Happy Birthday to the nation’s largest national park! Forty-two years ago, an act of Congress created Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) was a conservation law that provided special protection to over 157 million acres of land, including the 13.2 million acres of this park and preserve. Signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 on this date, ANILCA is the largest expansion of protected land in history. One of the hallmarks that makes ANILCA unique from other land conservation laws is its protection of the subsistence rights of rural Alaska residents, including Alaska Natives. To learn more about this complex and controversial law, check out this issue of Alaska Park Science, Commemorating ANILCA at 40: ow.ly/RqWf50LNWtM Photo: NPS/Neal Herbert/Aerial view of the Chitina River Valley.