In a dramatic announcement on December 1, 1978,¹ President Carter made good on his pledge that protection of the environmental values of the vast "national interest" lands² in Alaska is the most important environmental goal of his administration. By setting aside 56 million acres of Alaska as national monuments and affirming the Secretary of the Interior's temporary withdrawal two weeks earlier³ of 105 million acres from state selection and resource exploitation, the President brought to a close a major phase in the struggle over the disposition of the vast federal domain in the 49th state, a struggle which has pitted those who view the Alaskan wilderness in terms of its potential for economic development against those who see Alaska as the last opportunity to preserve and protect wildlife and wilderness values that have all but vanished from the lower 48 states.

In 1971, Congress assigned to itself the task of settling the fate of the public domain lands in Alaska by authorizing the temporary withdrawal of up to 80 million acres from private or state claims while it chose which areas to place in permanent, federally protected reserves.⁴ Congress failed to meet its self-imposed deadline of December 16, 1978, however, necessitating executive branch action to ensure continued protection. The net result of the actions of the President and Secretary Andrus is to overlay several different protective classifications and thereby establish multiple mechanisms to preserve the Alaskan lands while congressional debate continues. The administrative actions have already survived a procedural challenge from the state government under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and appear strong enough to withstand additional charges of substantive invalidity. Despite the permanent nature of national monument designations, no administrative solution can be characterized as morethan temporary because of continuing congressional deliberation over the ultimate disposition of these lands. As President Carter indicated, his action and those taken by Secretary Andrus were aimed only at preserving for Congress all options on the ultimate fate of the "national interest" lands in Alaska.