Congress directed BLM to transfer 104.5 million acres of Federal land to the State of Alaska. When the State’s land entitlements have been fulfilled, the State will have received title to about 29% of all lands in Alaska.

 

The Alaska Statehood Act of July 7, 1958, which became effective on January 3, 1959 by proclamation of President Eisenhower, confirmed previous territorial land grants benefiting the university system and mental health programs and established three new land entitlements: 

The State was initially given 25 years to make land selections under the Statehood Act. The selection period was later extended to January 3, 1994.  In Sec. 906(e) of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), Congress allowed the State to “topfile” or place a future interest application on certain federal lands outside of Conservation System Units not currently available for conveyance, including lands segregated by Native selections and federal mining claims and lands withdrawn by public land order. The State used this provision to identify its interest in vast areas of Alaska. A State topfiling is directed toward future events and does not become a true selection application until lands become available for conveyance. When topfiled lands become available, the State’s application automatically falls into place without further action by the State. 

 

Although the Statehood Act requires BLM to survey and patent lands selected by the State, BLM may transfer title to the State before survey by issuing a tentative approval (TA). In October of 2005, the State prioritized several million acres of selected lands for immediate conveyance. BLM is adjudicating those prioritized selections and transferring title to the State. 

 

Section 404 of the Alaska Land Transfer Acceleration Act requires the State to file its final conveyance priorities with BLM by December 10, 2008. 

 

The chart below shows the percentage of total entitlement transferred to the State (by tentative approval or patent) as of January 1, 2007.