United States Senator Lisa Murkowski

Sealaska Land Bill

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Lands and Forests Subcommittee on May 25, 2011 held a hearing on this year’s Sealaska lands bill to take testimony on the bill. The committee, chaired by subcommittee chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., heard testimony from Forest Service Undersecretary for Agriculture Harris Sherman, Sealaska Board member Byron Mallott and Edna Bay resident Myla Polestra. Sen. Lisa Murkowski also added to the record comments on the bill from the State of Alaska, Resource Development Council, Alaska Forest Association, Alaska Trollers Association, Audubon, and a variety of individuals.

Following the hearing, the bill could come before members for their consideration.

On April 5, 2011 Senator Murkowski reintroduced legislation that would allow Southeast Alaska’s Sealaska Native Regional Corp. to complete the land selections promised to its shareholders nearly 40 years ago under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).

The Sealaska bill, originally introduced by Congressman Don Young in the House in 2007 and by Senator Murkowski in the Senate in 2008 and again in 2009, has undergone major revisions over the past year to reflect public comments gathered at town-hall meetings in Southeast communities in 2010, after two new town meetings in February 2011, and as a result of hundreds of emails, letters and comments sent to Senator Murkowski’s office and the office of Sen. Mark Begich, her co-sponsor on the Senate legislation.

The measure seeks to complete the aboriginal land selections by Southeast Alaska Natives, while also protecting the rights of other Alaskans who have grown to depend on Southeast lands for their livelihoods. The Sealaska bill is intended to reduce environmental impacts to Southeast Alaska and does not provide additional acreage beyond the initial conveyance obligations of ANCSA.

The legislation is important not only to keep the legal promise the federal government made in ANCSA, but also to ensure the survival of the remaining timber operations in Southeast. Without access to private timber, the remaining mills will disappear and an important part of the region’s economy will be lost forever, the Senator said.

Under the bill Sealaska will select its land from among 79,000 acres on Prince of Wales and Koscuisko Islands to complete its land entitlement. While a large portion of Sealaska’s land selection will be available for timber harvesting, between 4,000 and 5,000 acres will be set aside for economic diversion, such as eco-tourism development – lands not open to logging or mineral development – and another 3,600 acres will be preserved as sacred, cultural, historic and educational sites.

The bill allows Sealaska to select about 7 percent of the second-growth in the Tongass National Forest, and will cause Sealaska to select about 39,000 fewer acres of old growth timber than it otherwise could have selected, if the corporation is forced to select among its original selection boxes set up by the 1971 act. The Senator believes that the corporation should be allowed to select outside of those boxes, being required to return most of those 327,000 acres back to the national forest, since much of the acreage is environmentally sensitive, such as the Situk River corridor in the northern Panhandle.

The latest Senate bill is different from the bill last revised in June 2010 in a number of ways.

Timber Lands:

• It imposes an 100-foot no cut buffer, similar to Forest Service requirements, on Alaska Class 1A riparian areas (anadromous water bodies including streams with average gradients less than 8 percent, wetlands, lakes and estuaries). The provision will be in effect for five years to give the State of Alaska time to evaluate whether any changes are needed to its State Forest Practices Act to protect fish streams from harvest impacts.

• Removed 745 acres from potential timber selections at Karheen Lakes on the western side of Tuxekan Island to protect fishery habitat.

• Removes acreage near the Halibut Harbor anchorage, on the west side of Cape Pole and north of Cape Pole heading toward Point Ruin, to prevent timber blown down by winds that could make anchorages and thus trolling more dangerous for fishermen in bad weather.

Future Sites: There are two changes in future sites compared to the 2010 bill:

• Due to the volume of concerns in Ketchikan, the Dog Cove Future Site, near Naha north of the community, has been removed from the list. The 30-acre site is popular with citizens for recreation and fishing.

• And due to concerns by Tenakee residents and its City Council, the 40-acre Pegmatitie Mountain geothermal site, 25 miles north of the town, is still being conveyed but with a covenant that bars commercial development of the site for 15 years. The time is provided to determine if small hydroelectric projects or other forms of renewable energy can supply Hoonah and perhaps Pelican, Tenakee and Elfin Cove with cheaper electricity, which would do always with the need for development of the Pegmatite Mountain site.

Sacred Sites:

• Language was included that guarantees that sacred sites can only be used for education and other traditional purposes.

Other Issues:

• And the bill clarifies the management of conservation areas.

• Guarantees access to trails covered by Section 17(b) easements.

• Adds renewable energy to the specific uses for some future sites.

• And makes it more apparent that third-party rights are protected by the act.

Maps detailing all of the timber sites are posted on this website.