Alaska's state farmland auction draws 55 bids on 19 parcels

Alaska's state farmland auction drew $1,165,016 in high bids for 17 parcels near Nenana and Anchor Point, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources said Tuesday.

The land is sold to be farmed. Buyers have to clear and work it before the state hands over title.

The state offered 19 parcels and got 55 bids. Ten bidders came out on top for 17 of them, covering 861 acres.

Each buyer needs a farm conservation plan approved by March 25, 2027. Within five years of signing a sale contract, half of the parcel's cropland soils must be in farmable condition, according to the auction brochure.

Ten of the 19 parcels, from about 22 to 125 acres, are in the Nenana-Totchaket Agricultural Project, 8 to 10.5 miles west of the Parks Highway. The area was planned for farming decades ago, but access held it back until a bridge over the Nenana River was finished in 2020, the brochure says.

Buyers out there will plow their own roads. Totchaket Road is maintained for only its first 6 miles west of the highway, under a city-state agreement that runs through October 2028. Every other road in the project is unmaintained, including Kohlrabi Court, the way into two of the parcels.

The other nine parcels, 20 to 45 acres each, are in the North Fork Micro Ag Subdivision, about 10 miles east of Anchor Point. Land there costs more. Minimum bids worked out to about $1,700 to $2,700 an acre, compared with about $360 to $1,000 near Nenana. Five North Fork parcels have no electric service and can only be reached with a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Alaska has sold land for farming since 1966. Unlike the state's residents-only auction this fall, this one was open to anyone 18 or older and to businesses registered in Alaska. Winners put at least 5% down and can finance the rest through the state for up to 20 years. The top bids totaled at least 31% more than the state's minimum bids, which are set at appraised value.

The state says the Nenana-Totchaket project is meant to improve Alaska's food security through production of food, fiber and fuel. It first auctioned land there in October 2022, offering 27 parcels totaling about 2,000 acres.

The project has drawn protests from Nenana residents, tribal members and climate activists over possible harm to subsistence hunting, trapping and fishing, and to lands with ecological, cultural and historical significance, as reported by High Country News in 2023.

The two parcels that didn't sell go on sale over the counter Nov. 18, priced above appraised value at first and then at appraised value starting Dec. 16. Full results are posted online.