A Public Land Order, or PLO, that has been issued is to affect more than 250,000 acres in the Good News Bay Area, 116 miles south of Bethel. This is the first of many packages that Alaska's Bureau of Land Management anticipates will be submitted for withdrawal. The area will make it possible for approximately 34,000 acres of state-selected lands to be conveyed to the State of Alaska and allow for mineral entry on unencumbered public lands in the area. The Deputy State Director for BLM Alaska Erika Reed described the area and how it will affect the State of Alaska.

"So the area this affects is 229,000 acres over in the Good News Bay Area, and so the purpose of lifting these withdrawals is, they've been in place since 1972, which means that no mineral entry, nobody's been able to stake federal mining claims in that area, nor has the state of Alaska been able to select lands in this area to use to satisfy their statehood land entitlement," said Erika Reed, deputy state director.