Alaska flags 5.7 million acres of its land claims for release; state says federal subsistence priority follows

Roughly 5.7 million acres of land Alaska selected under the Statehood Act could be handed back to federal ownership, triggering the federal rural subsistence priority and access guarantees under Title VIII of ANILCA on those acres. No land has yet been released. The Department of Natural Resources identified the acreage as a candidate list in a statewide public notice posted Friday, the first such total the agency has published.

The division's companion StoryMap says that once relinquished, "the lands return to the Public Domain and are managed by BLM as public lands," and "the provisions of ANILCA Title VIII will apply, including the federal rural subsistence priority and access guarantees." That rural preference does not apply while the state holds a selection.

The state's own explainer misstates the limit driving the exercise. The StoryMap says ANILCA let Alaska make selections exceeding its remaining entitlement "by 125% of the total remaining 3.2 million acres." The statute caps the excess, not the total: ANILCA Section 906(f)(1) lets the state select land "exceeding by not more than 25 per centum in total area" its unconveyed entitlement, and the Alaska Land Transfer Acceleration Act calls that ceiling "the 125 percent limitation." On 3.2 million acres both give the same answer, 4 million acres of allowable selections. The StoryMap's wording, read as written, would allow 7.2 million.

Alaska was granted 105 million acres at statehood and holds title to about 102 million, leaving a remaining entitlement of about 3.2 million acres by DNR's count. BLM's own page puts the remainder at about 3.8 million. Some of the gap may be timing: BLM conveyed about 1.4 million acres in the Dalton Utility Corridor on May 6, which it says fulfilled more than 96 percent of the entitlement.

The cap also reaches only part of what Alaska holds. Selections and top filings together total more than 19 million acres, but top filings, claims layered on land not currently available, do not count. The Acceleration Act says top-filing acreage "shall not be counted against the 125 percent limitation," that the state "shall relinquish any selections that exceed" it, and that if Alaska fails to, "the Secretary shall reject the selection."

Part of the acreage sits along the Dalton Highway north of the Yukon River, where Public Land Order 7966 partially revoked two 1970s withdrawals in February, opening about 2.1 million acres.

Friday's notice carries no comment deadline; comment opens later on named parcels. It attaches maps of the candidate lands and directs questions to DNR's Lacy Hamner, 907.269.8509.