How do I submit a public comment on Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve?

Mail a written comment to Superintendent, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, 101 Dunkel St., Suite 110, Fairbanks, AK 99701, postmarked by December 18, 2026. This page includes talking points and a printable comment letter.

When is the public comment deadline for Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve?

Comments are due by December 18, 2026. Comments received after the deadline may not be considered by the agency.

Do public comments actually change federal decisions?

Yes, when they are substantive. Agencies are legally required to read and respond to substantive comments before finalizing a rule, and specific personal comments about real places and real uses carry far more weight than identical form letters. Courts have overturned rules when agencies ignored substantive comments.

Gates of the Arctic rule would restrict Anaktuvuk Pass subsistence ORV access

3 holes in the agency’s own analysis

Make these points, in your own words

This proposal gives the Superintendent unilateral authority to impose mitigation measures on ORV use at Gates of the Arctic, creating a bureaucratic layer that could restrict subsistence access for Anaktuvuk Pass residents without clear limits on that power.
The rule targets subsistence ORV use by Indigenous rural residents of Anaktuvuk Pass, a community whose food security depends on this access across Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve.
Vague trigger conditions like 'likely to cause' harm to resources or threatened and endangered species give the Superintendent broad discretion to restrict subsistence ORV use before any actual harm has occurred.

Say something only you can say. The law requires the agency to consider and respond to substantive comments, and specifics are what make a comment substantive.

Affects public lands

PLAN’s own label for this notice, read from the official notice ↗.

NPS wants new authority to limit how Anaktuvuk Pass residents use ORVs for subsistence hunting and gathering inside Gates of the Arctic.

What’s at risk

Indigenous rural residents of Anaktuvuk Pass depend on ORVs to reach subsistence resources inside Gates of the Arctic. This rule would give the Superintendent unilateral power to impose restrictions on that access.

If this goes through

The Superintendent could impose mitigation measures on subsistence ORV use whenever the agency determines harm is occurring or likely, potentially limiting a traditional lifeway that residents rely on for food.

Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.

In the agency’s own words

The National Park Service (NPS) proposes to amend special regulations for Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (Gates) to establish a process by which the Superintendent can establish reasonable mitigation measures on the use of off-road vehicles (ORVs) for subsistence purposes by local rural residents of Anaktuvuk Pass, but only when such use is causing or likely to cause an adverse impact to public health and safety, resources, historic or scientific values, subsistence uses, or endangered or threatened species.

Federal Register 2026-21300 ↗

The groups on this fight

4 groups predicted likely to care in Alaska

Predicted likely to care is a guess from the group's sourced work in Alaska, with no link to this decision. Give straight to them; nothing routes through us.

Alaska Wilderness League
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska: Built around defending the Arctic Refuge from oil and gas drilling.
Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska: Lead plaintiff in the November 2025 federal suit challenging the land exchange signed to put a road through the Izembek Wilderness.
Northern Alaska Environmental Center
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Gates of the Arctic (Ambler Road), Alaska: First-named plaintiff in Northern Alaska Environmental Center v. Trump, the Ambler road suit filed in 2020.
Southeast Alaska Conservation Council
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Tongass National Forest, Alaska: Southeast Alaska’s homegrown defender of the Tongass since 1970.

Every group above is on STAND for Public Lands, with its court record, its filings and who backs it.

Who signs it

Kevin J. Lilly

Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks

Where the notice says so

“Kevin J. Lilly, Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks.” The notice ↗ Put a name on it from the door on this page.

The ground

This fight isn’t bound to a map place in PLAN’s record yet. The notice names Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (AK); none is a unit on the threatened lands map, so there’s no place page to open or watch.

The photograph on this page: Caribou on foggy tundra. More Than Just Parks.

Who holds the vote

PLAN’s record doesn’t tie a member of Congress to this fight yet. The scorecard grades the votes and bills that decide public lands; nothing joins a vote or a bill to this decision, so there’s no member to name here without guessing.

See how your members vote ↗

Calling your two senators and your representative is the Call door on this page.

Filed underWilderness Wildlife ESA Subsistence ORV

Know an open comment period we are missing, or spotted a wrong deadline? .

Gates of the Arctic rule would restrict Anaktuvuk Pass subsistence ORV access

3 holes in the agency’s own analysis

In the agency’s own words

4 groups predicted likely to care in Alaska

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