(SitNews) - U.S. Senators Mark Begich (D-AK) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) commented on an agreement reached Wednesday by House and Senate negotiators on a broad package of lands and resources measures nearly six years in the making. The agreement, included in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015, contains Alaska-specific provisions that will make final Sealaska’s land entitlement under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. That provision allows Sealaska to select approximately 70,000 acres of land and gain title to important historic and sacred sites while preserving extraordinary public access to these private lands for hunting and other activities.

Additionally, among many other provisions, it places approximately 150,000 acres elsewhere in the Tongass National Forest in protected status.

“I am pleased that after weeks of negotiations, we have reached a bipartisan and bicameral agreement to advance this series of public lands bills,” Murkowski said. “We have worked hard to develop a balanced package that will increase resource production and provide new economic opportunities for western communities.”

“While this overall bill and this package are not perfect, through negotiation and hard work, we have been able to move forward on development interests that advance Alaska’s economy,” said Begich. “This is a big win for Alaska and the regional economies in Southeast and Northwest Alaska.”

The joint agreement on the package will support job creation and economic growth through a balanced approach to improving public lands management, natural resource development, and conservation, while fully protecting private property rights and recreational interests.

In addition to the Sealaska legislation, the lands package includes two other beneficial Alaska provisions, one affects lands owned by the Municipality of Anchorage and another relates to a former Air Force site in Northwest Alaska.

The bill requires the federal government to sell, at fair market value, the former Wainwright DEW line site to the Olgoonik Corporation, Wainwright’s Alaska Native Village Corporation. The lande will be used as a staging area, ensuring Alaska villages have a stake in the economic opportunities provided by offshore oil and gas development, while protecting other sites in the area from additional development.

The package relinquishes the federal government’s reversionary interest in three parcels owned by the Municipality of Anchorage, allowing the city to sell or trade the property in order to advance other public purposes.

“I am proud of my work with my colleagues in the Alaska Delegation to bring these important Alaska priorities across the finish line. This is what happens when we, as a Congress and as Alaskans work together,” Begich continued. “I have no higher priority than empowering Alaska Native Corporations to improve the rural Alaska economy, and it’s great to see these measures near the finish line.”

The last omnibus lands package passed Congress in January 2009, and numerous lands issues important to states and regions across the country have not been settled with legislation since that time.

Murkowski highlighted several provisions in the package that will benefit Alaska.

“This package includes important provisions that will boost communities throughout our state, including the settlement and finalization of lands issues in Southeast Alaska, the conveyances of land for community development in Anchorage, and at Fort Wainwright,” Murkowski said.

Additional Highlights:

Expands Access to American Energy and Minerals

• Extends and expands nationwide the successful Bureau of Land Management permit streamlining program to increase oil and gas production from federal lands;
• Facilitates several proposed mineral development projects, including the third-largest undeveloped copper resource in the world; and
• Provides federal land management agencies with needed authorities to efficiently renew and process grazing permits and leases on more than 200 million acres of public rangeland.

Balances Conservation with Federal Land Conveyances

• Provides more than 110,000 acres of land to be conveyed out of federal ownership for economic and community development, which will in turn create good-paying jobs and new opportunities for thousands of Americans;
• Provides new means of enhancing private funding for parks;
• Designates a limited number of new park units, all of which have strong local support;
• Creates 245,000 acres of new wilderness areas – nearly half of which were already being treated by federal land managers “as if” wilderness – in wilderness study or roadless areas; and
• Releases more than 26,000 acres back to multiple-use designation

Native American Interests

• Settles Northern Cheyenne’s claims against the federal government for failing to take the subsurface estate under its reservation into trust;
• Settles land claims for the Sealaska Native Corp.;
• Conveys federal property to an Alaska Native village for economic development; and
• Provides access and protection for cultural resources and traditional uses at Oak Flat and Apache Leap in Superior, Arizona.

Protects Private Property Rights

• Ensures private property interests are fully protected in all special land designations;
• Protects all private activities taking place outside of the special land designations;
• Ensures no private property can be condemned, and prevents acquisitions through eminent domain; and
• Prohibits buffer zones and protective perimeters.

All of the provisions within the package were subject to extensive consideration, debate, and refinement by the relevant committees of jurisdiction, including the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

“This is the culmination of two years of effort by members on both sides of the aisle and from both chambers,” Murkowski said. “The balanced package we have developed is largely focused on unlocking the federal estate to bring economic prosperity and good-paying jobs to western states.”

Murkowski is the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s lead Republican member.

Edited by Mary Kauffman, SitNews

Source of News: 

Office of U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski
www.murkowski.senate.gov

Office of U.S. Sen. Mark Begich
www.begich.senate.gov

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