Alaska DNR revises plan to give up about 5.7 million acres of statehood land selections

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources revised its proposal to give up about 5.7 million acres of statehood land selections on Oct. 8 and posted updated maps. Public comment is open through Oct. 26.

A selection is federal land the state has claimed for eventual transfer. Relinquishing it drops that claim. Alaska News previously covered how relinquished selections would stay federal, where rural residents hold a subsistence priority.

The Division of Mining, Land & Water said in its public notice that it revised the proposal after an additional review. The comment period began Sept. 25.

Under the Alaska Statehood Act, Alaska was granted 105 million acres. It has received title to about 102 million, leaving about 3.2 million acres still owed, according to DNR. But the state's current selections and top filings total more than 19 million acres. Top filings are claims on land that is not yet available to the state.

Federal law caps how much the state can claim. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act lets the state select up to 125 percent of its remaining entitlement. The Alaska Land Transfer Acceleration Act requires it to relinquish selections above that limit. DNR said it will keep higher-priority selections and let lower-priority ones go.

The September maps named areas including the Kotzebue Peninsula, the Noatak River, the Selawik Hills, the Nowitna and Kuskokwim rivers, the South Yukon Checkerboard and the Tangle Lakes Archaeological District.

The list is preliminary, and the acreage could change after review and public comment. DNR said future relinquishments will move as individual parcels or groups, each with its own public notice. A division GIS StoryMap tracks the areas under consideration and progress on the effort.