Yukon Flats land swap on hold
Published Saturday, September 6, 2008
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has delayed for as much as one year its decision on a controversial land swap within the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge between the federal government and Doyon Ltd., the Fairbanks-based Native corporation.
The Fish and Wildlife Service planned to announce its decision later this fall but Larry Bell, assistant regional director for external affairs, said the agency is now shooting for the fall of 2009 as a target date. The agency is still waiting for some lands that are part of the deal to be appraised, he said.
The appraisals are needed to ensure that the swap is an “equal value exchange,” Bell said.
In the swap, the Fish and Wildlife Service would get at least 150,000 acres of Doyon land within the refuge, and Doyon would give up another 56,500 acres of land it owns inside the refuge that was selected as part of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1970.
Doyon, the largest private landowner in Alaska, would get 110,000 acres of refuge lands believed to be rich in oil and gas reserves with subsurface drilling rights to another 97,000 acres of adjacent land. The Native corporation would also get to select lands outside the refuge in exchange for the ANCSA-selected lands it gives up in the refuge.
The proposed exchange, which refuge and Doyon officials have been negotiating for the past six years, is opposed by environmentalists and many residents in Yukon Flats villages, who fear development in the refuge and the effects it will have on hunting, fishing and wildlife habitat.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a draft environmental impact statement for the proposed swap in January and received more than 100,000 public comments, of which more than 80 percent opposed the exchange.
“It’s a major coup for us in the villages to have it put off for another year,” Dacho Alexander, first chief of the Gwichyaa Zhee Gwich’in tribe in Fort Yukon, said on Friday, a day after the delay was announced. “It kind of gives us breathing room we’ve been asking for to study the possible implications of drilling in the Flats.
Alexander said the tribe feels “the issue going to any other administration but the Bush adminstration is a good thing.”
A private contractor is doing the appraisals, which must be reviewed by the Department of the Interior’s Appriasal Services Directorate before they are approved for use in the EIS, Bell said. The agency is allowing up to a year to complete the process in the event more lands need to be appraised or more work needs to be done on the initial EIS, he said.
Jim Mery, senior vice president at Doyon, said the delay was not unexpected because the appraisal process to determine the value of subsurface resources is a complicated one and there aren’t many companies in the country that do it.
“This is very typical in these large EIS processes,” Mery said. “They end up taking three or four times longer than anticipated.”
All Doyon officials can do is wait until the appraisal process is completed, he said.
“We would have loved to be done with this process a year ago or be finishing up right now but it hasn’t worked out that way,” Mery said. “It’s nothing we can control. Based on what we know (the Fish and Wildlife Service) is just doing their job.”
Community Discussion
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How can it be an "equal value exchange" since the natives didn't earn or pay for the land to start with ... LOL
The giving never ends
neither did anybody else, oh except for one group of FOREIGNERS (like YOU james) bought it from another group of foreigners.
Natives were here FIRST
Do you people see now? there cannot be an article without cowardly racist scum (like james) typing some stupid comment for no other reason than he does not like natives, he is not even close to the only one in town, just one of the few that can actually figure out the little buttons on the keyboard so he can make words.
I don't like racists, they are uneducated, dumb, and COWARDLY. You people can act all tough here or maybe when theres a group of you attacking one Native but I'd like to see you cowards go to a village and say the same things, or even go to a bar in town and start talking your crap.
It'll NEVER happen because you people are SCARED and JEALOUS.
They already took your right to just walk on THEIR lands to hunt james, keep talking.
Sorry, I meant PRIVILEGE to walk on THEIR land to hunt.
This whole article isn't about bashing the Natives. It's about the Land Exchange and oil & gas development that is happening in our back yards. Oh, and by the way I'm from the Yukon Flats and 100% in agreement with the land trade and oil and gas development. This means endless opportunities for us "Native" people in the Yukon Flats. It means jobs for anyone that wants to work, eventually cheaper fuel for the Flats, Native owned businesses, control of who comes and goes on our land, infrastructure in the villages. Like I said the opportunities are endless.
This land exchange would be helpful, but without it, development will still happen. You see why we are in full agreement with the land excahnge and development (endless opportunities) because you have folks like our old time Congressman, Don Young that claims Fort Yukon is his home. He's been in Congress for the last 30+ years, and have any of you been to Fort Yukon? Those folks live in third world conditions, no housing, no jobs, actually not much to speak of. If I were the lone congressman for the State of Alaska, and my hometown is Fort Yukon, believe me I would certainly concentrate on sending more money supporting "My Hometown." Apparently that isn't happening so we have to find ways to build up our own villages, without the help of this Fort Yukon congressman.
James, of course the Natives didn't earn or pay for the land, it's ours to begin with. Who do you think you foreigners seen when you first touched America? It sure wasn't a foreigner. I'd highly recommend you head back down south with 2 other foreigners under each arm and one in your backpack.
MY SUGGESTION, FORGET THE LAND EXCHANGE AND DEVELOP AND DEVELOP NOW.
Yeah we didnt "pay" for the land, why should we? We lived off it for thousands of years and we also have a great respect for the land because it gave us everything we needed to survive. Now outsiders want to come along and drill having no regard for who was there first and what they want and will impact their future and everything to do with their lives.
3rd world conditions exactly, im sure many in the lower 48 would be shocked if i told them that when i visit my grandmother in Chalkyitsik, I have to use a honey bucket!
akgg, what did your grandmother, or more importantly HER grandmother use prior to "the invasion"? Was it indoor plumbing?
they used the same thing your ancestors used slacker. Stop acting so high and mighty
Can't We All Just Get Along??????????
the God given land that the Alaska natives own should not be swapped for "filthy lucre". remember that an oil spill would be impossible to clean up off the tundra. why not eat moose and burn wood. doyon ltd. is already drilling for oil and us natives don't get diddly squat out of it. what makes any native think this will be any different?
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