A guide to Alaska's recent past and to contemporary local and national debates over the future of public lands and resources. It examines the campaign to preserve wild Alaska through the creation of a vast system of parks and wildlife refuges. It traces disputes over resources alongside the politics of the Alaska statehood movement.
Alaska in the early l950s was one of the world's last great, undeveloped areas. Yet sweeping changes were underway. In l958, Congress awarded the new state over l00 million acres to promote economic development. In l971, it gave Native groups more than 40 million acres to settle land claims and facilitate the building of an 800-mile oil pipeline. Spurred by the newly militant environmental movement, it also began to consider the preservation of Alaska's magnificent scenery and wildlife.
Northern Landscapes is the first comprehensive examination of the campaign to preserve wild Alaska through the creation of a vast system of parks and wildlife refuges. Drawing on archival sources and interviews, Daniel Nelson traces disputes over resources alongside the politics of the Alaska statehood movement. He provides in-depth coverage of the growth of Alaskan environmental organizations, their partnerships with national groups, and their participation in political campaigns into the l970s.
Engagingly written, Northern Landscapes focuses on the activism that led to the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) of l980, which set aside more than l00 million acres, doubling the size of the national park and wildlife refuge systems, and tripling the size of the wilderness preservation system. Arguably the single greatest triumph of environmentalism, ANILCA also set the stage for continuing battles over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Alaska's national forests.
'This detailed description of the conservation history of our 49th state provides valuable context and background. . . .Offers direct, often terse narrative that brings us right into the action and lets us share the often agonizing suspense.'
Alaska Report, Sierra Club
