughly 5.5 million acres in the Western Arctic’s 23 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska
Today, the federal Bureau of Land Management announced that it will hold an oil and gas lease sale on March 9, offering more than 600 tracts totaling roughly 5.5 million acres in the Western Arctic’s 23 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
In response to this development, The Wilderness Society issued the following statement from Alaska Senior Manager Matt Jackson:
“BLM has put millions of acres on the chopping block despite the Western Arctic holding among the most important and massive wetland complexes in the American Arctic. Instead of protecting the freedom of all Alaskans to enjoy these lands, this administration is recklessly selling off the clean air, clean water and wildlife we depend on, while shortchanging future generations who deserve to inherit healthy lands.
"They are rushing to sell off our public lands for corporate profits at the expense of the American people, beloved wildlife, and Alaskans who depend on nearby fish and game,” Jackson added. “The Teshekpuk Lake area in the Western Arctic is home to the largest congregation of migratory birds nesting in the entire global Arctic and the calving ground of the Teshekpuk Lake Caribou Herd. It is one of the last places on Earth we should be leasing.”
Officially named the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, the 23-million-acre Western Arctic is America’s largest tract of public land and was designated by Congress in the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act to be managed for both conservation and energy production.
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