American Lands Project will work to ensure that more places with exceptional ecological, cultural, or historical value benefit from having decision-makers visit the land and meet the people who will be impacted by their actions. Here are some of the areas where we are currently working:
America’s Arctic
Above the Arctic Circle in Alaska, the spectacular mountains of the 700-mile-long Brooks Range are traversed by a single road that crosses into coastal plains along the Arctic Ocean. America's Arctic comprises millions of acres of public land, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Western Arctic region. Polar Bears, caribou, muskox, beluga whales, and birds from all over the world live here. The Gwich’in and Inupiat people, who have been stewards of the land for generations, continue to rely on its subsistence resources. The Gwich'in - Caribou People - rely on the Porcupine Caribou herd for its food, clothing, shelter, and more. Every summer, the Porcupine Caribou herd makes the longest migration of any land mammal to calve and raise its young on the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge. The Gwich'in people call the coastal plain "The Sacred Place Where Life Begins." This landscape is changing. Thawing permafrost across the Arctic is affecting the people and wildlife who depend on the lands and waters, which could have significant impacts on the global economy. The best way to understand the immensity of this region and the vital role it plays is to experience it firsthand. Photo by Florian Schulz
Tongass National Forest
Our nation’s largest National Forest is in Southeast Alaska. The 16.7 million-acre Tongass National Forest is part of the largest intact temperate rainforest on earth, with old growth trees bordering salmon streams that are fed from melting glaciers and alpine snowfields. Once known for its timber industry, the Tongass is now recognized as a world class tourism destination, and a forest that produces 25% of all the salmon harvested on the Pacific coast each year. Combined, the tourism and fishing industries generate over $2 billion for the Southeast Alaska economy each year, and they are responsible for 1 in 4 jobs in the region. Along with glaciers, bears, and whales, the intact forests of the Tongass are a central tourist attraction. The Tongass is also a critical habitat to the wild salmon that are economically and culturally important to the region. Photo Courtesy of Pack Creek Bear Tours
Owyhee Canyonlands
There are few remaining places in the American West where you can view the night sky without any light pollution. In this remote corner of southeastern Oregon, you can also experience the farthest place in the country from a major highway. Despite this remoteness, the 5 million acres of the Owyhee Canyonlands are a recreational draw for hiking and camping in the red-rock canyons, viewing wildlife including golden eagles and the threatened Greater sage-grouse, and floating and fishing wild streams and rivers. This growing recreational economy complements ranching on public lands throughout the region, which is the largest undeveloped natural area currently unprotected in the Lower 48. The Owyhee Canyonlands is home to the indigenous Northern Paiute, Bannock and Shoshone tribes, and there are more than 500 known archaeological sites in the region. Photo by Tyson Fisher
“The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased and not impaired in value. Conservation means development as much as it does protection.”
- Theodore Roosevelt