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Show established for Alaska. We have concluded that generally the public land laws dealing with the retention and management or disposition of public lands and their resources should apply equally in all states where the public lands are located, including Alaska. In that state, however, the situation is entirely different with regard to planning for the future.40 In Chapter Fifteen, we discuss the land grants made by the Alaska Statehood Act41 to that state. There is a program for the state to select certain public lands until 1984. It is essential that, during the period the selection process continues, there be carefully coordinated planning between the Federal Government and the state, a fact to which we also give recognition in Chapter Twenty dealing with organization, administration, and budgeting. We note these facts here in order to indicate that the general recommendation for coordination by Federal land management agencies with local and state governments must be strengthened and the State of Alaska given a greater role in planning the future uses of the public land base, since a significant part of that land base will belong to the state in the future. The State of Alaska needs many facilities, such as 40 University of Wisconsin, Federal Land Laws and Policies in Alaska, Ch. VII. PLLRC Study Report, 1970. 41 72 Stat. 339, as amended by 74 Stat. 1024, 78 Stat. 168. roads, port developments, and, ultimately, schools, hospitals, and all the other facilities that service people. It is essential, in furtherance of the objectives of the Statehood Act, to allow the Alaskan people to determine the patterns of geographic growth and development within the state through the process of the state selection program. Approximately 98 percent of the state is now federally owned; but, we must never lose sight of the fact that even after the selection process has been completed, the Federal Government will still own approximately two-thirds of the state. The emphasis given to the state's desires and needs underscores the Federal responsibility to plan for the retention and management or disposition of the lands that it will have after the selection process is completed, in a manner not to thwart the state's effort to chart its own destiny. Planning of this type requires close coordination with the state in order to assure that no undue burdens are placed on the state for the construction of facilities in areas where the state is not ready to proceed with development. We have a unique opportunity, while state selections are being made, to make joint plans with the state for the proper development of the state consistent with the maximum safeguards for the environment that exists there. |