The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today released the final decision on a proposed land exchange in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge with interior Native Corporation Doyon Limited. The agency went with its preferred alternative which means the exchange will not happen.
Doyon’s original proposal would have exchanged 150,000 acres of its land holdings within the Refuge for 110,000 acres of Refuge lands that had potential for oil and gas development with oil and gas rights to an adjacent 97,000 acres. Doyon also would have relinquished 56,000 acres of Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act entitlements the corporation currently has within the Refuge for land selections outside Refuge borders.
Lori Townsend, APRN – Anchorage
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