ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – We all use them. The maps on our phones. They are very helpful when the information is correct. Frustrating when it’s wrong.

Michael Livingston of Anchorage likes to relax by exploring the maps for Alaska. When he comes across an error or missing bit of information, he fixes it.

Recently, he made a discovery that was left over from World War II — a creek on one of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands with an offensive name.

Now he is on a mission to change it.

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The Interior Department released a new regulation Friday that will affect 13 million acres in Alaska, prohibiting drilling for oil on the land.

The Management and Protection of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska rule will affect 40% of Alaska’s reserve, as 10.6 million acres will be completely protected by the Bureau of Land Management while the remaining amount will have limited protection. According to the Interior Department, this area is a “globally significant intact habitat for wildlife, including grizzly and polar bears, caribou and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds.”

President Joe Biden expressed his pleasure in the regulation in a statement Friday, saying he is “proud” of the conservation effort.

“From safeguarding sacred lands near the Grand Canyon to protecting Alaskan treasures, my Administration has conserved more than 41 million acres of lands and waters,” Biden’s statement read. “But as the climate crisis imperils communities across the country, more must be done. My Administration will continue to take ambitious action to meet the urgency of the climate crisis, protect America’s lands and waters, and fulfill our responsibility to the next generation of Americans.”

“There is no question, using the best available science and incorporating Indigenous Knowledge practiced over millennia, that these decisions will help biological, cultural, historic and subsistence resources, safeguarding the way of life for the Indigenous people who have called this special place home since time immemorial,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.  

Additionally, the Bureau of Land Management issued its own ruling on a road some 211 miles long in north central Alaska to establish the Ambler Mining District. This road, which would result in mining copper, zinc, cobalt, and other minerals, could, per the department, “irrevocably impact resources, including those supporting important subsistence uses, in ways that cannot be adequately mitigated.”

“We are deeply disappointed by the Bureau of Land Management’s politically motivated decision to block construction of the Ambler Access Project,” Ambler Metals Managing Director Kaleb Froehlich said in a statement. “In doing so, the Department of the Interior is depriving Alaska Native communities of thousands of good-paying jobs and millions of dollars of badly needed tax revenues and economic investment, as well as preventing the United States from developing a domestic supply of minerals that are critical for clean energy technology and national security.”

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Amber Metals cited support from First Chief of the Allakaket Tribal Council PJ Simon and the area’s assemblyman, Miles Cleveland.

Alaska’s North Slope contains six of the 100 largest oil fields in the United States. The state was sixth in oil production last year, producing 426,000 barrels per day. 

The U.S. Interior Department on Friday essentially rejected the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority’s proposal to build the Ambler Road, a 211-mile industrial road that would have cut through Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve to access copper and zinc deposits in Northwest Alaska.

The Interior’s Bureau of Land Management chose a “no action” option in its environmental analysis, effectively ensuring AIDEA would not receive a right-of-way to build the road across federal lands. The Biden administration said the road, also known as the Ambler Access Project, would cause irreparable damage to wildlife including caribou, which many local people rely on for food.

The administration also announced stronger protections for 13 million acres inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a vast swath of oil-rich — but environmentally sensitive — federal land in the Arctic.

Both Alaska senators, Republicans Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski expressed outrage even before the decisions were formally announced. They said the decisions hamper the state’s economy and domestic resource development.

“It’s more than a one-two punch to Alaska. When you take off access to our resources, when you say you cannot drill, you cannot produce, you cannot explore,” said Murkowski in a press conference on Thursday. “This is the energy insecurity that we’re talking about.”

Environmentalists and some Indigenous rights groups meanwhile, applauded the decisions.

“The regulations announced today will benefit the Western Arctic’s wildlife and subsistence resources and the Indigenous communities that depend on them, as well as provide greater resilience against climate change,” said Meda DeWitt, the Wilderness Society’s interim state director. “This rule is good news for everyone who cares about America’s public lands.”

RELATED: Murkowski and Sullivan rail at federal moves to block Ambler Road and preserve parts of NPR-A