Thank you for your time!

March 21, 2024

Dear Mathieu,

Thank you for everyone for taking the time to visit with us at Mountain Market and Rusty Compass. We were happy to see so many familiar faces and grateful for the chance to meet new people like Cindy Zuluaga Jimenez from HEDC. We’re also grateful to Haynes Tormey, Greg Palmieri, and others who caught up with us by phone.

The weather held up for our coffee times, but sadly we did have to jump on the ferry a day early back to Juneau. If we missed you, or if you have additional questions, please contact us anytime.

We will be attending Confluence in Anchorage next month, so please let us know if you will be joining too. Thank you again to Lee Hart for organizing!

Current land holdings: next steps

We continue to hear from many of you about the desire for small-scale timber, along with questions about our potential carbon credit program. As we mentioned in person, the UA Land team is working with a forestry consultant to evaluate all forested areas in UA land holdings, including the Chilkat Valley. Look for an update from us in the next few months. Also, a hunting permit program is still moving forward and we appreciate your patience. If you have questions about allowable use on UA lands, you can find additional information on our website.

As always, if you have an idea for a project in the community, please reach out to us.

Land Grant proposed selections: questions about protecting traditional uses

Over coffee, we heard concerns about protecting traditional use hunting and cabins in the larger parcel that the University is requesting as part of its Land Grant. To clarify, this parcel is outside the Chilkat Bald Eagle Reserve and not connected to the Kelsall or Tahini Rivers. So, after looking at maps together, none of the folks we met with will be impacted if that parcel would be conveyed to the University. Of course, if you still have questions, please contact us anytime. Please see a map below.

We also met with Chilkoot Indian Association and heard their perspectives about protecting salmon habitats. We will take that into consideration if UA receives future conveyance, as we do with all of our landholdings.

We will send another eNewsletter when the State issues any public notice. In the meantime, more information about the Land Grant process is below with more details and maps available on our website.

More background on proposed land selections

As I mentioned previously, at the end of 2022, Congress passed legislation to finalize the University’s land entitlement as part of its Land Grant. This is a complex, multi-year process that involves both the State and the federal government. The way this works is that the UA Land team can select from federal land holdings that are part of the state’s remaining general selections.

Recently the UA Land team submitted a request for two selections along the Klehini River (approximately 30 acres each), and another one further north along the Chilkat River at the B.C. border (approximately 4,400 acres). The next step in the process is for the State of Alaska to put out a public notice. After that, the State will decide whether or not to transfer ownership to UA. The State may decide to modify these parcels or leave as is. Finally, the land selections would go back to the federal government for final conveyance.

Please visit our website and then click on the "Southeast" section to view maps of the three selections.

Also, we are doing everything we can to coordinate with BLM on any conflicting Native Veteran allotment requests.

Finally, if the University does receive conveyance of these new landholdings, then we will continue to communicate with all of you, and find ways to address community needs while generating revenue for the UA Scholars program. The UA Land team does not have any development plans for the parcels at this time.

Maps of University land holdings

An interactive map of all current university land holdings is available on the homepage of the UA Land website , or you can click here to view and download a map of the Chilkat Valley.

Community eNewsletter

We have added new folks to our email list during our recent visit, but if you know of others, please send them my way, or they are welcome to sign up directly on our website.

As always, please reach out to me anytime at UALandHaines@gmail.com.

Many thanks–

Kirsten Henning

Liaison for UA Land Management Office

Visit our Haines Website