 April 24, 2002
Murkowski offered the Cape Fox Land Entitlement Adjustment Act of 2002 to help relieve the hardships caused by special conditions imposed upon Cape Fox in ANCSA. Although ANCSA restricted other village corporations from selecting lands within two miles of a home rule city, Cape Fox was restricted from selecting lands within six miles of Ketchikan. "While this was done, in large part, to protect Ketchikan's watershed, it placed Cape Fox on an unequal economic footing relative to other village corporations in Southeast Alaska," Murkowski said. "Despite its best efforts, Cape Fox has been unable to overcome the disadvantage the law built into its land selection opportunities." The legislation relieves Cape Fox of the obligation to select 160 acres of land in the mountainous northeast corner of the corporation's core township. It also permits Cape Fox to select 99 acres of timber land adjacent to its existing holdings on Revilla Island and directs the Forest Service to convey that land to Cape Fox. These changes will leave the corporation about 200 acres it can still select under its original land entitlement. The measure also authorizes an exchange of up to 3,000 acres of corporation land near George Inlet on Revilla Island for approximately 2,600 acres of Forest Service land near Berners Bay, north of Juneau. The Forest Service has long wanted to acquire the George Inlet parcels for wildlife and recreation purposes. The land to be selected near Slate Lakes, north of Berners Bay, will enable the proposed Kensington Gold Mine to operate totally on private land, which may help speed its development. The bill also allows the Forest Service to greatly enhance its management effectiveness and efficiency in the Tongass National Forest by consolidating its surface and subsurface estate throughout Southeast Alaska. Sealaska Corporation, the predominant private landowner in the region, currently holds the subsurface estate on several thousand acres of National Forest lands in Southeast Alaska. "This bill will allow Cape Fox to make the transition from its dependence on timber harvest to a more diversified portfolio of income-producing lands," Murkowski said.
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