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Alaska Statutes.

Title 38. Public Land

Chapter 5. Alaska Land Act

Section 965. Definitions.

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AS 38.05.965. Definitions.

In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires,

(1) "acquired land" means land belonging to the state including tide, submerged, and shoreland which has been obtained by escheat, purchase, or any means other than by general land grant;

(2) "agricultural land" means land chiefly valuable for agricultural purposes;

(3) "commissioner" means the commissioner of natural resources;

(4) "department" means the Department of Natural Resources;

(5) "director" means the director of the division of lands of the Department of Natural Resources;

(6) "geothermal resources" means the natural heat of the earth at temperatures greater than 120 degrees Celsius, measured at the point where the highest-temperature resources encountered enter or contact a well or other resource extraction device, and includes

(A) the energy, including pressure, in whatever form present in, resulting from, created by, or that may be extracted from that natural heat;

(B) the material medium, including the geothermal fluid naturally present, as well as substances artificially introduced to serve as a heat transfer medium; and

(C) all dissolved or entrained minerals and gases that may be obtained from the material medium, but excluding hydrocarbon substances and helium;

(7) "grazing land" means land chiefly valuable for grazing purposes;

(8) "industrial and commercial land" means land chiefly valuable for industrial trade, manufacturing, or business use;

(9) "lieu and indemnity land" means land which the state is entitled to select under the provisions of the Act of March 4, 1915, 38 Stat. 1214 (48 U.S.C. 353), as amended, or a similar statute to compensate for land in place of surveyed rectangulars, which have been lost to the state by reason of deficient sections, prior rights, claims, withdrawals, reservations, and other appropriations;

(10) "material" includes sand, stone, gravel, pumice, and common clay.

(11) "mineral land" means land prospectively valuable for mineral deposits;

(12) "multiple use" has the meaning given in AS 38.04.910 ;

(13) "navigable water" means any water of the state forming a river, stream, lake, pond, slough, creek, bay, sound, estuary, inlet, strait, passage, canal, sea or ocean, or any other body of water or waterway within the territorial limits of the state or subject to its jurisdiction, that is navigable in fact for any useful public purpose, including but not limited to water suitable for commercial navigation, floating of logs, landing and takeoff of aircraft, and public boating, trapping, hunting waterfowl and aquatic animals, fishing, or other public recreational purposes;

(14) "nonconventional gas" means coal bed methane, gas contained in shales, or gas hydrates;

(15) "park and recreation land" means land chiefly valuable for public park and recreation use;

(16) "preference right forest lease" means a lease granted to a lessee whose United States Forest Service term special use permit was cancelled to allow the land under permit to be selected by the state;

(17) "preference right grazing lease" means a grazing lease granted to a lessee whose federal grazing lease was cancelled to allow the land under lease to be selected by the state;

(18) "public water" means navigable water and all other water, whether inland or coastal, fresh or salt, that is reasonably suitable for public use and utility, habitat for fish and wildlife in which there is a public interest, or migration and spawning of fish in which there is a public interest;

(19) "rule of approximation" is the rule which is applied in determining whether or not a lease complies with the area limits set forth in this chapter and regulations adopted under it and in keeping the boundaries of leased land coincidental with legal subdivisions; under the rule, if the area covered by a lease in excess of the permitted maximum is smaller than the area of any deficiency that would result by eliminating from the lease the smallest legal subdivision covered by the lease or application for lease, the excess area will be permitted to remain in the lease; if the excess area is greater than the deficient area would be, then the smallest legal subdivision will be eliminated from the lease;

(20) "shoreland" means land belonging to the state which is covered by nontidal water that is navigable under the laws of the United States up to ordinary high water mark as modified by accretion, erosion, or reliction;

(21) "state land" or "land" means all land, including shore, tide, and submerged land, or resources belonging to or acquired by the state;

(22) "submerged land" means land covered by tidal water between the line of mean low water and seaward to a distance of three geographical miles or further as may hereafter be properly claimed by the state;

(23) "tideland" means land that is periodically covered by tidal water between the elevation of mean high water and mean low water;

(24) "timber land" means state land chiefly valuable for timber and other forest products;

(25) "university land"

(A) means

(i) all sections 33 reserved to the university under the Act of March 4, 1915, 38 Stat. 1214, as amended;

(ii) all land granted to or reserved for the benefit of the university that retains its designation as university land;

(iii) all other land owned in fee by the University of Alaska including land transferred in fee to the Board of Regents of the University of Alaska to replace land formerly designated as university land;

(B) does not include former university land that has been conveyed to the department under the settlement approved by the legislature in ch. 22, SLA 1983.