Alaska approves three land releases for University of Alaska

Alaska is transferring hundreds of thousands of acres of land to the University of Alaska under the university's federal land grant — including about 220,000 acres in the Ray Mountains, along with several smaller parcels scattered across the state.

The transfers move state-selected land, which the federal government manages, to the Bureau of Land Management to convey to the university. They fall under a 2023 federal law and a state act that together let Alaska hand up to 360,000 acres of its land selections to the university to help fund it.

The largest piece is the Ray Mountains selection, which the Department of Natural Resources decided in March to conditionally relinquish — about 219,924 acres, keeping roughly 518 acres to hold onto the trans-Alaska pipeline corridor and the route for the proposed gas pipeline. The state and university sent that selection to the BLM in April.

More recently, the department approved three additional releases: a parcel near Pediment Creek totaling about 15,329 acres, roughly 2,417 acres at Medicine Lake, and a third file. A separate, much smaller release covered about five acres on Elrington Island.

The decisions drew public comment and competing considerations that the department weighed before deciding. On the Ray Mountains, 15 comments raised subsistence hunting, trapping and public access — questions that matter because the university sets its own rules on its lands. University of Alaska Land Management says it does not allow trapping and is exploring hunting permits on some parcels. The Elrington Island release, though only five acres, drew 13 comments, all opposed.

The department's internal review also surfaced reasons to keep some of the Ray Mountains land. The Department of Fish and Game recommended retaining all of it, citing the Ray Mountain caribou herd — a non-migratory herd of 800 to 900 animals that calves in the treeless high country within the selection. The Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys likewise urged retention, pointing to high potential for rare-earth elements and tin identified through roughly $175,000 to $200,000 in state mineral surveys. Other divisions raised no objection. Those recommendations are advisory; the decision on whether to release the land rests with Natural Resources, which weighed them against the university's land-grant claim.

Outside government, the Wildlife Society — a professional organization of wildlife biologists — warned federal land managers that parcels transferred to the university could later be sold to mining interests inside the caribou herd's range. University of Alaska Land Management, for its part, describes the conveyance as a lawful step in carrying out the university's federal land grant.

Anyone eligible can request reconsideration of the three recent decisions within 20 days, for a $200 fee.