The Trump administration released a rash of executive orders on Jan. 20. One is an Alaska-centric order that establishes a policy of industrializing Alaska and directs the heads of agencies to reverse or rescind many Biden administration actions to protect public lands, subsistence resources, and the health of lands vital to communities, climate action, and future generations.

“This order looks like a list of political favors called in at the expense of Alaska ways of life and our collective future,” said Vicki Clark, executive director for Trustees for Alaska. “It treats Alaska as a resource colony to fill corporate pockets without regard to the voices of Tribes, local people, and all the Alaskans and Americans who want to safeguard land, water, animals, and the Earth. It ignores the fossil fuel industry-caused climate impacts, which not only impact our state at an alarming rate, but that also put people across the country in danger of losing their homes and lives to monstrous storms, floods, wildfires and more. We will always work alongside clients and partners to protect Alaska from those who intend to turn it into an industrial zone that enriches the few and threatens our home.”

The executive order calls for action throughout Alaska on areas Trustees works to protect, from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, western Arctic, and southern Brooks Range up north, to Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, and covers national preserves and BLM-managed lands across the state. The executive order does not itself do anything on the ground, but rather instructs the heads of agencies to review, revise, or rescind Biden administration actions.

We cannot say exactly how or when the agencies will approach these actions, but we know that during the previous Trump administration, decisions were rushed and pushed out with profound legal flaws that we challenged in court. We will engage every step of the way and be prepared to go to court on behalf of clients over any unlawful actions resulting from this order.

Here are some of the Trump administration’s extraction priorities we will be watching and acting on in the months to come:

The order calls for the Interior Secretary to rescind the cancellation of leases auctioned off to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority during the 2021 Arctic Refuge lease sale and the 2024 leasing program adopted by the Biden administration. It also aims to put back in place the 2020 leasing program we challenged in court for violating an array of laws.

We paused that 2020 lawsuit when the Biden administration suspended the program to fix legal problems. That lawsuit is still active. We will continue to work on behalf of the Gwich’in Steering Committee and 12 other clients to take legal action to protect lands sacred to the Gwich’in and vital to the Porcupine caribou and many other animals.

The order calls for the Interior Secretary to rescind the Special Areas final rule, guidance, and the announcement of the beginning of a Special Areas process, and pause all activities under the current Integrated Activity Plan in order to review it. It also calls for reinstatement of the 2020 Integrated Activity Plan put into place during the first Trump term.

This western Arctic area is the largest unit of public land in the country, with areas designated as “Special Areas” because of their importance to wildlife and the subsistence needs of local communities. The government named it a National Petroleum Reserve in the 1900s to fuel the Navy, but the region has always supported abundant life and the ways of life of Alaska Native communities. We will again work to safeguard protected areas in the years to come.

The order directs the federal permitting agencies to place a pause on any rights or activities that were established by the Burean of Land Management’s 2024 decision selecting the “no action” alternative and rejecting a right-of-way for the Ambler road proposal. It also directs agencies to review the environmental analysis conducted by the Biden Administration, and to revoke that 2024 decision and reinstate the prior Trump 2020 decision approving the project.

Tribes and local communities, along with an array of Alaskans, oppose this road because of its threat to land, air, water, caribou, and the wealth of life the region nourishes. We have worked to keep an industrial road out of the area for many, many years and will continue to do so now.

The order calls for the expedited construction of a road on the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge isthmus, despite the threat to vulnerable habitat for migratory birds and other animals, and the threat that the land swap necessary to build this road threatens to open the door to similar land exchanges of national parks, refuges and wilderness areas throughout Alaska for private purposes. We have gone to court over and over to uphold the letter and spirit of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act to protect national parks, refuges, and wilderness areas from roads or other infrastructure for private interests. This time will be no different.

The order instructs agencies to rescind a 2024 hunting rule that prohibits brown bear baiting in national preserves and reinstate a 2020 rule from the first Trump term that allows an array of dangerous and spurious hunting practices including brown bear baiting. These hunting practices aimed at decreasing populations of animals like wolves and bears in the name of increasing game animals like moose and caribou do not stand up to science or the intentions of national park lands. We went to court over the 2020 rule and will again fight to protect bears and wolves on public lands.

The order directs the Bureau to lift the long-held protections of  28 million acres of public lands in Alaska from oil and gas leasing, hard rock mining, and other industrial extraction activities. Communities across Alaska opposed the prior Trump effort to remove these established protections because of the importance of these lands to subsistence foods, traditions and cultural practices. The Biden administration upheld protections after determining that these lands are critical for subsistence and that communities would be harmed if these lands were industrialized. As before, we will engage every step of the way to ensure these vital lands continue to be safeguarded.