Judge allows transfer of federal land along Dalton Highway to Alaska

(CN) — A federal judge on Friday denied a bid by a group of environmental nonprofits to stop the U.S. Interior Department from transferring ownership of more than 2 million acres of public land along the Dalton Highway corridor to Alaska.

U.S. District Judge Aaron Peterson in Anchorage dismissed claims challenging the transfer of 1.38 million acres because the Interior Department has already tentatively approved the transfer and Alaska’s sovereign immunity bars those claims.

Peterson, a Donald Trump appointee, also denied the nonprofits’ request for a preliminary injunction blocking the transfer of the remaining 700,000 acres, finding they were unlikely to succeed on the merits and faced no imminent harm warranting an injunction.

“A general concern that title will be transferred and future state management may allow different uses, different access rules, different wildlife management, or future industrial development is too speculative to justify preliminary relief,” the judge said.

The Northern Alaska Environmental Center and nine other advocacy groups sued the Trump administration in March to block the removal of federal protections from land along the highway and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which were built side by side in the 1970s and run north to south across the state.

“This decision should shock anyone who cares about laws put in place to protect transparency, public participation, and the health of people, the places they live, and their livelihoods and ways of life,” said Bridget Psarianos, an attorney with Trustees for Alaska who represents the nonprofits. “The administration’s removal of protections for these public lands prioritizes and panders to the mining industry while ignoring community health and the public’s interest in sound decision-making."

In February, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum revoked 54-year-old public land orders protecting 2 million acres, carrying out President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order, “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential.”

On Feb 20., Burgum said the transfer would allow Alaska to “chart its own course and develop energy, minerals and infrastructure that strengthen America’s security and prosperity.”

In their complaint, the nonprofits say lifting the protections and transferring the land to Alaska would open the area to mining and oil and gas development while speeding permits for the proposed 211-mile Ambler Road, which would connect a prospective mining district to the Dalton Highway.

Peterson explained in his ruling that when Alaska joined the Union in 1959, Congress promised the state 103 million acres of land, a commitment he said has yet to be fulfilled.

Under a series of federal statutes, Alaska was entitled to select 103 million acres of vacant, unappropriated and unreserved land for state ownership but could not select land the Interior Department had withdrawn for utility and transportation purposes, including the Dalton Highway corridor.

Instead, Alaska used a “topfiling” process to identify land that was unavailable for selection because of federal restrictions, including the corridor lands.

When the Interior Department lifted the protections, the land was automatically selected for transfer to Alaska. Once the federal government tentatively approved the transfer of 1.35 million acres in May, title vested in the state.

That proved fatal to the nonprofits’ claims because the 11th Amendment bars private parties from suing a state in federal court.

“Alaska’s immunity has not been waived or abrogated, so this case turns on the scope of that immunity,” Peterson said. “The question, therefore, is not whether Alaska has immunity. It does. The question is whether that immunity bars this case from proceeding against not only Alaska, but also Interior, and if so, as to which of the lands at issue.”

Since the Interior Department hasn’t tentatively approved and transferred ownership of the remaining 700,000 acres to Alaska, and the challenge to their transfer isn’t barred by the state’s sovereign immunity, the judge denied the motion to dismiss with respect to those lands.

“Alaska has fought hard to secure access to the lands that were promised to us at statehood,” Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy said in a statement. “I am glad to see this land finally returning to Alaska’s control, and I am thankful for the tireless efforts of Alaskans who made it possible.”

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