New Copper River Basin plan could put more state land up for sale

Alaska adopted a new land plan for the Copper River Basin on Tuesday that makes more than 200,000 additional acres of state land eligible to pass into private ownership.

The plan, signed by Natural Resources Commissioner John Crowther, also drops an 18,000-acre cap on how much settlement and agricultural land the state can offer for sale in the region. It replaces a plan from 1986. No sales are scheduled yet.

To make way for future sales, Crowther closed about 306,000 acres of that land to new mining claims. The order says the land has no known mineral deposits and that mining would be incompatible with its current and planned uses. It doesn't affect valid existing rights.

The plan covers more than 5.2 million acres of state land and land the state has selected but doesn't yet own, from north of Paxson south to Thompson Pass and from the Nelchina Public Use Area east to the Canadian border. It also sets guidance for the state's carbon offset program.

People who commented on the plan can ask the commissioner to reconsider by Nov. 16, for a $200 fee.