APNewsBreak: 8 Alaska towns urge Murkowski to withdraw bill privatizing national forest land
By Mary Pemberton, APWednesday, June 30, 2010
APNewsBreak: 8 AK towns seek to kill land bill
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Eight Alaska communities are urging U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski to withdraw a bill allowing a Native corporation to privatize select lands in the nation’s largest national forest.
A letter obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday was sent to Murkowski amid speculation that the bill is being readied for a vote in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. It would convey up to 85,000 acres in the Tongass National Forest to Sealaska Corp.
The letter says the communities support conveyance of Sealaska’s remaining lands under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, but they object to the private corporation being given some of the most potentially valuable land in the forest.
They urged the senator to withdraw the bill or allow it to die in committee.
A Murkowski spokesman says the bill is being revised.
