1:23
Lisa Murkowski
44:21 - 45:45
"we have been able to not only engage with, but turn the views of many of the initial opponents to this legislation, among them the Wilderness Society, the Nature Conservancy, some of the strongest protectors of environmental values, in the Tongass both have written letters of support for this bill, recognizing that we need to find this balance, but we also must address the inequities of the Native people who have been left out."
“we have been able to not only engage with, but turn the views of many of the initial opponents to this legislation, among them the Wilderness Society, the Nature Conservancy, some of the strongest protectors of environmental values, in the Tongass both have written letters of support for this bill, recognizing that we need to find this balance, but we also must address the inequities of the Native people who have been left out.”
- Speaker
- Lisa Murkowski
- Timestamp
- 44:21 – 45:45
- Community
- Alaska News
- Captured at
- July 16, 2026
From the transcript
At the beginning, it was very much viewed as a a fight between giving back federal land into the hands of individuals. The environmental concerns were expressed that, oh, we're going to allow for an untrammeled environmental degradation of the land, and lots of concerns, and I think a lot of scare tactics that were there. There are no better stewards of our Alaska lands than the people who have lived on them for thousands of years. We have been able to not only engage with, but turn the views of many of the initial opponents to this legislation, among them the Wilderness Society, the Nature Conservancy, some of the strongest protectors of environmental values, in the Tongass both have written letters of support for this bill, recognizing that we need to find this balance, but we also must address the inequities of the Native people who have been left out. So I added those letters of— letters from Nature Conservancy and the Wilderness Society to our hearing record in February, so I don't feel like I need to add them here.
Related Coverage
Senate committee advances bill to give land to five landless SE Alaska Native communities
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted July 16 to advance legislation that would let five Southeast Alaska Native communities excluded from the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act form urban corporations and receive land entitlements, sending the bill to the full Senate.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2h ago2 min readAISoutheast Alaska
