The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) was an American law passed in 1980 by U.S. Congress and signed by President Jimmy Carter on December 2, 1980. State nickname: The Last Frontier, The Land of the Midnight Sun Other U.S. States Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Governor Frank Murkowski (R) Official languages English Area 1,067,653 mi² / 1,717,854 km² (1st)  - Land 1,481,347 km²  - Water 236,507 km² (13. ... 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Seal of the Congress. ... The President of the United States (often abbreviated POTUS) is the head of state of the United States. ... James Earl Jimmy Carter, Jr. ... December 2 is the 336th day (337th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ...

The law provided for the creation or revision of 15 National Park Service properties, and set aside other public lands for the United States Forest Service and United States Fish and Wildlife Service. In all, the act provided for the designation of 79.54 million acres (124,281 square miles; 321,900 km²) of public lands, fully a third of which was set aside as wilderness area. The National Park Service (NPS) is the United States Federal Government agency that deals with all National Parks, many National Monuments, and other conservation properties with various designations. ... The USDA Forest Service, a United States government agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, is under the leadership of the United States Secretary of Agriculture. ... The USFWS logo The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is a unit of the United States Department of the Interior that is dedicated to managing and preserving wildlife. ... Four federal agencies of the United States government administer the National Wilderness Preservation System, which includes 662 wilderness areas and 105,695,176 acres (427,733 km²). These agencies are: United States Forest Service United States National Park Service United States Bureau of Land Management United States Fish and Wildlife...

The act provided for the creation or expansion of Denali National Park, Wrangell - St Elias National Park and Preserve, Gates Of The Arctic National Park and Preserve, Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Kobuk Valley National Park, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Kenai Fjords National Park, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Admiralty Island National Monument, Misty Fjords National Monument, Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Noatak National Preserve, Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, and made significant changes to the notable Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Denali National Park Denali National Park and Preserve is located in Interior Alaska and contains Mount McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America. ... Established in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, Wrangell-St. ... Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve is one of several large U.S. National Parks in Alaska. ... Established in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, Lake Clark National Park and Preserve is a United States National Park in southwestern Alaska. ... Established in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, Kobuk Valley National Park is a United States National Park in northwestern Alaska north of the Arctic Circle. ... Katmai National Park and Preserve is a United States National Park in Alaska, notable for the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and for its brown bears. ... The area around Glacier Bay in southeastern Alaska was first proclaimed a U.S. National Monument on February 25, 1925. ... Established in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, Kenai Fjords National Park is a United States National Park on the Kenai Peninsula in southcentral Alaska near the town of Seward. ... Cape Krusenstern National Monument is a unit of the National Park Service founded on December 1, 1978; it is located in Alaska. ... Aerial-view of the caldera of Mount Aniakchak from the west The Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve is a U.S. National Monument and National Preserve, consisting of the region around the Aniakchak volcano on the Aleutian Range of south-western Alaska, United States. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The Noatak National Preserve is a 26,587 km² (6,569,904 acre) wilderness area in northwestern Alaska, in the United States. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Map The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge covers about 19,049,236 acres (79,318 km²) in northeastern Alaska, in the North Slope region. ...

The legislation was initially introduced into Congress in 1974 in several different bills, each outlining a single proposed park, monument, or other area. Several of these, in particular Lake Clark and Kenai Fjords, were quite controversial in Alaska. Little action was taken on any of them, so that by 1975 the National Park Service (NPS) and conservationists conceived the idea of a single bill that would cover several separate areas. The election in 1976 of Jimmy Carter buoyed hopes that Alaskan conservation would finally get a fair hearing. However, several members of Congress, particularly Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska, remained strongly opposed to the absorption of such a large amount of land by the NPS--which would take the land off the market and, Gravel felt, damage long-term economic development plans for Alaska. Gravel became the primary opponent to the act. 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ... 1975 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... 1976 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Maurice Robert Gravel (born May 13, 1930), better known as Mike Gravel, was a Democratic U.S. Senator (1969-1981) from Alaska and is the person who published the full text of the Pentagon Papers. ...

The Interior Department and NPS became concerned as 1978 dragged on that no action would be taken at all on the "national interest lands" included in the proposals; mining and forestry claims, among other issues, were beginning to be levied against the lands and time was running out. The NPS and Interior thus lobbied President Carter to use the Antiquities Act to designate the proposed lands as National Monuments by executive order, which Carter did on December 1, 1978. The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is a Cabinet department of the United States government that manages and conserves most federally-owned land. ... The Antiquities Act of 1906 is an act passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt giving the President of the United States authority to place certain lands under control of the federal government by executive order, bypassing Congressional oversight. ... December 1 is the 335th (in leap years the 336th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ...

Carter argued that he had been forced to use the Antiquities Act by Congress' failure to act in a reasonable time, but his actions nevertheless caused wide protest across Alaska. President Carter was burned in effigy in Fairbanks. Residents in the Cantwell area undertook a large act of civil disobedience known as the Great Denali Trespass--namely, they went up into the park, fired off guns, made campfires, and did a number of other things that were officially prohibited by the NPS. The towns of Eagle and Glennallen, both in the shadow of new monuments, produced official proclamations stating that the towns would not support NPS authorities, not enforce NPS regulations, and would shelter individuals who broke the regulations. Location in Alaska Founded  -Incorporated {{{incorporated}}}  County Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Steve M. Thompson Area  - Total  - Water 84. ... Cantwell is a census-designated place located in Denali Borough, Alaska. ... An anti-war activist is arrested for civil disobedience on the steps of the Supreme Court on February 9, 2005. ... Eagle is a city located along the United States-Canada border in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska. ... Glennallen is a census-designated place located in Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Alaska. ...

Though these protests continued for some time, the designation of the monuments broke the legislative opposition to ANILCA. Senator Gravel continued to obstruct passage of the bill, but in the wake of Carter's proclamations most opponents recognized the need to work toward passage of an acceptable bill, rather than no bill at all. However, in 1978 75 seats in the House of Representatives had changed hands, producing a much more conservative body than the one that had supported Carter's use of the Antiquities Act. Proponents were forced to continue to work compromises, and the bill's passage was continually delayed. 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... Seal of the House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Congress of the United States, the other being the Senate. ...

Then, in 1980, Jimmy Carter was replaced by Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party took over the Senate. Conservationists recognized that if they did not accept the compromise then on the table, they would be forced to begin again in the next Congress with decidedly less support. The bill was passed in November, and signed into law in December. 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). ... The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party) [1], is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... Seal of the Senate The United States Senate is one of the two houses of the Congress of the United States, the other being the House of Representatives. ... For other uses, see November (disambiguation). ... December is the twelfth and last month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ...

Mike Gravel, meanwhile, was blamed in Alaska for forcing Carter's hand with the Antiquities Act. Though Carter was hardly held blameless for the creation of the new national monuments, Gravel was taken to task for the unpopular decision as well and was denied his party's nomination for his Senate seat in the 1980 election. Gravel does not mention ANILCA in his internet biography and prefers to discuss other issues.

Many Alaskans still consider Eagle and Glennallen to be centers of Alaskan patriotism, still venerate those who partook in the Great Denali Trespass, and still consider the National Park Service an organization of "thugs and morons." Despite the increasing value of tourism in the areas surrounding Alaska's National Park Service areas, the NPS determination not to allow open fires, skydiving, hunting, alcohol, and numerous other formerly popular activities in the parks and monuments it manages continues to anger some Alaskans.

Despite this, a large group of Alaskans strongly support ANILCA, to the point of celebrating its creation, especially within the population centre of Anchorage. To them, ANILCA represents a successful example of wilderness conservation for the benefit of future generations.