agricultural experiment stations and services to aid farmers and homeowners — the Cooperative 0c_PY^TZY >P]aTNP ɨ bSTNS _SP UA now performs. 4Y $ 5`ORP5LXP^BTNVP] - sham, Alaska’s territorial dele- gate, persuaded Congress to set aside lands in the Tanana Valley to support schools and an ag- ricultural and mining college, which the Territory of Alas- ka formed two years later. This could have resulted in 268,000 acres for the new college. 3ZbPaP] .ZYR]P^^ ]P\`T]PO that the land be surveyed before conveyance, which never hap- pened. The college did ultimate- ly receive 11,211 acres, with 2,250 acres for the campus near Fair- banks. In 1929, Congress granted the university rights to another LN]P^ bT_S YZ ]P\`T]PO surveys. The university received all of these lands. Decision by Gov. Egan The Alaska Statehood Act in $ $NZYʭ]XPO_SP^PPL]WTP]WLYO grants and also granted the state of Alaska rights to select 102.5 million acres of unreserved feder- al land to help support the young state. That same year the just- formed Alaska Legislature passed a bill granting one million acres of Alaska statehood entitlement lands to the university, but it bL^aP_ZPOMd2Za-TWW0RLY_SP ^_L_Pɪ^ʭ]^_RZaP]YZ] 4_bL^LN]T_TNLWOPNT^TZY0RLY felt the university should be fund- ed like state agencies through an- nual appropriations and not from a land grant. Through the 1960s the university lobbied state and QPOP]LW ZʯNTLW^ _Z TYN]PL^P _SP university’s land endowment, but _SPPʬZ]_^bP]P`Y^`NNP^^Q`W 4Y $"# _SP ^SZP ʭYLW - ly dropped, with the Legislature designating the existing univer- sity lands as general state lands and making them subject to state management by the Department
of Natural Resources along with other state lands. What happened next set the stage for lawsuits and continued impasse. The state essentially comin- gled general state and universi- ty lands and from 1979 to 1982 several major land disposals were made, some of which af- fected lands that could gone to the university’s endowment. Some lands were included in the Chugach State Park and other lands went to municipali-
ties. In 1979, the university sued for compensation for these lost lands, and a settlement reached in 1982 resulted in the land trust being reconstituted with the uni- versity, not the state, to manage T_LYOLYLR]PPXPY__ZOTʬP]PY - tiate state public and university lands as to lands that had been transferred to other parties, and to reconstitute the university’s endowment with replacement lands of similar value.
CONTINUED on PAGE 61
Most people would be intimidated by a job description that said: “plant 27,000 trees - by hand.” But for the land reclamation crew at Usibelli Coal Mine, it’s all in a days work. This past summer, they planted trees on over 200 acres of coal mining lands. Usibelli Coal Mine restores every acre of disturbed land back to natural habitat. We started doing this in 1970, years before the law required it. Our goal is to leave Alaska as we found it — wild and beautiful. ALASKA’S GREEN MAKEOVER
Visit us at: USIBELLI.COM Vi US
October 2019
The Alaska Miner
53
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