WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today praised final passage of the package of lands bills included within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that will allow two land conveyances in Alaska – one in downtown Anchorage and another at Wainwright – to move forward.

“I don’t have to tell Alaskans how difficult even a small land conveyance can be in our state,” Murkowski said. “That’s the reality we live with when the federal government controls more than 62 percent of the land statewide. No matter how small the transaction, federal legislation is required, and the process is often more than a little frustrating. That’s why for the Olgoonik Native Corporation at Wainwright and the municipality of Anchorage, I’m pleased we were able to include these conveyances in the NDAA.”

The lands package includes language allowing the Olgoonik Native Corp. of Wainwright to pay fair market value for the former Air Force radar defense site – 1,518 acres located next to the North Slope village within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NRP-A) – for economic development. A provision in the NPR-A Act barred the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from disposing of any property within the reserve without congressional approval.

“This outcome is a win for all parties involved, including the BLM, which will no longer have to deal with managing a surplus, isolated parcel of land that isn’t anywhere near its other holdings inside the NPR-A,” Murkowski said. “For the environment and people of Wainwright and the surrounding area it ensures that the land needed for subsistence and hunting is accessible, and that any economic development is controlled by the residents of the village.”

The package also includes a provision to allow the municipality of Anchorage to sell the Egan Convention Center property and two other parcels of land – a total of 2.7 acres – in downtown Anchorage for redevelopment.

“Given that all of the lands concerned have been used for decades by the city for public purposes – as a convention center, as a park, as a municipal parking lot or as open space – it is only fitting given the city’s land use plans for the tracts to now be made available for sale to the private sector and developed for commercial uses,” Murkowski said.

Murkowski’s Southeast Alaska Native Land Entitlement Finalization and Jobs Protection Act, which provides Sealaska Corp., the Alaska Native regional corp. for Southeast Alaska, with 70,075 acres to finalize transfer of land owed to Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian tribes under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), was also included in the NDAA package.

NDAA passed the Senate 89 to 11 after passing the House of Representatives last week 300-119. It now heads to President Obama for signing.

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