Alaska Loses Bid to Curtail Arctic Wildlife Refuge Expansion

The Interior Department’s decision to expand the northern border of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was a reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous public land order, a federal judge ruled.

The federal agency was well within its authority to define the northwest border as the Staines River, adding 20,000 acres of land to the 8.9 million acre wildlife refuge, the US District Court for the District of Alaska ruled Wednesday.

The state argued the refuge’s original surveys don’t align with the board’s 2020 decision, and as result land that should be conveyed to the state is now under federal jurisdiction.

The ...