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As Alaska's land-use fight intensified, Jimmy Carter signed a 1980 law protecting 104 million acres, including 57 million designated as wilderness

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Signed by President Jimmy Carter on December 2, 1980, ANILCA protected more than 104 million acres in Alaska, including 57 million acres of wilderness. The law expanded parks, refuges, forests, and rivers while balancing conservation with resource-development interests. (Wikimedia Commons)

On December 2, 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed a law that reshaped Alaska’s public-land map. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, known as ANILCA, placed more than 104 million acres under conservation protections, including 57 million acres designated as wilderness. The legislation, recorded in the 1980 volume of the United States Statutes at Large, … Read more