16 U.S.C. § 3121
Section 3121 · Rural residents engaged in subsistence uses
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case City of Angoon v. Hodel (1986)
Most recently applied in Alaska Department of Fish and Game v. Federal Subsistence Board (June 2025)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
The Secretary shall ensure that rural residents engaged in subsistence uses shall have reasonable access to subsistence resources on the public lands.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act or other law, the Secretary shall permit on the public lands appropriate use for subsistence purposes of snowmobiles, motorboats, and other means of surface transportation traditionally employed for such purposes by local residents, subject to reasonable regulation.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
This Act, referred to in subsec. (b), is Pub. L 96–487, Dec. 2, 1980, 94 Stat. 2371, as amended, known as the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 3101 of this title and Tables.