Alaska in the early 1950s was one of the world's last great undeveloped
areas. Yet sweeping changes were underway. In l958 Congress awarded the
new state over 100 million acres to promote economic development. In
1971, 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 an essential guide to Alaska's recent past and to
contemporary local and national debates over the future of public lands
and resources. It 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 1970s
and after. Engagingly written, Northern Landscapes focuses on efforts to
persuade public officials to recognize the value of Alaska's mountains,
forests, and wildlife. That activity culminated in the passage of the
Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) of 1980, which
set aside more than 100 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.
