BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE For an additional amount for "Construction and maintenance," $200,000, to remain available until expended. This supplemental amount is required for construction of fire protection facilities. Mrs. HANSEN. $1 million of your request is in connection with the Alaska Native claims settlement. You have given the committee a general picture of this program. Do you have anything to add on the additional responsibilities that Public Law 92-203 will place on your agency? Mr. SILCOCK. First of all, we must identify, withdraw, and note the records for some 40-million acres around the villages. This is part of the requirements of the law. NATIVE VILLAGES Mrs. HANSEN. How many villages are there in Alaska? Mr. SILCOCK. They are located throughout Alaska, but principally in what we call interior Alaska and along the Bering Sea coast. We have a map here that we can show you. Mrs. HANSEN. Mr. Silcock, villages change in Alaska, as you are well aware. Mr. SILCOCK. Yes, ma'am. Mrs. HANSEN. There might be a village for 5 years at a fishing site and then the people may leave for another site. What is going to be the judgment factor in a case like this. Will the Natives be able to choose both villages or just the first village or the second village? Mr. SILCOCK. First of all, it is tied in the bill back to the 1970 census which was the basis to start from in identifying those villages. There is an example of just what you are talking about near Fairbanks called Minto. Mrs. HANSEN. Yes; I have been there. Mr. SILCOCK. The original village of Minto was out in the flats where they got wet every year when the Tanana River floods. They have moved to the hills to the west of the flats where they could get access to the village by road. It is my understanding that they would be allowed one of those villages but not both of them, and what they are considering is the new village location because that is where they presently live. Now, the old village, the historical site of it, the cemeteries, and these kinds of things would be protected by the Secretary's option within the 2 million acres which is available to him to identify those lands. Mr. LOESCH. That would be a very small tract, Madam Chairman, not like a township. Mrs. HANSEN. I understand. I saw it. I hope you can visit Minto. Mr. LOESCH. I have seen the Minto Village, Madam Chairman. Mr. SILCOCK. I might point out on the map the red squares, each of which is a township. That is the township that each village is located in. We have drawn the 25-township perimeter around each village which then will be noted on our records, be required to survey, and so on. There is some shifting of villages but somehow it would seem to me that that has got to settle down. Mrs. HANSEN. Settle down as long as their fishing is good; isn't that true? Mr. LOESCH. Yes. We have had some strategy and tactical conferences on this, too, of course, Madam Chairman, and we believe that we are constrained by the act to take the site at which the people live on the census data of 1970. You understand that with the provisions of the act there will be withdrawn enough land, for the villages. This is adequate for both the initial village selections and the remainder of some 22 million acres that goes back to the villages through regional selections. There is almost no case that we can determine where both sites-there are sort of alternate sites-will be within the overall township withdrawal for a particular village. In other words, they don't move that far. (Discussion off the record.) ALASKA STATE SELECTIONS Mr. SILCOCK. We start from the village and survey selections within this 25-township area. There will be some deficiency withdrawals where they won't be able to get all of their land within that 25-township area. That will have to be identified later, which will compound our survey problem. We also have the problem of surveying the State lands that Alaska has already applied for. The deep blue is what Alaska has applied for and we have surveyed and issued patent. The lighter blue is land that they have applied for but we have not yet surveyed it. Mrs. HANSEN. Where is the land the State currently occupies? Mr. SILCOCK. That is what you see in the various colors of blue and it is in various stages of processing. There is some where it has been patented and some where we have tentatively approved selections pending survey. Mrs. HANSEN. What is the total acreage they own? Mr. SILCOCK. It is 25.6 that they have selected. Mrs. HANSEN. 25.6 million? Mr. SILCOCK. Yes, ma'am, that they have selected prior to the Native Claims Act. Mrs. HANSEN. How does that compare with the current government ownership in Arizona? Mr. LOESCH. Madam Chairman, there is less than 3 percent of the land in Alaska privately owned. Isn't that right? Mr. SILCOCK. It is less than that. Only 3 percent is surveyed. Mrs. HANSEN. How many acres are in Government ownership in Arizona? Mr. SILCOCK. 32 million acres, about 12.6 million of which are under BLM jurisdiction. Mrs. HANSEN. This gives the committee I think an opportunity to equate the situation because Arizona is one of the larger Government owned States. Mr. LOESCH. Nevada is by far the biggest. Mrs. HANSEN. How many acres are Government owned in Nevada? Mr. SILCOCK. Something like 40 million acres under BLM. Mr. YATES. How many acres in Alaska are owned by the State? Mrs. HANSEN. 25 million. Mr. SILCOCK. Actually, the State will end up with as much as 104 million acres. Mrs. HANSEN. This is what they currently own. Mr. SILCOCK. So moving on from the blue areas which they have in the process of selection now, patented or in the process of selection, or we are in the process of surveying, the State has also applied for 77.3 million acres of land just recently. They are the areas outlined in black that you see here. I am showing this because we then will be required to survey this at the same time, so we are talking about surveving some 77.3 million acres of new lands for the State, some 40 million acres for the villages, and I think there are some 8,500 native allotments that could be up to 160 acres for each individual case. There are some 4,100 other cases, which would be the homesteaders, the headquarter sites, T & M sites, and so on, so this is the impact of our survey program. ADJUDICATION Mrs. HANSEN. What happens if a native selects land that is held by homesteaders? Mr. SILCOCK. It goes back to the prior valid existing rights; from the standpoint of which valid right was there first. on a specified contract season and then so much an hour when we are operating. We could furnish that for the record. Mrs. HANSEN. Please do. (The information follows:) OPERATING COSTS OF HELICOPTERS UTILIZED IN ALASKA AIRBORNE SURVEY SYSTEM BLM utilizes hoversight equipped Fairchild Hiller 1100 helicopters in its airborne survey program in Alaska. The FH 1100 is a small turbine powered helicopter capable of the precise hovering required for airborne surveys. Operating costs are slightly more than $200 per hour, and average $850 per day per helicopter. In recent years BLM has operated two airborne survey crews during the field season which lasts approximately 6 months. The total cost for two helicopters working a 6-day week for 6 months is approximately $200,000. LAND AND MINERALS PROGRAM Mr. SILCOCK. I spoke of the Cadastral phase. I would like to speak about the other phase, the lands and minerals side of it, which represents $400,000 of the total we are requesting. This is to be used to gear up now for additional people in our lands program; land offices, field examiners, legal clerks, and so on. These are needed to get ahead of and keep abreast of the workload that is going to come. It includes the notation in the records of, for example, these 40 million acres. That has to go through the land office and be noted on the records as well as some 8,500 allotment applications, some of which we already have but some, as Secretary Loesch mentioned, is coming over from BIA. Then our examiners will have to view the lands on the ground to verify that requirements have been met. There will be conflicts between natives or between a native and a homesteader as to land rights. So these things have to be ironed out before we can start the individual claims survey. This gives some background on the need for the additional $400,000 in the lands program. FIRE PROTECTION For the fire protection program we are requesting $400,000. Approximately 2 million acres of scattered but highly valuable public lands west of the Sierras in California are now protected by a contract arrangement with the State of California. Rising costs have increased the cost to us in the neighborhood of some $200,000 and we are requesting a supplemental to cover that. An additional $200,000 is requested to improve our own Bureau's initial attack capabilities on some 9 million acres of land on the east side of California and that part of Nevada that is administered by the Susanville district in California. Under the present funding level it is impossible to provide the necessary initial attack capability or to maintain an adequate fire prevention program. The requested increase will finance 10 additional fire control positions, additional temporary fire crews, and needed equipment. FIREFIGHTING AND REHABILITATION Finally, under firefighting is a request to cover annual fire costs. We are requesting some $15 million. The factors which cause fire, such as weather conditions, are largely unpredictable. Therefore, a regular appropriation of $4.800.000 was made and a supplemental request, based on more recent data is subsequently submitted. Firefighting obligations from July 1 to November 30, 1971, were $17,096,000. The estimated spring fire season costs are estimated at $2,700,000, for a total firefighting cost of $19.8 million. This is an increase of $15 million over the current appropriation. CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE Our second request today is for $200,000 in the "Construction and maintenance" Appropriation to construct urgently needed fire protection facilities at three locations in California. This item together with the $400,000 for additional contract fire protection payments, personnel, and equipment as requested under the "Management of lands and resources" account, will substantially improve our protection capability in California. Mrs. HANSEN. Why didn't you request these items in your regular construction budget for fiscal year 1972? Mr. SILCOCK. They were considered and submitted last August. Mrs. HANSEN. No, I mean why didn't you request this in your regular budget for fiscal year 1972? Mr. HASTEY. The constraints we had in the 1972 budget precluded these items. Mrs. HANSEN. Don't you think there are as many constraints now? Mr. HASTEY. The fire contract with the State of California, with the adjustment of the cost, the $200,000 item, came in after we had drawn up the regular 1972 budget. Mrs. HANSEN. You had an increase in your budget last year of $125,000. Mr. HASTEY. We did have an increase of $125,000 to bring it up to an intermediate level. Mr. SILCOCK. Our fire operations at Cedarville, Ravendale, Chimney Peak complexes in California are presently being conducted from tents or trailers, or from old buildings which were not designed for such operations. This is what we are trying to update and modernize to include sanitation facilities, fuel storage, and so on. JUSTIFICATION MATERIAL Mrs. HANSEN. Please insert the items from House Document 92-215 and justifications in the record. (The items and justifications follow :) BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT MANAGEMENT OF LANDS AND RESOURCES For an additional amount for "Management of lands and resources," $16,400,000. This supplemental amount is required for the suppression of fire, for fire protection, and for carrying out the requirements of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. |