The Steese National Conservation Area encompasses of public land about northeast of

Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks is a Municipal home rule, home rule city and the county seat, borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior Alaska, interior region of Alaska and the second la ...

, and is administered by the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

as part of the

National Landscape Conservation System National Conservation Lands, formally known as the National Landscape Conservation System, is a collection of lands in 873 federally recognized areas considered to be the crown jewels of the American West.Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) is a United States federal law signed by President Jimmy Carter on December 2, 1980. ANILCA provided varying degrees of special protection to over of land, including national parks, n ...

in 1980, the Steese NCA's special values include Birch Creek National Wild River, crucial

caribou The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only represe ...

calving grounds and home range, and

Dall sheep ''Ovis dalli'', also known as the Dall sheep or thinhorn sheep, is a species of wild sheep native to northwestern North America. ''Ovis dalli'' contains two subspecies: ''Ovis dalli dalli'' and ''Stone sheep, Ovis dalli stonei''. ''O. dalli'' li ...

habitat. While various land uses are allowed in the Steese NCA, the area is managed so that its scenic, scientific, cultural and other resources are protected. The Steese NCA is split into the North and South Units, located on either side of the

Steese Highway The Steese Highway (known as the Steese Expressway within Fairbanks) is a highway in the Interior region of the U.S. state of Alaska that extends from Fairbanks to Circle, a town on the Yukon River about 50 miles (80 km) south of the A ...

. The popular Pinnell Mountain National Recreation Trail skirts the edge of the North Unit.

References

Steese RNCA
National Conservation Areas of the United States Protected areas established in 1980 Protected areas of Alaska Protected areas of Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska Units of the National Landscape Conservation System Bureau of Land Management areas in Alaska 1980 establishments in Alaska {{YukonKoyukukAK-geo-stub