AK North Slope News to Know

[Larry Bartlett]

Imaging the future of Alaska in 20 years and it makes me sad for hunter/explorers who value the wild places once viewed as untouchable public lands. Caribou hunting is a rapidly shrinking opportunity. There is a shift toward dissolution of public lands, effecting a systematic process that is impossible to fight.

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Approves Ambler Road Project to Unlock Alaska’s Mineral Potential

UNLEASHING ALASKA’S EXTRAORDINARY RESOURCE POTENTIAL: Today, President Donald J. Trump approved the appeal of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export

www.whitehouse.gov

https://www.federalregister.gov/doc...ublic-land-order-nos-5150-and-5180-as-amended

Interior Begins Process to Streamline Permitting in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska | U.S. Department of the Interior

Today, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced the start of a new effort to streamline permitting for oil and gas infrastructure in the approximately 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. The effort comes in response to a petition for rulemaking from the Alaska Oil and...

www.doi.gov

https://alaskabeacon.com/2026/05/14/a-huge-data-center-could-rise-on-alaskas-north-slope/

Alaska wins state’s rights dispute over submerged navigable lands

The United States issued a Quiet Title Act Disclaimer and asked U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason to confirm what the State of Alaska has argued for the last seven years: The North Fork of the Fortymile River is navigable and the submerged lands between its high-water marks are owned by...

alaskawatchman.com

If you're thinking of hunting the Brooks Range, you might need to light the fire soon.

LB

 

[akhunter3]

This is a very doom and gloom post- drilling in ANWR if/when it happens will look a lot like what we see now on the Dalton- LOTS of wilderness with a barely maintained road and a few buildings.

Is this a trend in the wrong direction? Possibly, perhaps even probably.

Do you need to go hunt the Brooks "NOW" before it turns into downtown NYC? Absolutely not.

 

[VernAK]

Having spent 22 years in that area back in the early oil years, I can see a different version as being possible. We heard doom reports for the Central Arctic Herd back in the 70s when Prudhoe Bay Field was being developed. It has maintained quite well. The industrial development has kept hunters out and predators don't seem to like it. I guess we'll soon see how this works out, Hope for the best.

Having been lightly involved with the only well ever drilled in ANWR [KIC #1], we can only hope for the best. Hopefully the herd will calve in the area. We'll soon see what happens as the lease sale is June 5. I've flown over much of that area with geologists and geophysicists and they can get quite excited as the view the Marsh Creek Anticline etc.

The Ambler Road issue scares me as there seems to be little plan to manage people. The AR as planned is to be an "Industrial Road" intended for mining purpose only. BUT......if it's financed by State funds as planned, we can soon expect to be in court as the public will want to use the road they paid for. I think we've been down this road before. I hunted sheep in Gates of the Arctic prior to the Jimmy Carter lock-up and prior to ATVs. It's a treasure and doesn't deserve ATV traffic and trails. I too, thought Jimmy Carter a bird brain, and still do, when he created Gates of the Arctic and Wrangell Saint Elias, but I was too young to foresee the development of motorized off road equipment.

Alaska's outdoors is getting to be very busy as there is more disposable income than ever and off-road equipment of all kinds improves. I've aged out of much of this, but I can see the need for more areas restricted to motorized access and not just for hunting.

Thank you Larry for bringing up this topic. I'm anxious to hear feed-back and opinions.

 

[AKDoc]

This is always a topic of various opinions and often some controversy. I have always truly appreciated both perspectives of this discussion, but the bottom line for me is I support moderation of both perspectives...not absolutes of either. Of course, that is easier said than done, and the devil is always in the details.

On one hand I do truly support preserving the natural integrity of various areas/regions. It's the right thing to do for many valid reasons. I certainly agree with your perspective, Vern, that we need more areas restricted to motorized access and not just for hunting. I also would not bet against your projected predictions regarding the Ambler Road project.

On the other hand I also support responsible access to needed resources. It seems so ironic to me to lock-up our natural resources, and at the same time support importing those natural resources from other countries that may (do) extract those resources much less responsibly than we could/would have.

 

[kwackkillncrew]

Alaska's outdoors is getting to be very busy as there is more disposable income than ever and off-road equipment of all kinds improves. I've aged out of much of this, but I can see the need for more areas restricted to motorized access and not just for hunting.

its amazing to see the amount of toys up here, whether its jacked up SXS in a giant toy hauler or the big recreational fishing boats people are pulling around. We have basically the entry level ocean boat and i always wonder how people afford a 300k boat. I just assume there is alot of people in debt haha.

 

[chucko]

I fully agree with Larry . Many years ago I listened to a old native guy who said drilling for oil where the caribou give birth is bad and that is all I got to say well he made his point kinda hard to argue with that

 

[VernAK]

This is always a topic of various opinions and often some controversy. I have always truly appreciated both perspectives of this discussion, but the bottom line for me is I support moderation of both perspectives...not absolutes of either. Of course, that is easier said than done, and the devil is always in the details.

On one hand I do truly support preserving the natural integrity of various areas/regions. It's the right thing to do for many valid reasons. I certainly agree with your perspective, Vern, that we need more areas restricted to motorized access and not just for hunting. I also would not bet against your projected predictions regarding the Ambler Road project.

On the other hand I also support responsible access to needed resources. It seems so ironic to me to lock-up our natural resources, and at the same time support importing those natural resources from other countries that may (do) extract those resources much less responsibly than we could/would have.

Doc, I agree with you especially regarding the extraction of resources. We need those minerals for our country and hopefully to avoid buying from China. The Ambler Road may need a 5-mile corridor much like the Dalton Highway. I know many may disagree, but it seems to be one of the better functioning caribou hunts in the State based on what little I've seen and the amount of attention it receives on forums like this.

 

[william schmaltz]

I always tell the road-obsessed Alaskans they should go check out the hunting in the lower 48. Roads and ATV trails everywhere, they would love it!

We’ll have the Ambler Road extending all the way to Kotz, and eventually up to Red Dog; and then they may as well push the West Su access Road over Rainy Pass and into McGrath, down to Pebble, down the Kusko to connect the Doyon project (may as well take it all the way to Bethel), then may as well take it across the Kusko to get Donlin, and now may as well just take it to Nome for the Graphite Creek; and then connect the original Ambler road to the original West Su for efficiency. There may be an ATV trail to every ridge top and a dozen inflatable jet boats stirring up every mile of salmon redd in 2/3 of the state; but at least we’ll all be drinking that free bubble up and eating that rainbow stew.