DNR proposes free land transfer to Alaska Railroad; comment window open

Alaska is proposing to hand a piece of state land in the railroad corridor to the Alaska Railroad Corporation at no cost.

The state's reasoning is simple: the parcel was already set aside for railroad use, and the railroad is a public entity, so it can be conveyed for free. What the notice doesn't say is why people who hunt, fish, and walk along the tracks are paying attention.

The railroad's grip on its corridor is legally contested. Under the 1982 law that transferred the railroad to the state, the corporation holds an "exclusive-use easement" across much of its route — the right to use the land, not outright ownership of it. In practice, the railroad has used that authority to keep people off ground it doesn't own outright, including adjoining property owners. Homeowners took that fight to federal court, and state lawmakers have pushed a bill to limit the railroad's easement powers to actual railroad purposes, the standard other U.S. railroads follow.

Along the corridor, you can cross the tracks on foot, but you can't hunt on the right-of-way or shoot across it.

That's the backdrop for a quiet no-cost transfer. As Backcountry Hunters & Anglers put it, the worry isn't the transaction — it's what comes next.