HJR 21: Urging the Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior to withdraw a secretarial order that creates a wild land classification and to administer federal lands in the state in accordance with existing statutes and agency guidelines; and urging the United States Congress to prohibit the use of appropriated funds by the United States Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management to implement, administer, or enforce the secretarial order.
00 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 21 01 Urging the Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior to withdraw a 02 secretarial order that creates a wild land classification and to administer federal lands in 03 the state in accordance with existing statutes and agency guidelines; and urging the 04 United States Congress to prohibit the use of appropriated funds by the United States 05 Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management to implement, 06 administer, or enforce the secretarial order. 07 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 08 WHEREAS, on December 22, 2010, Ken Salazar, United States Secretary of the 09 Interior, issued Secretarial Order No. 3310, relating to the protection of wilderness 10 characteristics on lands managed by the United States Bureau of Land Management; and 11 WHEREAS Secretarial Order No. 3310 directs the Bureau of Land Management to 12 inventory all managed land for wilderness characteristics and to designate land with 13 wilderness characteristics as "Wild Lands" through land use planning; and 14 WHEREAS a designation of land as "Wild Lands" is a new land classification; and
01 WHEREAS the state's Citizens' Advisory Commission on Federal Areas determined 02 that Secretarial Order No. 3310 was drafted and issued without consultation with the state, 03 other affected states, or the public, and therefore does not comply with the Memorandum on 04 Transparency and Open Government issued by the President of the United States in 05 January 2009; and 06 WHEREAS, in issuing Secretarial Order No. 3310, Secretary Salazar failed to 07 recognize that only the United States Congress may designate land as wilderness; and 08 WHEREAS, in issuing Secretarial Order No. 3310, Secretary Salazar failed to 09 recognize that the policy expressed in the order will negatively affect the state's cultural 10 resources and economic prosperity; and 11 WHEREAS the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act formally designated 12 57,000,000 acres of the land in the state as "wilderness"; and 13 WHEREAS, by enacting 16 U.S.C. 3101(d) and 16 U.S.C. 3213 (secs. 101(d) and 14 1326(b), Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act), the United States Congress 15 clearly stated that there were sufficient federal wilderness land holdings in the state and 16 expressly forbade the presumptive management of land for its wilderness characteristics 17 without prior congressional approval; and 18 WHEREAS, contrary to a statement by the Department of the Interior that "there has 19 never been a statewide wilderness inventory in Alaska," the land in the state was extensively 20 inventoried, reviewed, and classified for its wilderness value after passage of the Alaska 21 Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971; and 22 WHEREAS, by issuing Secretarial Order No. 3310, Secretary Salazar has reversed a 23 30-year policy of the Bureau of Land Management of conducting no further wilderness 24 reviews in the state; and 25 WHEREAS, in conjunction with the issuance of Secretarial Order No. 3310, the 26 Department of the Interior released a document titled "Wild Lands, Inventory and Planning 27 Guidance Questions and Answers," which included a series of questions and answers relating 28 to Secretarial Order No. 3310 and, in that document, stated that the "Secretary's Order applies 29 to BLM public lands in Alaska," and that the Bureau of Land Management must inventory the 30 lands in the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska and "may designate Wild Lands in NPR-A 31 as part of its integrated activity planning for the area"; and
01 WHEREAS the directive to inventory the lands in the National Petroleum Reserve - 02 Alaska and the authority to designate "Wild Lands" in the National Petroleum Reserve - 03 Alaska places the Bureau of Land Management in violation of 42 U.S.C. 6502 (sec. 102, 04 Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976) and 43 U.S.C. 1712 and 1782 (secs. 202 05 and 603, Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976); and 06 WHEREAS designating land in the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska as "Wild 07 Lands" would effectively preclude oil and other resource development and is likely to result 08 in protracted and costly litigation; and 09 WHEREAS Secretarial Order No. 3310 would enable the Bureau of Land 10 Management to create de facto wilderness areas without congressional oversight, thereby 11 violating the intent of the United States Congress, expressed in the Wilderness Act of 1964, 12 that wilderness designations be subject to congressional approval; and 13 WHEREAS Secretarial Order No. 3310 creates a presumption against the use of land 14 through the default position of protecting wilderness characteristics unless the Bureau of Land 15 Management determines that impairment of wilderness characteristics is appropriate; this 16 presumption will stifle economic development of the state's natural resources and reduce 17 future employment opportunities for Alaskans; 18 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States 19 Secretary of the Interior to immediately withdraw Secretarial Order No. 3310 and direct the 20 Bureau of Land Management to administer federal land in Alaska in accordance with existing 21 statutes and guidelines of the agency; and be it 22 FURTHER RESOLVED that, should the United States Secretary of the Interior 23 decline to withdraw Secretarial Order No. 3310, the Alaska State Legislature urges the United 24 States Congress to prohibit the use of any appropriated funds by the United States Department 25 of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management to implement, administer, or enforce 26 Secretarial Order No. 3310. 27 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Ken Salazar, United States 28 Secretary of the Interior; the Honorable Daniel S. Sullivan, Commissioner, Department of 29 Natural Resources; the Honorable John J. Burns, Alaska Attorney General; Stan Leaphart, 30 Executive Director, Citizens' Advisory Commission on Federal Areas; and the Honorable Lisa 31 Murkowski and the Honorable Mark Begich, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young,
01 U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.