President Trump signed a law last Tuesday that permits the transfer of approximately 180 acres of federal land to the Cape Fox Corporation.
The Saxman-based Alaska Native Village Corporation says previous legislation prohibited it from owning land within six miles of Ketchikan’s city limits. That requirement made it so the land that could be claimed by Cape Fox through the Alaska Native Claims Settlements Act, or ANCSA, had little economic value due to the mountainous terrain, or was otherwise unavailable to them, like the Annette Island Indian Reservation. The bill allows Cape Fox to receive land in the Tongass National Forest that fulfills the remaining land entitlement set under previous legislation and consolidates the Corporation’s selection.
The land that is now available connects plots that had previously been transferred to Cape Fox. According to a statement from the organization, the plan is to develop a road and transmission line linking the Mahoney Lake hydroelectric site to the Beaver Falls Power Grid. The goal for that project is to bring renewable power, jobs and energy development to the region. They hope to start conducting feasibility studies within the next year.
The Cape Fox Land Entitlement Finalization Act was introduced by Representative Nick Begich and supported by Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan.
This is the first time the House has passed the bill and the second time the Senate has passed it. U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski first introduced the bill two years ago. In a press release, she said Cape Fox was at an “incredible disadvantage” with the land it was forced to claim under ANCSA, and she is grateful to her Senate colleagues who set aside differences to pass the bill.
Thomas Harris, Board Vice President of Cape Fox Corp., said in a statement that reaching this long-sought after goal “represents the potential to create Ketchikan’s very first 40-mile tourism corridor loop stretching from downtown Ketchikan ports, along South Tongass Highway to Saxman and Mountain Point, alongside George Inlet to Beaver Falls, past George Inlet Cannery, up to Mahoney Lake, onto White River, up the Harriet Hunt Road, back down past Ward Lake, on through to Ward Cove and then along North Tongass Highway right back to downtown Ketchikan.”
Cape Fox is in the process of formalizing the selection notice to the Department of Interior and plans to have it submitted this summer.
