Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions - S 1354

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

By Ms. MURKOWSKI (for herself and Mr. STEVENS):

    S. 1354. A bill to resolve certain conveyances and provide for alternative land selections under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act related to Cape Fox Corporation and Sealaska Corporation, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

    Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to reintroduce a bill that passed the Senate with bipartisan support in the 107th Congress. This legislation addresses an equity issue for one of Alaska's rural village corporations.

    Cape Fox Corporation is an Alaskan Village Corporation organized pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, by the Native Village of Saxman, near Ketchikan, AK. As with other ANCSA village corporations in Southeast Alaska, Cape Fox was limited to selecting 23,040 acres under Section 16. However, unlike other village corporations, Cape Fox was further restricted from selecting lands within 6 miles of the boundary of the home rule city of Ketchikan. All other ANCSA corporations were restricted from selecting within 2 miles of such a home rule of city.

    The 6-mile restriction went beyond protecting Ketchikan's watershed and damaged Cape Fox by preventing the corporation from selecting valuable timber lands, industrial sites, and other commercial property, not only in its core township, but in surrounding lands far removed from Ketchikan and its watershed. AS a result of the 6-mile restriction, only the mountainous northeast corner of Cape Fox's core township, which is nonproductive and of no economic value, was available for selection by the corporation. Cape Fox's land selections were further limited by the fact that the Annette Island Indian Reservation is within its selection area, and those lands were unavailable for ANCSA selection. Cape Fox is the only ANCSA village corporation affected by this restriction.

    Clearly, Cape Fox was placed on unequal economic footing relative to other village corporations in Southeast Alaska. Despite its best efforts during the years since ANCSA was signed into law, Cape Fox has been unable to overcome the disadvantage the law built into its land selection opportunities by this inequitable treatment.

    To address this inequity, I have introduced the Cape Fox Land Entitlement Adjustment Act of 2003. This bill will address the Cape Fox problem by providing three interrelated remedies:

    (1) The obligation of Cape Fox to select and seek conveyance of the approximately 160 acres of unusable land in the mountainous northeast corner of Cape Fox's core township will be annulled.

    (2) Cape Fox will be allowed to select and the Secretary of the Interior will be directed to convey 99 acres of timber land adjacent to Cape Fox's current holdings on Revilla Island.

    (3) Cape Fox and the Secretary of Agriculture will be authorized to enter into an equal value exchange of lands in Southeast Alaska that will be of mutual benefit to the Corporation and the U.S. Forest Service. Lands conveyed to Cape Fox in this exchange will not be timberlands, but will be associated with a mining property containing existing Federal mining claims, some of which are patented. Lands anticipated to be returned to Forest Service ownership will be of wildlife habitat, recreation and watershed values and will consolidate Forest Service holdings in the George Inlet area of Revilla Island.

    The land exchange provisions of this bill will help rectify the long-standing inequities associated with restrictions placed on Cape Fox in ANCSA. It will help allow this Native village corporation to make the transition from its major dependence on timber harvest to a more diversified portfolio of income-producing lands.

    The bill also provides for the resolution of a long-standing land ownership problem with the Tongass National Forest. The predominant private landowner in the region, Sealaska Corporation, holds the subsurface estate on several thousand acres of National Forest System lands. This split estate poses a management problem which the Forest Service has long sought to resolve. Efforts to address this issue go back more than a decade. Provisions in the Cape Fox Land Entitlement Act of 2003 will allow the agency to consolidate its surface and subsurface estate and greatly enhance its management effectiveness and efficiency in the Tongass National Forest. I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the RECORD.