Interior Secretary Haaland Reverses Trump-Era Alaska Land Exchange

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) on Tuesday withdrew a land exchange in Alaska between the Interior Department and King Cove Corporation that was signed by Trump administration's Interior Secretary David Bernhardt in July 2019.

The land exchange would have allowed a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge that lies between the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. President Jimmy Carter designated 307,082 acres of the refuge as wilderness in 1980 under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA).

In a statement released on Tuesday the Interior Department said it "determined that the 2019 land exchange contained several procedural flaws and was not consistent with Departmental policy. It was entered into without public participation and did not analyze potential effects on subsistence uses and habitat."

https://nativenewsonline.net/environment/interior-secretary-haaland-reverses-trump-era-alaskan-land-exchange