ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Alaska State Office recently signed patents on more than 340,000 acres fulfilling BLM’s responsibility to convey lands to the State of Alaska and Alaska Native Corporations. 

The acres patented on May 31 were previously conveyed to the State by Tentative Approval (TA) or to an Alaska Native Corporation by Interim Conveyance (IC).  Both IC and TA conveyances require survey before a final patent can be issued.

The lands patented were approximately 240,000 acres, or 375 square miles, to the State of Alaska near the communities of McGrath and Nikolai and approximately 100,000 acres, or 155 square miles, to the Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (CIRI) located southwest of Denali National Park in the Farewell Burn area. Along with these patents, there were two additional conveyances of a historical site for Chugach Alaska Corporation and a 160-acre Native allotment near Copper Center.

For more than 40 years, the BLM has been involved with the survey and conveyance of lands in Alaska under the Native Allotment Act of 1906; the Alaska Statehood Act, and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). The work being done to implement these laws is collectively called the Alaska Land Transfer Program. When completed, over 150 million acres, approximately 42 percent of the land area in Alaska, will have been transferred from federal to state and private ownership.

About 100 million acres of the State’s 105-million-acre total entitlement have been conveyed under the Statehood Act.  Up to 28 million of that 100 million acres will require additional survey before a final patent can be issued.  About 43.9 million acres of the ANCSA entitlement has been conveyed with only a few hundred thousand acres remaining to be surveyed.  There are roughly 1.8 million acres remaining to be conveyed under the ANCSA entitlement. 

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