The Environment and Planning of Alaska

This paper describes a planning effort that is unique in United States history. Notwithstanding US Constitutional constraints, a joint Federal-State effort attempted to plan for the State of Alaska's 375 million acres of land, following statehood in 1959. The study focuses on the seven-year life of the Federal-State Land Use Planning Commission (FSLUPC) and the competing interests of resource development, environmental preservation, and subsistence life-styles. A consensus decision mode resulted in considerable success in resolving conflicts among competing interests, but failure in consolidating a constituency and developing a land-use plan. The FSLUPC closed its doors in 1979, and in 1980 Congress passed an Alaskan Wilderness Bill the effect of which is so large that it doubles American conservation lands.