Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the federal agency that manages public land across Alaska. It oversees oil and gas leasing, mining claims, wildland fire response, and backcountry recreation on federal land statewide. It also administers the trans-Alaska pipeline's federal right-of-way.
Photo by BLM, via Flickr · Photo source · CC BY 2.0
blm.gov ↗222 W 7th Ave, Anchorage, AK 99513, USA
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BLM ties remains of at least 35 people held in Arizona to Native Village of Akutan
The remains of at least 35 people removed from two eastern Aleutian islands more than 50 years ago, and now held at Arizona State University, could be returned to the Native Village of Akutan starting Dec. 12.
The Bureau of Land Management has determined that the remains are Native American and reasonably connected to the tribe, according to a federal notice filed Tuesday.
The ancestors were excavated or collected between 1970 and 1973 from four sites on Akun and Akutan islands: 20 from Chulka, 10 from Saa, two from Amatanan, two from Siskena and one from either Saa or Siskena. The notice lists no funerary objects with them. Some of the remains were coated with a clear substance that may be polyvinyl acetate, which the university's anthropology lab used in the 1980s, the notice says.
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Stories on what’s next
University of Alaska Land Conveyance Program Deadline
Alaska moves to give up nearly 59,000 acres near Parks Highway for University of Alaska
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November 2026
BLM proposes cutting public comment time on its major land plans from 90 days to 30
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BLM cuts more than 5 million acres from Alaska's extra statehood land claims
BLM cut more than 5 million acres of Alaska's extra statehood land claims Tuesday, opening land to the federal subsistence priority and potential mining claims.
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October 2026
BLM switches White Mountains and Steese to winter snowmobile rules after snow arrives
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by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read
Unit 13 moose closure on BLM land takes effect Tuesday, six months after the vote
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BLM pushes White Mountains winter season to Nov. 1 for lack of snow
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by Maggie AlaskaNews4w ago2 min read
Interior lets BLM skip environmental assessments for qualifying NPR-A winter exploration
Starting Friday, qualifying winter oil exploration in the petroleum reserve can skip a separate environmental assessment, barring extraordinary circumstances.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
September 2026
BLM closes Wickersham Dome Trailhead in the White Mountains starting Oct. 1 for construction
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Court-ordered review models what a large Donlin Gold dam failure would do downstream
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Pile burning starts Friday at three White Mountains cabin sites
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Campfire and fireworks ban north of Fairbanks runs to Oct. 31
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Three virtual hearings this week will take comments on BLM's Arctic fast-track
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BLM bought snowmobiles to get to Alaska's abandoned gold mines
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BLM Rule Would Cut NPR-A Pad Approvals to 60 Days, Limit Hunting
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Alaska approves three land releases for University of Alaska
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A federal rule would let NPR-A drilling spread pad by pad, skipping environmental study
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About Bureau of Land Management
Photo by BLM, via Flickr · Photo source · CC BY 2.0
blm.gov ↗222 W 7th Ave, Anchorage, AK 99513, USA
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the federal agency that manages public land across Alaska, with its Alaska State Office in Anchorage. It oversees oil and gas leasing, mining claims, rights of way including the trans-Alaska pipeline corridor, and recreation on federal land.
Much of its work turns on who holds Alaska's land. BLM conveys land to the state under the statehood entitlement and processes Native allotments, including claims by Alaska Native veterans of the Vietnam era, and disputes over land corridors and the ownership of submerged lands under navigable rivers recur. Leasing and permitting rules in the National Petroleum Reserve and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain raise recurring questions about subsistence protections and environmental review.
BLM manages recreation areas such as the White Mountains National Recreation Area, the Steese National Conservation Area, the Campbell Tract in Anchorage and the Beaver Creek float, setting seasonal rules for trails and access. It also takes part in wildland fire response on federal land, including smokejumper crews.
More from Bureau of Land Management
A remote Alaska village's firefighting enterprise lands more federal work
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The pipeline right-of-way comment window got another week
The public has until Sept. 17 to comment on whether the trans-Alaska pipeline keeps its federal right-of-way for 30 more years, after the Bureau of Land Management extended the deadline by a week.
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BLM rule would let NPR-A operators waive subsistence conditions without public notice
A new BLM rule lets oil and gas operators in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve waive mitigation conditions, including four protections for subsistence hunting, without public notice.
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A small wildfire was reported near Wrangell on Friday night
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Volunteers are replanting a mining-scarred creek, and last year's willows lived
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The Nulato Hills Crew fights fire with hand tools, from five villages
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August 2026
The pipeline's owners want another 30 years, seven years before they have to ask
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The Fortymile road hunt lasted 48 hours, exactly as predicted
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A Fort Yukon tribal crew that fights fire across the country just locked in funding through 2031
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BLM closes spur road and gravel pit at Moose Creek Landing through fall
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Four wildfires broke out on the North Slope within 17 minutes Thursday
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As the world burns, Alaska stays cool — a regional weather quirk
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July 2026
BLM says Alaska's last 3.8 million statehood acres are the hardest
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Fatigue blamed in a Parks Highway rollover near Cantwell
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Crews are cutting firebreaks in the woods at the center of Anchorage
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BLM sets August 17 deadline to protest Alaska survey plat filings
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