Reintroduction of legislation for a land exchange between the federal government and Chugach Alaska Corp. is back on the table in Congress, in what the Native regional corporation is calling a matter of common sense, fairness and healing.
The Alaska congressional delegation’s decision to reintroduce the Chugach Alaska Land Exchange and Oil Spill Recovery Act bill would resolve long-standing split-estate conflicts in the region not only for their corporation, but for the broader public interest, said Sheri Buretta, chairman of the Chugach Board. It would consolidate split estates and facilitate a mutually beneficial land exchange, according to Buretta. Chugach would receive some 65,000 acres of full estate and surface lands that are culturally significant, economically viable and accessible, she said.
In return, Chugach said in a statement released on June 12, the regional corporation would transfer ownership of more than 230,000 acres of subsurface estates to the federal government to align surface and subsurface ownership and reduce management conflicts.
Most of the lands to be exchanged were identified in the Chugach Region Land Study and Report to Congress back in December 2022. The study was directed in Section 1113 of the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management and Recreational Act, authored by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
Murkowski said effects of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill on Native people in the Chugach region are still felt environmentally, socially and economically.
“We must continue to take steps to move forward with recovery and that includes fulfilling the promises of ANCSA (Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act) to Chugach, the Alaska Native regional corporation,” she said.
The study was to provide a report to Congress assessing social and economic impacts of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council’s work (EVOSTC) in the Chugach region.
Under the EVOSTC program, the trustee council used funds acquired from companies responsible for the spill to purchase thousands of acres of land for the purposes of habitat restoration and protection – including surface estate lands from village corporations for Chenega, English Bay (Nanwalek), Eyak, and Tatitlek.
Chugach Alaska was not party to any of those acquisitions but owns the subsurface – or mineral estate – for all land in which interests were acquired by the federal government from the village corporations under the program.
Some surface lands and conservation easements on surface lands acquired by the federal government went into state and federal park systems, but most went into the Chugach National Forest, which is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. These lands are subject to restrictions on any surface development inconsistent with maintaining their wilderness characteristics, so Chugach is effectively prohibited from developing its subsurface interests.
For that reason, the regional corporation needs alternative lands to realize meaningful economic benefits promised under ANCSA, Alaska’s congressional delegation said.
Buretta said EVOSTC spent hundreds of millions of dollars acquiring surface lands from village corporations for conservation, while Chugach retained its subsurface rights, creating an unworkable dynamic – much like buying the front door to a home and then trying to decide how the homeowner uses the house.
“As such, Chugach still holds the legal authority to use the front door and access its subsurface estate and this legislation would fix that and give ownership of the entire house to the government,” she said. “And in exchange Chugach would be given ownership to an adjacent home in the Chugach region.”
The exchange “represents a necessary step toward correcting historic imbalances and ensuring that Chugach can wholly manage our lands for the long-term benefit of our shareholders and future generations,” Buretta added.
According to Chugach, each parcel identified for exchange has been carefully selected for its cultural, economic or ecological value, from lands adjacent to Chugach’s Nuuciq Youth and Elder Spirit Camp to those with development potential. This balanced approach to land stewardship reflects Chugach’s commitment to both economic opportunity and cultural preservation, the regional corporation said.
The deal is opposed by Rick Steiner, a marine conservation biologist in Anchorage who served at the University of Alaska’s marine advisor for the Prince William Sound region throughout the oil spill, while he was based in Cordova.
“Essentially the Alaska delegation is proposing to trade thousands of acres of valuable public lands in coastal Alaska for a whole lot of rock and dirt,” Steiner said. “Exchange of federal properties must – unless there are mitigating public interests – be done as an equal vale exchange and the exchange proposed here isn’t even close.
“More importantly, the proposed transfer of protected public lands within the EVOS region to a private, for-profit corporation for development purposes directly contravenes a central element of the court-approved EVOS restoration program, protecting coastal habitat from additional industrial damage to give the injured ecosystem the best chance possible to recover,” he added.
Steiner contends that the congressional delegation’s bill ignores findings of the Chugach Lands Study, in which federal agencies identified 26,930 acres of federal lands as “accessible and economically valuable that would be eligible for trade, not the 65,374 acres the bill requires.” The study also noted that ecological and public use values of these federal surface lands have yet to be evaluated and considered, he said.
Steiner also said residents of the region involved in commercial fishing, tourism and recreation, who would be significantly impacted by such a trade, must be consulted.
