RL: Even before you signed the ANILCA, you had a reputation as a conservationist, having been awarded the Conservationist of the Year in 1978 by the National Wildlife Federation. Can you speak a bit about why you think land conservation and preservation are important?
PJC: I really got started as governor of Georgia. The Corp of Engineers tried to dam up one of the streams that runs near my home, and as governor, I was able to block the long-term damming project, and I vetoed more than 600 applications that came to my desk for draining swampland in Georgia. So I already had a reputation of being a defender of the outdoors and had a lot of support for it in my home state. And when I got to Washington, I was faced with the question about what to do with the Alaska lands, which had been postponed ever since the Eisenhower administration. I was determined to correct the problems and to do what was fair with the Native population. Nobody had wanted to address it. I was on the side of the environmentalists, but Alaska’s two senators could block any legislation that went through the Senate due to senatorial courtesy. Also they had made a request earlier to change the name of Mount McKinley to Denali. So when I got to Washington, a lot of stuff was pending, and I was very eager to take advantage of the new influence I had.
RL: When you say “they” do you mean Natives?
PJC: No. The state government of Alaska had asked Congress in 1975 to change the name of McKinley to Denali. It would have passed except the congressional delegation from Ohio, where McKinley was from, blocked the passage of the name change. But I investigated it and found that Mount McKinley had an ancient Native name and he’d never had anything to do with Alaska. Changing the name was one thing the Alaska delegation and I agreed on.
RL: In your remarks and in some of your writings, you often mention and equate a good quality of life with access to land and a lifestyle that includes outdoor pursuits. What experiences in your life led you to develop that ethic?
PJC: I began hunting and fishing when I was a child. My father was an avid outdoorsman, and he served on the Georgia 3rd Congressional District board of directors conservation group, which was involved primarily in leaving hedgerows for game and terracing land to combat erosion. And every year at our church in Plains—everybody in Plains went to church—there was a special program for nurturing the God-given outdoors. We called it stewardship. I was immersed in both my father’s influence and natural love for the outdoors and from a religious standpoint that the outdoors needed to be protected. So when I got to be governor I realized I had increasing amounts of influence, and as president of course I saw that I could shape one of the most important outstanding questions that remained on the agenda of our country, and that was what to do with the massive amounts of land in Alaska. But to confront the entire congressional delegation from a state, to do something in their state that’s contrary to their desires, was almost unprecedented because of the matter of senatorial courtesy. That’s why it took four years to get something done.
RL: What faction gave you the most vehement opposition?
PJC: The top echelons of influence in Alaska. A Democratic senator and Republican senator from Alaska. The oil, timber, and fishing interests were very powerful—and the tourism industry. . . They all thought that my opening up these lands without going to chambers of commerce would be counterproductive. It’s only because we found this ancient law, from 1906 I believe, that granted the president of the U.S. the ability to designate areas of land as national monuments that we were able to prevail. Somebody on Andrus’s staff found the ancient law and brought it to his attention. The original law was intended to apply to a courthouse or cemetery or Civil War battleground or something like that, but when he pointed it out to me, I decided to expand it from individual cemeteries and courthouses to broad areas of land. Eventually we designated areas of Alaska, including key and controversial parts, as national monuments, and Congress couldn’t change what I did. Finally, toward the end of my term in office, even after I lost the election of 1980, senators realized what I was doing and knew they had to negotiate with me. I gave up a few things I wanted, but in general I got what I wanted.
RL: How important was it to you, personally, to make sure Native interests were protected?
PJC: It was crucial. Along with taking care of outdoor areas, I had pledged myself to a human-rights commitment. Natives were vulnerable to decisions made by government, and they would very likely have lost out on control of land that was dear to them without special attention from the president’s office. So that was a given, with Secretary Andrus and me from the very beginning, that the rights of Natives would be honored. It was a top priority.
RL: In the late seventies, when inflation and gas prices were high and Americans worried that worldwide resources for energy production were running low, did you fear ANILCA would hurt your legacy?
PJC: I didn’t really care about my legacy with the oil industry and professional guides and hunters. I was concerned about my legacy with environmentalists, who were my friends, buddies, and associates and supporters. So I never had any equivocation to resolving the questions left over from the 1950s.
RL: Theodore Roosevelt had Gifford Pinchot at his side. Did you have an ally in congress or someone in your administration who encouraged and supported your efforts in similar fashion?
PJC: I reached out to my chief ally, Cecil Andrus`. I had known him as a fellow governor, but he became my chief advisor, as Gifford Pinchot did for Theodore Roosevelt. Cecil was my hero during the process. He was committed to preserving the outdoors and very knowledgeable about the laws that affected the outdoors. He was a very good partner.
RL: Do you feel you get as much credit for the landmark legislation as you should?
PJC: When I go to Alaska now, I’m treated by most everyone, by chambers of commerce, and incumbent political leaders, as a hero. And some major magazines have named me the number two environmental president in history second to Theodore Roosevelt, and The New York Times named me among the ten greenest presidents in the U.S. And I’ve received a lot of special awards. And by the way, this year [2016] was the one-hundredth anniversary of the National Park Service, and I was honored in Plains, Georgia, my hometown, by being made an honorary park ranger. They pointed out that forty percent of the national parks in America began under my administration and gave me a ranger hat, so I’m authorized officially to call myself a ranger.
RL: What is your deepest satisfaction from this conservation and legislative landmark?
PJC: Just knowing it can’t be changed. We had two serious scares with ANWR, first under Reagan and then Bush, and I’ve had to go to Washington to call members of congress to block the legislation, working with people from Alaska, and we’ve been able to block it. But the threat to ANWR exists. They could explore for oil there, but so far, it’s been prevented. I just felt that no future president and congress would try to destroy that precious area that was preserved. But I underestimated the fervor of the oil companies in inducing Republican presidents and members of congress to opening up oil exploration in ANWR, but it hasn’t been done yet and I hope it never will.
Far Reaching
Below is a list of areas that were either created or altered by the Alaska National Interest Lands Claim Act.
- Admiralty Island National Monument
- Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve
- Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
- Bering Land Bridge National Preserve
- Cape Krusenstern National Monument
• Chugach National Forest - Denali National Park
- Gates of The Arctic National Park and Preserve
- Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
- Katmai National Park and Preserve
- Kenai Fjords National Park
- Kenai National Wildlife Refuge
- Kobuk Valley National Park
- Lake Clark National Park and Preserve
- Misty Fjords National Monument
- Noatak National Preserve
- Steese National Conservation Area
- Tongass National Forest
- White Mountains National Recreation Area
- Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve
- Yukon–Charley Rivers National Preserve
- Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge
- Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge