U.S. Department of the Interior
Office of the Secretary

Mike Gauldin (O) 202/208-6416


For Release: December 1, 1995

Statement by Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt

Alaska--its lands and its people--are cherished by all Americans, those who have been fortunate enough to visit and countless millions who dearly want to, to whom it would be the vacation of a lifetime.

Record numbers of visitors came to Alaska's national parks, wildlife refuges and public lands this year, boosting not only the state's economy but giving hundreds of thousands of people a greater appreciation of the American land conservation ethic. This week, all Americans should join Alaskans in celebrating a very special anniversary.

The vast majority of the Alaska units managed by the Department of the Interior were established 15 years ago, on December 2, 1980, as part of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which former President Jimmy Carter has called one of my proudest accomplishments as President. The act established 10 new National Park Service units, nine wildlife refuges managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and large conservation and recreation units under the Bureau of Land Management.

These units were established primarily as places where we preserved our common heritage both to show our grandchildren and to sustain the ecosystems on which we ultimately depend.

These lands are part of the great mosaic of Alaska, the only state big enough to provide not only for a range of development activities within federal, state, Native and private lands, but also to protect unimpaired public values and resources found nowhere else. This legislation was controversial in Alaska when it became law, but 15 years later it is evident that the law works --these nationally important lands are providing a new economic base for Alaskans and at the same time preserving some of finest country in America.

Visitation to the increasingly well-known National Park Service areas has skyrocketed since 1980. The final numbers are not in for 1995, but parks expect to see more than 1.6 million recreational visits in Alaska, triple the number in 1981. Denali continues to be the most visited area, with about 490,000 visits, followed by Klondike Gold Rush (400,000), Glacier Bay (250,000) and Kenai Fjords (210,000).

The 16 national wildlife refuges in Alaska attract some three-quarters of a million visitors annually, while areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management are used by about 300,000 recreational visitors each year. For instance, since 1980, the one-million acre White Mountains National Recreation Area northeast of Fairbanks has been transformed into a popular winter playground. The BLM has built nine public recreation cabins and connected them with a 200-mile long system of winter trails popular with snowmachiners, dog mushers and skiers.

Interior agencies, in an ANILCA-arranged association with state agencies, have built the Alaska Public Lands Information Centers in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Tok into efficient, one-stop centers used by more than 200,000 people each year.

Tourism numbers also have translated into sustainable business opportunities for many Alaskans. More than 400 businesses are licensed to operate on refuges, parks and other public lands. The companies range from sole proprietor hunting and fishing guides to multi-national cruiseship operators, and employ thousands of people in full-time and seasonal jobs.

Conservation units in Alaska --especially in the north and west --protect major breeding grounds for vast populations of ducks, geese and other waterfowl. Hundreds of thousands of caribou breed on and migrate across public lands in northern, Interior and southwest Alaska. Lands set aside in 1980 also host thriving populations of grizzly bears, bald eagles, wolves and peregrine falcons --species whose populations have been seriously reduced in the Lower 48.

In addition to world-class sport fishing opportunities on public lands, Alaska's $2 billion commercial fishing industry also relies on federal lands, as much of the salmon harvest off the state's shores begins its life in the protected waters of national parks, wildlife refuges and other public lands.

The 1980 Act also embraced the fact that people are very much a part of the Alaska landscape. Subsistence hunting and fishing is prospering and a crucial component of rural economies, giving rural Alaskans the opportunity to continue providing game and fish to their families and to perpetuate significant cultural and spiritual traditions. The artifacts of people, from the earliest North Americans to the turn-of-the-century gold seekers, are also protected across Alaska.

According to former President Carter, ANILCA and other major Alaska legislation not only protected America s heritage, but also provided special consideration for extractive resource development, concessions for commercial use of vast areas of the North Slope, and left available for development 95 percent of Alaska s most promising oil-bearing fields.

Thanks to this hard-won, balanced approach, said Mr. Carter, these historic pieces of legislation received broad, bi-partisan support.

In the 15 years since the passage of ANILCA, the American people have come to agree that the law has been well-implemented and the important, long-term values of the land have been protected.

-DOI-

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