U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the State of Alaska that sought ownership of the land beneath Mendenhall Lake and part of the river.
It’s a defeat in the Dunleavy administration’s push to take control of federal lands in the state.
The state of Alaska filed the lawsuit against the federal government in November 2022. It came as Gov. Mike Dunleavy sought reelection – it was filed just a week before Election Day that year.
The land has been under U.S. Forest Service jurisdiction since the early 1900s. But, the State of Alaska argued that the ownership should have turned over to Alaska at statehood.
Both the lake and the upper river in question lie within the Tongass National Forest. Mendenhall Lake is at the base of Mendenhall Glacier, which is one of Alaska’s most-visited tourist attractions. The Forest Service estimates more than 1 million people visited the glacier this year.
In Gleason’s 36-page ruling filed earlier this month, she granted the U.S. government’s request to dismiss the lawsuit. She heard oral arguments on the case in May.
Gleason ruled that the federal government may keep the title to the submerged land because it held the land when Alaska was a territory – and it expressed the intent to retain the land through statehood.
Her decision said that handing the claims over to the state could compromise the Mendenhall Lake Recreation Area’s purpose of protecting the area’s recreational and scenic value.
A spokesperson for the Forest Service directed questions about the litigation to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor said in a statement last week that the state is disappointed in the decision and is evaluating its next steps in the case.
“The State is committed to continuing to secure the rights and lands we were promised at statehood, and our submerged lands, accounting for thousands of miles throughout the state, are an important piece of these efforts,” he said.
The state’s lawsuit was part of a campaign movement launched by the Dunleavy administration called “Unlocking Alaska.” It began in 2021 and it was an effort to assert more state control over federally managed areas. Currently, the federal government is the largest landowner in Alaska with 60% of the total area.
In a letter earlier this week, Dunleavy asked President-elect Donald Trump to issue an Alaska-specific executive order “restoring Alaska’s authority over wildlife, lands and waters and completing the transfer of statehood lands promised in 1959.”
The Forest Service finalized a plan last December to overhaul the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area, which the lawsuit threatened to uproot. It includes a new welcome center, increased parking and new public-use cabins.