Federal legislation was passed through the U.S. Congress that will transfer about 70,000 acres within the Tongass National Forest to the Sealaska Corp.
As we previously reported the legislation drew criticism from the Alaska Outdoor Council.
Rod Arno with AOC said the bill couldn’t pass on its own and has been tacked on to another unrelated issue: funding for the U.S. Military.
Arno: “The problem specifically with the Sealaska bill is that what Sealaska is asking to do is have their lands, that are owed them, be taken out of some second-growth forest where timber harvest is allowed, which would negatively affect the communities in the area.”
The legislation was passed within the defense bill last week.
Senator Murkowski’s office says the bill is a compromise; Sealaska was owed 85,000 acres but will accept 70,000 and is intended to make final the land claims owed to Southeast tribes under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
The AOC and other conservationists say they are concerned about the privatization of “ecologically sensitive” lands.
The land transfer includes more than 68,000 acres available for logging, as well as land for renewable energy and tourism projects and cemetery and historic sites. It also includes about 150,000 acres of old-growth timber in new conservation areas.