The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska is an area of land on the Alaska North Slope owned by the United States federal government and managed by the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. It lies to the west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which as a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service managed National Wildlife Refuge, is also considered federal land. At a size of 23.5 million acres, the area has been described as “the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the United States”. After receiving more than 400,000 public comments and following two days of meetings and visits with North Slope leaders, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has outlined a proposed plan that will allow for additional access for oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska while also protecting world-class caribou herds, migratory bird habitat, uplands, and sensitive coastal resources that are central to the culture and subsistence lifestyle of Alaska Natives and our nation’s conservation heritage.