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Residents of Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska can now use four wheelers to subsistence hunt in the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve.
The change was announced by the U.S. Interior Secretary during a visit last month.
As the Alaska Desk’s Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA reports, residents of the North Slope village have been fighting for this decision for decades.
Marc John Morry has been hunting caribou around Anaktuvuk Pass since he was a child, but in the summer and fall, most of the land around the village has been off limits to hunters like him.
That is because residents were not allowed to use four wheelers in the majority of the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve.
The all-terrain vehicles are the only way to access the roadless preserve surrounding the village. Last month the U.S. Department of the Interior announced it would restore off-road-vehicle access to the park.
Morry says he is excited.
“This is life changing. I only wish my grandparents were here. Now that we’re able to access the lands, we can learn ourselves and relearn what our ancestors taught us about certain areas that always have caribou.”
The Trump administration has been working to expand access to hunters on off-road vehicles in protected federal lands across the country.
However, a National Park Service (NPS) spokesman for the Alaska region said this action is specific to subsistence hunting in the Gates and does not apply to sport hunters.
And it comes after decades of back and forth on the issue.
Before Anaktuvuk Pass became a permanent settlement about 80 years ago, the Nunamiut people were semi-nomadic and moved throughout the Brooks Range. Morry says they were searching for their main food source – caribou.
“We heard many stories from our elders about hunting grounds that we weren’t able to access, which they remember before we even formed a community.”
The federal government established the Gates of the Arctic around Anaktuvuk Pass when it passed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. Residents were still given the right to subsistence hunt using snowmachines and motorboats, among other traditional transportation methods, but the rule did not mention ATVs.
And 40 years ago, new park guidance interpreted the law to ban hunts on ATVs because they were not used traditionally.
Lillian Stone is the city mayor of Anaktuvuk Pass. She says the ban created invisible boundaries for residents relying on hunting for survival.
“It was like we were prisoners in our own land for 40 years, where before that it was, we could hunt anywhere, we could travel anywhere.”
Local Native corporations exchanged lands with the Park Service in the late 90s, which made additional areas within the park available for subsistence ATV hunts. Still, residents could only access about 1% of the Gates of the Arctic.
Stone says residents and local leaders have been advocating for ATV access to the park for subsistence for decades – but with no progress.
“We felt like it wasn’t getting anywhere, and we weren’t getting the answers that were needed.”
Last year, local leadership traveled to Washington D.C. and asked the Interior Department to restore ATV access to the park.
This May, the department announced the decision to do that.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wrote in a social media post that “no one knows or cares for this land more than the people who live here.”
Honored to be with the Nunamiut people in Anaktuvuk Pass to celebrate freedom & self-determination.
After 40 years, we are restoring ORV use in Gates of the Arctic National Park for subsistence hunting, because no one knows or cares for this land more than the people who live… pic.twitter.com/m39PGbIP9C
— Secretary Doug Burgum (@SecretaryBurgum) May 18, 2026
A department spokeswoman said in an email the old ban was inconsistent with supporting subsistence. She said NPS will consult local communities within six months to establish the new rule.
Kristen Morry is an Anaktuvuk Pass hunter and a mother of two. She says the announcement means a lot for her and her children.
“I have no words for what just happened, because it just makes me really emotional. … I’m excited to be out there and to no longer have to worry about when we have to stop, because I’m out there year round as well.”
NPS said local hunters should contact the Gates of the Arctic for current information on using ATVs while the regulatory process is underway.
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