Bull moose walking near the Trans-Alaska Pipeline

What We Manage in Alaska

BLM Alaska manages more surface and subsurface acres than any other state with BLM-managed lands. This includes approximately 70 million surface acres and 220 million subsurface acres (Federal mineral estate) in a state with a landmass equivalent to about one-fifth of the entire contiguous United States. In FY2023, the BLM’s management of public lands in the state supported more than 3,973 jobs, with a total economic impact of more than $1.5 billion.

BLM Alaska manages the following National Conservation Lands Units:

  • Steese National Conservation Area (1.2 million acres)
  • Iditarod National Historic Trail (418 Miles), for which the BLM is the administrator
  • Beaver Creek Wild and Scenic River (111 miles)
  • Birch Creek Wild and Scenic River (126 miles)
  • Delta Wild and Scenic River (62 miles)
  • Fortymile Wild and Scenic River (392 miles)
  • Gulkana Wild and Scenic River (181 miles)
  • Unalakleet Wild and Scenic River (80 miles)
  • Central Arctic Management Area (326,000 acres)

BLM Alaska manages the agency's only National Recreation Area. Located just an hour's drive from Fairbanks, Alaska, the 1-million-acre White Mountains National Recreation Area offers 12 public-use cabins, stunning scenery, peaceful solitude, and outstanding opportunities for year-round recreation.

Visitor or Outdoor Education Centers

  • Campbell Creek Science Center and Campbell Tract (730 acres)
  • BLM Public Information Centers (Anchorage and Fairbanks)
  • Arctic Interagency Visitor Center in Coldfoot (Multiagency, BLM Lead)
  • Alaska Resource Library and Information Services (ARLIS) (Multi-agency, BLM full-time librarian)
  • Alaska Public Lands Information Centers (Multiagency, NPS lead - Anchorage, Fairbanks, Tok, Ketchikan)
  • Winter Contact Station (Coldfoot)
  • Yukon Crossing Contact Station (Dalton Highway)

Federal Subsistence Management Program in Alaska (Alaska National Interest Conservation Act or ANILCA)

  • State Director serves on Federal Subsistence Board
  • Implements Federal subsistence management hunting and fishing regulations and permits
  • Approximately $1.5 million annually spent on subsistence resource management, including reviews of BLM resource management plans 

Energy and Minerals

BLM manages 22.1 million acres of surface (and subsurface) estate plus the subsurface mineral rights to an additional to 650,000 acres in the ~23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A).

Oversight of Trans-Alaska Pipeline System

  • Pipeline Monitoring and Environmental Compliance Section
  • 800 mile-long pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez
  • 2023 total throughput was 171,256,363 barrels

For more than 50 years, BLM-Alaska has overseen the largest title transfer program in the Federal government involving the transfer of over 150 million acres of Federal lands.

  • 45.7 million acres under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971
  • 104.5 million acres under the Alaska Statehood Act of 1958
  • 16,034 parcels applied for under the Native Allotment Act of 1906

  • 1,070 parcels applied for under the Native Veterans Act of 1998

  • 379 parcels applied for under the Alaska Native Vietnam-Era Veterans Land Allotment Program, Sec. 1119 of the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act of 2019 (to 04/16/2024)

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline and the Koyukuk River paralleling the Dalton Highway, Alaska, photo by Bob Wick, BLM