Sealaska has received interim conveyance for final acreage promised under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). In a signing ceremony, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) State Director Bud Cribley signed the document on Friday March 6, 2015.

“BLM is pleased to be part of this significant milestone toward the completion of the Alaska Land Transfer Program for Sealaska,” stated BLM Alaska State Director Bud Cribley. “The Alaska Land Transfer Program is the work being done by BLM to survey and convey lands under ANCSA as well as the Native Allotment Act and Alaska Statehood Act. BLM anticipates it will take several years to survey Sealaska’s ANCSA lands. Once that is finished BLM will issue a patent to the land.”

“The day the land bill passed, Sealaska directors were discussing the continued viability of Sealaska Timber Corporation (STC),” said Sealaska Chair Joe Nelson.  “With the new lands, the board and management will work towards a sustainable timber harvest program with a goal to provide regional community and shareholder economic benefit.”

“We are reviewing the past 40-years of land ownership and are taking a fresh look at how best to improve our approach to managing our land,’ said Sealaska President and CEO Anthony Mallott. “Through our commitment to land stewardship, each rotation of trees will provide shareholders with cultural, language and educational benefits, as well as dividends into the future.”

“Reaching this significant milestone could not have been done, without the leaders who worked on the land agreement over the last forty years, some who are no longer with us,” said Sealaska Lands Committee Chair Rosita Worl. “Sealaska was overwhelmed with the long list of supporters who stood with us through the last ten years and with the dedicated work of our congressional delegation.”

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