Title 43Public LandsRelease 119-73

§1640 Relinquishment of selections partly within conservation units

Title 43 › Chapter CHAPTER 33A— - IMPLEMENTATION OF ALASKA NATIVE CLAIMS SETTLEMENT AND ALASKA STATEHOOD › § 1640

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

A State or Native Corporation may give up any part of its selected federal land that lies inside a conservation unit, including land under water. Once given up, that area becomes part of the conservation unit and is managed with the rest of it. Giving up those lands does not reduce the total land the State or Native Corporation is entitled to. The State can pick the same acreage elsewhere under the Alaska Statehood Act as amended. A Native Corporation can keep the same acreage from overselection lands with properly and timely filed applications. Relinquishing land inside the unit does not cancel or weaken any valid selection outside the unit, even if the remaining piece no longer meets size, compactness, contiguity, or section-line rules.

Full Legal Text

Title 43, §1640

Public Lands — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Whenever a valid State or Native selection is partly in and partly out of the boundary of a conservation system unit, notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the State or any Native Corporation may relinquish its rights in any portion of any validly selected Federal land, including land underneath waters, which lies within the boundary of the conservation system unit. Upon relinquishment, the Federal land (including land underneath waters) so relinquished within the boundary of the conservation system unit shall become, and be administered as, a part of the conservation system unit. The total land entitlement of the State or Native Corporation shall not be affected by such relinquishment. In lieu of the lands and waters relinquished by the State, the State may select pursuant to the Alaska Statehood Act as amended by this Act, an equal acreage of other lands available for such purpose. The Native Corporation may retain an equal acreage from overselection lands on which selection applications were otherwise properly and timely filed. A relinquishment pursuant to this section shall not invalidate an otherwise valid State or Native Corporation land selection outside the boundaries of the conservation system unit, on the grounds that, after such relinquishment, the remaining portion of the land selection no longer meets applicable requirements of size, compactness, or contiguity, or that the portion of the selection retained immediately outside the conservation system unit does not follow section lines along the boundary of the conservation system unit. The validity of the selection outside such boundary shall not be adversely affected by the relinquishment.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The Alaska Statehood Act as amended by this Act, referred to in text, is Pub. L. 85–508, July 7, 1958, 72 Stat. 339 as amended by Pub. L. 96–487, Dec. 2, 1980, 96 Stat. 2371, which is set out as a note preceding section 21 of Title 48, Territories and Insular Possessions. This Act, referred to in text, is Pub. L. 96–487, Dec. 2, 1980, 94 Stat. 2371, known as the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

note set out under section 3101 of Title 16, Conservation, and Tables. Codification Section was not enacted as part of title IX of Pub. L. 96–487 which comprises this chapter.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

43 U.S.C. § 1640

Title 43Public Lands

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73