FAIRBANKS — The Alaska Wilderness League has opened an office in Fairbanks to track issues on Bureau of Management Lands in the Interior.

The Washington, D.C.-based conservation group’s executive director said the purpose of the Fairbanks office is to work specifically securing wilderness designations in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) on the North Slope and on other BLM lands in the eastern Interior.

“A lot of the public lands we’re concerned about are near Fairbanks,” said Cindy Shogan, the league’s executive director. “Having a Fairbanks office gives us a great opportunity to be up close and personal with those issues.”

The Alaska Wilderness League was formed in 1993 to protect Alaska’s public lands from development and the League already had offices in Anchorage and Juneau.

“Basically we want to have a Fairbanks office to work on NPR-A and the Eastern Interior Resource Management Plan to get the strongest protection possible for those lands,” Shogan said

The League’s Fairbanks office is located at 1222 Well Street, Suite 12. There will be an open house from 5-7 p.m. today to announce its opening, though it’s actually been open since September.

Darcie Warden, 37, will serve as outreach coordinator in the one-person Fairbanks office. Warden has worked with Alaska Native tribes, nonprofit groups and the state and federal governments since she moved to Alaska from California in 2001.

Warden spent three years living in the Yukon River village of Galena, 300 miles west of Fairbanks, doing environmental work for the Louden Tribal Council. She also worked two years as an environmental technician for the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council. Warden earned a degree in earth systems science and policy from California State University, Monterey Bay.

Warden said she monitor management plans on BLM lands, attend meetings and work with residents who live in those areas and will be impacted by potential development, such as oil and gas drilling or mining, to encourage local participation in the planning process.

“We really listen to what local communities want,” Warden said. “That’s why we’re here in Alaska.”

Her two main focuses will be on the NPR-A, a 23-million acre area on the North Slope that lies west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and has been billed as the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the U.S., and the Eastern Interior Resource Management Plan, which will provide future direction for 6.7 million acres of public land, including the White Mountains National Recreation Area, the Steese National Conservation Area and the Fortymile region.

The League already works closely with the Northern Alaska Environmental Center and adding an office in Fairbanks should enhance that relationship, said NAEC executive director Karen Kelly.

There are a lot of complex environmental issues unraveling in Alaska and having someone on the ground to provide a local perspective on national issues is important, she said.

BLM district manager Bob Schneider in Fairbanks said the agency welcomes input from the Alaska Wilderness League, just as it does from all public organizations.

The Alaska Wilderness League contends that public lands are being threatened by “poor management and reckless decisions” by the BLM.

“The Bureau of Land Management has become better known for putting public lands into private hands, for promoting private industry and development interests over the interests of the public and the health of the land,” the League’s website reads.

Contact staff writer Tim Mowry at 459-7587.