ANCHORAGE – The U.S. Department of Justice has conceded and U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason Tuesday is signed an order confirming that the State of Alaska owns the submerged lands of the Fortymile River’s Mosquito Fork. This is a successful outcome for the State of Alaska, which filed a lawsuit in 2012 seeking to confirm state ownership of these lands.
For decades, the ownership of the Mosquito Fork’s submerged lands has been a source of contention between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the State of Alaska. The beds of nearly all navigable waters in Alaska are owned by the state, but in this case, BLM disputed the navigability of all but 1.5 river miles of the Mosquito Fork. The State claimed ownership of roughly 80.5 river miles and much of those submerged lands lie within BLM’s Fortymile Wild and Scenic River Corridor.
“We are pleased that this dispute has finally been resolved. As we have known and asserted all along, state ownership of the lands under this historic and important river will benefit Alaskans now and for future generations,” said Governor Bill Walker. “We expect the extensive information we gathered for this case will help expeditiously resolve other similar disputes with federal authorities concerning submerged lands in the future.”
“Our goal is to help BLM efficiently disclaim ownership of submerged lands under navigable waters throughout Alaska, without having to resort to litigation,” said Brent Goodrum, director of DNR’s Division of Mining, Land & Water.
The area surrounding Mosquito Fork has a rich mining history dating back to the 1886 gold strike at the mouth of Franklin Creek, eight miles downstream from Chicken. In more recent years, the State of Alaska has issued state mining claims to these submerged lands but BLM has objected and claimed that the United States owns the lands beneath the river. Furthermore, the disputed ownership has created confusion and hardship for Alaskans seeking to use and navigate the river.
On Monday, the Department of Justice filed a Recordable Disclaimer of Interest (RDI) in federal court, disclaiming “all interest adverse to” the State of Alaska to all of the disputed submerged lands of the Mosquito Fork between its confluences with Dennison Fork and Wolf Creek.
Since filing its litigation – a quiet title action – in 2012, the State of Alaska thoroughly investigated and prepared detailed reports on the physical condition and navigability of the river, detailed the river’s historic use, and produced thousands of pages of documents in discovery. Recently, the State filed a motion for summary judgment seeking to avert the trial scheduled for this August. The DOJ filing on Monday followed briefings on the summary judgment motion and occurred the day before oral arguments on the motion.
