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ANCSA RESOURCES |
ALRA-AK AGENCIES, LAWS, REGS and SOURCES ANILCA NAVIGABILITY TRAIL MAINT. FIREWOOD - LOGS FIRE PROTECTION
17(b) easements 10/20/23 (Revised 10/28/23) by Ray Kreig
17(b) easements are rights reserved to the United States and may also be reserved to and from communities, airports, docks, marine coastline, groups of private holdings sufficient in number to constitute public use and government facilities. They take the form of 60-foot wide roads, 25- and 50-foot trails, and one-acre sites for short-term uses. These rights are reserved when the BLM conveys land to an Alaska Native corporation under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). There are no 17(b) easements across public lands.
The purpose of most 17(b) easements are reserved to allow the public to cross private** property to reach public lands* and major waterways. Using 17(b) easements does not allow the public to use the private lands these easements cross. It is very similar to the street in front of many homes. The public has the right to travel on the street, but they do not have the right to dump litter on private property or trespass on private lawns.
*Publicly owned land means all Federal, State, or municipal and borough lands or interests and submerged lands as defined by the Submerged Lands Act. This definition of public lands also includes lands selected by, but not conveyed to, an Alaska Native corporation.
FAQ pdf Can a 17b easement be reserved after lands have already been transferred into private ownership? Once the land has been transferred to a private owner by the BLM, clear title of that land has also been transferred.
STATE PAAD - Public Access Assertion and Defense - ANCSA 17(b) Easements
17(b) easements are reserved to provide access to public lands, public resources and groups of private inholdings sufficient in number to constitute a public use. Many easements are not marked and most are not surveyed. The right to use the easement is usually limited to transportation purposes. These easements are intended to provide access across private Native lands, and along public waterways. The state does not manage 17(b) easements
CONFUSION FROM BLM MAPS AND COMMUNICATION PRODUCTS
** BLM is in error with this statement that it erroneously repeats many times. It should say, "17(b) easements are reserved to allow the public to cross private** federally conveyed ANCSA native village and regional corporation property to reach ..."
Diagrammatic, inaccurate, depiction of 17b easements on the original small scale quads accompanying the original ANCSA selection and conveyance process. When these are enlarged and placed over airphotos/images at scales like 1:1,200 to even 1:100,000 the locations can be way off, impractical and impossible to use etc. It is, and was, unreasonable to expect BLM in the 1970's to do more accurate locations when on-the-ground surveys would have been impossible, costly and take many decades to do (and at the same time holding up patenting the lands to the native corporations). Furthermore, today's detailed imagery was not available back then.
Examples noticed on the BLM ArcGIS map where 17b easements are shown over non-native lands:
Chugiak - 17b Easement 56 C4 - S15n2w25, Patent 1234769, 1/21/1964, 2.50 ac GIBSON, DANNY. Federal Register 43 (249): 60338, 12/27/78. This crosses a 1964 pre-FLPMA patent to an individual entryman that is now crossed by the Anchorage to Eklutna transmission line. There is no easement in that patent for that powerline. Presumably the federal Alaska Power Administration purchased an easement from that private owner and later transferred it to Chugach Electric and ML&P (see 3133/534). This looks like a BLM mapping and database error or possibly some unusual provision whereby federal acquired property interests (by non-BLM agencies) could be joined to a 17b easement. Seems extremely unlikely!!\
Glacier View (Mat-Su) - There is a 17b easement (8 Di, D9) across CIRI in S20n9e28; Federal Register (unknown cite). This is reserved in CIRI's patent as normal but when the 1948 Anchorage (D-3) 1:63,360 quad (updated by BLM to reflect 17b's as of 9/14/07) and then overlaid on imagery from the 1960's to present time, there has never been an actual used trail where most areas of where the line was depicted by BLM.
It seems the intent in many places was to follow an existing route at the time of patent to CIRI (but not, of course, where that route was crossing lands previously patented to other non-native entryman).
Is there a procedure for correcting or moving 17b locations where they seem to be in cartographic error? [No answer found]
CASES
Alaska Public Easement Defense Fund v. Andrus, 435 F. Supp. 664 (D. Alaska 1977) -
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