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

Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the po ...

, 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. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

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, na ...

in 1980, the Steese NCA's special values include

Birch Creek National Wild River Birch Creek is a tributary of the Yukon River in the U.S. state of Alaska. Beginning at the confluence of Ptarmigan and Eagle creeks near Porcupine Dome, it flows southwest, then south under the Steese Highway and into the Steese National Conser ...

, crucial

caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

calving grounds and home range, and Dall sheep 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 Arc ...

. The popular

Pinnell Mountain National Recreation Trail Pinnell is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Archibald Pinnell (1870–1948), Scottish footballer * Billy Pinnell (died 1977), British newspaper editor *Gay Su Pinnell (born 1944), American educational theorist * Jeremy Pinnell, ...

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