The purpose of the regulations in this part is to provide procedures for orderly and timely implementation of those provisions of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of December 18, 1971 (43 U.S.C. 1601) which pertain to selections of lands and interests in lands in satisfaction of the land selections conferred by said Act upon Alaska Natives and Alaska Native corporations.

The program of the Secretary is to implement such provisions in keeping with the congressional declaration of policy that the settlement of the Natives' aboriginal land claims be fair and just and that it be accomplished rapidly, with certainty, in conformity with the real economic and social needs of Natives, without litigation and with maximum participation by Natives in decisions affecting their rights and property.

Section 25 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of December 18, 1971, authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to issue and publish in the Federal Register, pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 551, et seq.), such regulations as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of the act.

(a) Act means the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of December 18, 1971 (43 U.S.C. 1601) and any amendments thereto.

(b) Secretary means the Secretary of the Interior or his authorized delegate.

(c) Native means a Native as defined in section 3(b) of the Act.

(d) Native village means any tribe, band, clan, group, village, community, or association in Alaska, as defined in section 3(c) of the Act.

(e) Village corporation means a profit or nonprofit Alaska Native village corporation which is eligible under § 2651.2 of this chapter to select land and receive benefits under the act, and is organized under the laws of the State of Alaska in accordance with the provisions of section 8 of the Act.

(f) Regional corporation means an Alaska Native regional corporation organized under the laws of the State of Alaska in accordance with the provisions of section 7 of the Act.

(g) Public lands means all Federal lands and interests in lands located in Alaska (including the beds of all non-navigable bodies of water), except:

(1) The smallest practicable tract, as determined by the Secretary, enclosing land actually used, but not necessarily having improvements thereon, in connection with the administration of a Federal installation; and,

(2) Land selections of the State of Alaska which have been patented or tentatively approved under section 6(g) of the Alaska Statehood Act, as amended (72 Stat. 341; 77 Stat. 223; 48 U.S.C. Ch. 2), or identified for selection by the State prior to January 17, 1969, except as provided in § 2651.4(a)(1) of this chapter.

(h) Interim conveyance as used in these regulations means the conveyance granting to the recipient legal title to unsurveyed lands, and containing all the reservations for easements, rights-of-way, or other interests in land, provided by the act or imposed on the land by applicable law, subject only to confirmation of the boundary descriptions after approval of the survey of the conveyed land.

(i) Patent as used in these regulations means the original conveyance granting legal title to the recipient to surveyed lands, and containing all the reservations for easements, rights-of-way, or other interests in land, provided by the act or imposed on the land by applicable law; or the document issued after approval of the survey by the Bureau of Land Management, to confirm the boundary description of the unsurveyed conveyed lands.

(j) Conveyance as used in these regulations means the transfer of title pursuant to the provisions of the act whether by interim conveyance or patent, whichever occurs first.

(k) National Wildlife Refuge System means all lands, waters, and interests therein administered on December 18, 1971, by the Secretary as wildlife refuges, areas for the protection and conservation of fish and wildlife that are threatened with extinction, wildlife ranges, game ranges, wildlife management areas, or waterfowl production areas, as provided in the Act of October 15, 1966, 80 Stat. 927, as amended by the Act of July 18, 1968, 82 Stat. 359 (16 U.S.C. 668dd).

(l) Protraction diagram means the approved diagram of the Bureau of Land Management mathematical plan for extending the public land surveys and does not constitute an official Bureau of Land Management survey, and, in the absence of an approved diagram of the Bureau of Land Management, includes the State of Alaska protraction diagrams which have been authenticated by the Bureau of Land Management.

(m) Date of filing shall be the date of postmark, except when there is no postmark, in which case it shall be the date of receipt in the proper office.

(n) LUPC means the Joint Federal-State Land Use Planning Commission for Alaska.

(o) Major waterway means any river, stream, or lake which has significant use in its liquid state by watercraft for access to publicly owned lands or between communities. Significant use means more than casual, sporadic or incidental use by watercraft, including floatplanes, but does not include use of the waterbody in its frozen state by snowmobiles, dogsleds or skiplanes. Designation of a river or stream as a major waterway may be limited to a specific segment of the particular waterbody.

(p) Present existing use means use by either the general public which includes both Natives and non-Natives alike or by a Federal, State, or municipal corporation entity on or before December 18, 1976, or the date of selection, whichever is later. Past use which has long been abandoned shall not be considered present existing use.

(q) Public easement means any easement reserved by authority of section 17(b) of the Act and under the criteria set forth in these regulations. It includes easements for use by the general public and easements for use by a specific governmental agency. Public easements may be reserved for transportation, communication and utility purposes, for air, light or visibility purposes, or for guaranteeing international treaty obligations.

(r) Publicly owned lands means all Federal, State, or municipal corporation (including borough) lands or interests therein in Alaska, including public lands as defined herein, and submerged lands as defined by the Submerged Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. 1301, et seq.

(s) Director means the Director, Bureau of Land Management.

(t) Isolated tract means a tract of one or more contiguous parcels of publicly owned lands completely surrounded by lands held in nonpublic ownership or so effectively separated from other publicly owned lands as to make its use impracticable without a public easement for access.

(u) State means the State of Alaska.

(v) Native corporation means any Regional Corporation, any Village Corporation, Urban Corporation and any Native Group.

(a) Native enrollment procedures are contained in 25 CFR part 43h. 1

(b) Withdrawal procedures are contained in part 2300 of this chapter.

(c) Application procedures are contained in subpart 1821 of this chapter.

(d) Appeals procedures are contained in 43 CFR part 4, subpart E.

(e) Mineral patent application procedures are contained in part 3860 of this chapter.

The Secretary may, in his discretion, waive any nonstatutory requirement of these regulations. When the rights of third parties will not be impaired, and when rapid, certain settlement of the claims of Natives will be assisted, minor procedural and technical errors should be waived.

(a)(1) Prior to any conveyance under the Act, all public lands withdrawn pursuant to sections 11, 14, and 16, or covered by section 19 of the Act, shall be administered under applicable laws and regulations by the Secretary of the Interior, or by the Secretary of Agriculture in the case of national forest lands, as provided by section 22(i) of the Act. The authority of the Secretary of the Interior and of the Secretary of Agriculture to make contracts and to issue leases, permits, rights-of-way, or easements is not impaired by the withdrawals.

(2)(i) Prior to the Secretary's making contracts or issuing leases, permits, rights-of-way, or easements, the views of the concerned regions or villages shall be obtained and considered, except as provided in paragraph (a)(2)(ii) of this section.

(ii) Prior to making contracts, or issuing leases, permits, rights-of-way, or easements on lands subject to election pursuant to section 19(b) of the Act, the Secretary shall obtain the consent of the representatives of the Natives living on those lands.

(b) As provided in section 17(d)(3) of the Act, any lands withdrawn pursuant to section 17(d) shall be subject to administration by the Secretary under applicable laws and regulations and his authority to make contracts, and to issue leases, permits, rights-of-way, or easements shall not be impaired by the withdrawal. To the extent that any such land is also subject to the provisions of paragraph (a) of this section, the provisions of that subsection shall govern.

(c) As provided in section 21(e) of the Act, so long as there are no substantial revenues from real property interests conveyed pursuant to this Act and the lands are not subject to State and local real property taxes, such lands shall continue to receive forest fire protection services from the United States at no cost. The Secretary will promulgate criteria, after consultation with the concerned Native corporations and the State of Alaska, for determining when substantial revenues are accruing as to lands for which forest fire protection services are furnished by the Department of the Interior and no discontinuance of such service will be ordered by the Secretary unless he finds, after notice and opportunity for submission of views, that such discontinuance is in conformity with the criteria.

(a) Applications for land selections must be filed on forms approved by the Director, Bureau of Land Management. Applications must be filed in accordance with subpart 1821 of this chapter.

(b) Each regional corporation shall submit with its initial application under this section a copy of the resolution authorizing the individual filing the application to do so.

(c) Each village corporation under subpart 2651 of this chapter must submit with its initial application under this section a certificate of incorporation, evidence of approval of its articles of incorporation by the regional corporation for that region, and a copy of the authorization of the individual filing the application to do so.

(d)(1) Regional and village corporations authorized by the act subsequently filing additional or amendatory applications need only refer to the serial number of the initial filing.

(2) Any change of the officer authorized to act for any corporation in the matter of land selections should be promptly submitted to the appropriate office of the Bureau of Land Management.

(e)(1) If the lands applied for are surveyed, the legal description of the lands in accordance with the official plats of survey shall be used.

(2) If the lands applied for are unsurveyed, they shall be described by protraction diagrams.

(3) If the lands applied for are not surveyed and are not covered by protraction diagrams, they must be described by metes and bounds commencing at a readily identifiable topographic feature, such as a mountain peak, mouth of a stream, etc., or a monumented point of known position, such as a triangulation station, and the description must be accompanied by a topographic map delineating the boundary of the area applied for.

(4) Where 1:63,360 U.S.G.S. quadrangle maps with the protraction diagram plotted thereon have been published, these maps shall be used to portray and describe the lands applied for. Where 1:63,360 U.S.G.S. quadrangle maps with the protraction diagram plotted thereon have not been published, then the 1:250,000 U.S.G.S. quadrangle maps with the protraction diagrams plotted thereon shall be used.

(5) If the written description shown on the application and the map portrayal accompanying the application do not agree the delineation shown on the map shall be controlling.

(f) The selected areas may be adjusted by the Secretary with the consent of the applicant and amendment of the application by the applicant, provided that the adjustment will not create an excess over the selection entitlement.

(a) Pursuant to sections 14(g) and 22(b) of the Act, all conveyances issued under the act shall exclude any lawful entries or entries which have been perfected under, or are being maintained in compliance with, laws leading to the acquisition of title, but shall include land subject to valid existing rights of a temporary or limited nature such as those created by leases (including leases issued under section 6(g) of the Alaska Statehood Act), contracts, permits, rights-of-way, or easements.

(b) The right of use and occupancy of persons who initiated lawful settlement or entry of land, prior to August 31, 1971, is protected: Provided, That:

(1) Occupancy has been or is being maintained in accordance with the appropriate public land law, and

(2) Settlement or entry was not in violation of Public Land Order 4582, as amended. Any person who entered or settled upon land in violation of that public land order has gained no rights.

(c) In the event land excluded from conveyance under paragraph (a) of this section reverts to the United States, the grantee or his successor in interest shall be afforded an opportunity to acquire such land by exchange pursuant to section 22(f) of the Act.

(a) Possessory rights. Pursuant to section 22(c) of the Act, on any lands to be conveyed to village or regional corporations, any person who prior to August 31, 1971, initiated a valid mining claim or location, including millsites, under the general mining laws and recorded notice thereof with the appropriate State or local office, shall not be challenged by the United States as to his possessory rights, if all requirements of the general mining laws are met. However, the validity of any unpatented mining claim may be contested by the United States, the grantee of the United States or its successor in interest, or by any person who may initiate a private contest. Contest proceedings and appeals therefrom shall be to the Interior Board of Land Appeals.

(b) Patent requirements met. An acceptable mineral patent application must be filed with the appropriate Bureau of Land Management office not later than December 18, 1976, on lands conveyed to village or regional corporations.

(1) Upon a showing that a mineral survey cannot be completed by December 18, 1976, the filing of an application for a mineral survey, which states on its face that it was filed for the purpose of proceeding to patent, will constitute an acceptable mineral patent application, provided all applicable requirements under the general mining laws have been met.

(2) The failure of an applicant to prosecute diligently his application for mineral patent to completion will result in the loss of benefits afforded by section 22(c) of the Act.

(3) The appropriate office of the Bureau of Land Management shall give notice of the filing of an application under this section to the village or regional corporation which has selection rights in the land covered by the application.

(c) Patent requirements not met. Any mineral patent application filed after December 18, 1976, on land conveyed to any village or regional corporation pursuant to this Act, will be rejected for lack of departmental jurisdiction. After that date, patent applications may continue to be filed on land not conveyed to village or regional corporations until such land is conveyed.

Any conveyance issued for surface and subsurface rights under this act will be subject to any lease, contract, permit, right-of-way, or easement and the rights of the lessee, contractee, permittee, or grantee to the complete enjoyment of all rights, privileges, and benefits thereby granted him.

Upon issuance of any conveyance under this authority, the grantee thereunder shall succeed and become entitled to any and all interests of the State of Alaska or of the United States as lessor, contractor, permitter, or grantor, in any such lease, contract, permit, right-of-way, or easement covering the estate conveyed, subject to the provisions of section 14(g) of the Act.

Leases, contracts, permits, rights-of-way, or easements granted prior to the issuance of any conveyance under this authority shall continue to be administered by the State of Alaska or by the United States after the conveyance has been issued, unless the responsible agency waives administration. Where the responsible agency is an agency of the Department of the Interior, administration shall be waived when the conveyance covers all the land embraced within a lease, contract, permit, right-of-way, or easement, unless there is a finding by the Secretary that the interest of the United States requires continuation of the administration by the United States. In the latter event, the Secretary shall not renegotiate or modify any lease, contract, right-of-way or easement, or waive any right or benefit belonging to the grantee until he has notified the grantee and allowed him an opportunity to present his views.

Every conveyance which includes lands within the boundaries of a national forest shall, as to such lands, contain reservations that:

(a) Until December 18, 1976, the sale of any timber from the land is subject to the same restrictions relating to the export of timber from the United States as are applicable to national forest lands in Alaska under rules and regulations of the Secretary of Agriculture; and,

(b) Until December 18, 1983, the land shall be managed under the principles of sustained yield and under management practices for protection and enhancement of environmental quality no less stringent than such management practices on adjacent national forest lands.

(a) Every conveyance which includes lands within the national wildlife refuge system shall, as to such lands, provide that the United States has the right of first refusal so long as such lands remain within the system. The right of first refusal shall be for a period of 120 days from the date of notice to the United States that the owner of the land has received a bona fide offer of purchase. The United States shall exercise such right of first refusal by written notice to the village corporation within such 120-day period. The United States shall not be deemed to have exercised its right of first refusal if the village corporation does not consummate the sale in accordance with the notice to the United States.

(b) Every conveyance which covers lands lying within the boundaries of a national wildlife refuge in existence on December 18, 1971, shall provide that the lands shall remain subject to the laws and regulations governing use and development of such refuge so long as such lands remain in the refuge. Regulations governing use and development of refuge lands conveyed pursuant to section 14 shall permit such uses that will not materially impair the values for which the refuge was established.

(a) General requirements. (1) Only public easements which are reasonably necessary to guarantee access to publicly owned lands or major waterways and the other public uses which are contained in these regulations, or to guarantee international treaty obligations shall be reserved.

(2) In identifying appropriate public easements assessment shall be made in writing of the use and purpose to be accommodated.

(3) The primary standard for determining which public easements are reasonably necessary for access shall be present existing use. However, a public easement may be reserved absent a demonstration of present existing use only if it is necessary to guarantee international treaty obligations, if there is no reasonable alternative route or site available, or if the public easement is for access to an isolated tract or area of publicly owned land. When adverse impacts on Native culture, lifestyle, and subsistence needs are likely to occur because of the reservation of a public easement, alternative routes shall be assessed and reserved where reasonably available. The natural environment and other relevant factors shall also be considered.

(4) All public easements which are reserved shall be specific as to use, location, and size. Standard sizes and uses which are delineated in this subsection may be varied only when justified by special circumstances.

(5) Transportation, communication, and utility easements shall be combined where the combination of such easements is reasonable considering the primary purposes for which easement is to be reserved.

(6) Public easements may be reserved to provide access to present existing Federal, State, or municipal corporation sites; these sites themselves shall not be reserved as public easements. Unless otherwise justified, access to these sites shall be limited to government use.

(7) Scenic easements or easements for recreation on lands conveyed pursuant to the Act shall not be reserved. Nor shall public easements be reserved to hunt or fish from or on lands conveyed pursuant to the Act.

(8) The identification of needed easements and major waterways shall include participation by appropriate Natives and Native corporations, LUPC, State, Federal agencies, and other members of the public.

(9) After reviewing the identified easements needs, the Director shall tentatively determine which easements shall be reserved. Tentative determinations of major waterways shall also be made by the Director and shall apply to rivers, streams, and lakes. All lakes over 640 acres in size shall be screened to determine if they qualify as major waterways. Those smaller than 640 acres may be considered on a case-by-case basis. The Director shall issue a notice of proposed easements which notifies all parties that participated in the development of the easement needs and information on major waterways as to the tentative easement reservations and which directs that all comments be sent to the LUPC and the Director.

(10) The State and the LUPC shall be afforded 90 days after notice by the Director to make recommendations with respect to the inclusion of public easements in any conveyance. If the Director does not receive a recommendation from the LUPC or the State within the time period herein called for, he may proceed with his determinations.

(11) Prior to making a determination of public easements to be reserved, the Director shall review the recommendations of the LUPC, appropriate Native corporation(s), other Federal agencies, the State, and the public. Consideration shall be given to recommendations for public easement reservations which are timely submitted to the Bureau of Land Management and accompanied by written justification.

(12) The Director, after such review, shall prepare a decision to convey that includes all necessary easements and other appropriate terms and conditions relating to conveyance of the land. If the decision prepared by the Director is contrary to the LUPC's recommendations, he shall notify the LUPC of the variance(s) and shall afford the LUPC 10 days in which to document the reasons for its disagreement before making his final decision. The Director shall then issue a Decision to Issue Conveyance (DIC).

(13) The Director shall terminate a public easement if it is not used for the purpose for which it was reserved by the date specified in the conveyance, if any, or by December 18, 2001, whichever occurs first, He may terminate an easement at any time if he finds that conditions are such that its retention is no longer needed for public use or governmental function. However, the Director shall not terminate an access easement to isolated tracts of publicly owned land solely because of the absence of proof of public use. Public easements which have been reserved to guarantee international treaty obligations shall not be terminated unless the Secretary determines that the reasons for such easements no longer justify the reservation. No public easement shall be terminated without proper notice and an opportunity for submission of written comments or for a hearing if a hearing is deemed to be necessary by either the Director or the Secretary.

(b) Transportation easements. (1) Public easements for transportation purposes which are reasonably necessary to guarantee the public's ability to reach publicly owned lands or major waterways may be reserved across lands conveyed to Native corporations. Such purposes may also include transportation to and from communities, airports, docks, marine coastline, groups of private holdings sufficient in number to constitute a public use, and government reservations or installations. Public easements may also be reserved for railroads. If public easements are to be reserved, they shall:

(i) Be reserved across Native lands only if there is no reasonable alternative route of transportation across publicly owned lands;

(ii) Within the standard of reasonable necessity, be limited in number and not duplicative of one another (nonduplication does not preclude separate easements for winter and summer trails, if otherwise justified);

(iii) Be subject only to specific uses and sizes which shall be placed in the appropriate interim conveyance and patent documents;

(iv) Follow existing routes of travel unless a variance is otherwise justified;

(v) Be reserved for future roads, including railroads and roads for future logging operations, only if they are site specific and actually planned for construction within 5 years of the date of conveyance;

(vi) Be reserved in topographically suitable locations whenever the location is not otherwise determined by an existing route of travel or when there is no existing site;

(vii) Be reserved along the marine coastline only to preserve a primary route of travel between coastal communities, publicly owned uplands, or coastal communities and publicly owned uplands;

(viii) Be reserved from publicly owned uplands to the marine coastline only if significant present existing use has occurred on those publicly owned lands below the line of mean high tide. However, for isolated tracts of publicly owned uplands, public easements may be reserved to provide transportation from the marine coastline if there is no other reasonable transportation route;

(ix) Be reserved along major waterways only to provide short portages or transportation routes around obstructions. However, this condition does not preclude the reservation of a trail or road easement which happens to run alongside a waterway;

(x) Not be reserved on the beds of major waterways except where use of the bed is related to road or trail purposes, portaging, or changing the mode of travel between water and land (e.g., launching or landing a boat); a specific portion of the bed or shore of the waterway which is necessary to provide portage or transportation routes around obstructions, including those that are dangerous or impassible or seasonably dangerous or impassible, may be reserved.

(xi) Not be reserved on the beds of nonmajor waterways except where use of the beds is related to road or trail purposes. However, this exception shall not be used to reserve a continuous linear easement on the streambed to facilitate access by boat.

(xii) Not be reserved simply to reflect patterns of Native use on Native lands;

(xiii) Not be reserved for the purpose of protecting Native stockholders from their respective corporations;

(xiv) Not be reserved on the basis of subsistence use of the lands of one village by residents of another village.

(2) Transportation easements shall be limited to roads and sites which are related to access. The use of these easements shall be controlled by applicable Federal, State, or municipal corporation laws or regulations. The uses stated herein will be specified in the interim conveyance and patent documents as permitted uses of the easement.

(i) The width of a trail easement shall be no more than 25 feet if the uses to be accommodated are for travel by foot, dogsleds, animals, snowmobiles, two and three-wheel vehicles, and small all-terrain vehicles (less than 3,000 lbs. G.V.W.);

(ii) The width of a trail easement shall be no more than 50 feet if the uses to be accommodated are for travel by large all-terrain vehicles (more than 3,000 lbs. G.V.W.), track vehicles and 4-wheel drive vehicles, in addition to the uses included under paragraph (b)(2)(i) of this section;

(iii) The width of an existing road easement shall be no more than 60 feet if the uses to be accommodated are for travel by automobiles or trucks in addition to the uses included under paragraphs (b)(2) (i) and (ii) of this section. However, if an existing road is wider than 60 feet, the specific public easement may encompass that wider width. For proposed roads, including U.S. Forest Service logging roads, the width of the public easement shall be 100 feet, unless otherwise justified. Prior to construction, trail uses which are included under paragraphs (b)(2) (i) and (ii) of this section may be permitted if otherwise justified and may continue if the road is not built. If after the road has been constructed a lesser width is sufficient to accommodate the road, the Director shall reduce the size of the easement to that width.

(iv) The width of a proposed railroad easement shall be 100 feet on either side of the center line of any such railroad.

(3) Site easements. Site easements which are related to transportation may be reserved for aircraft landing or vehicle parking (e.g., aircraft, boats, ATV's, cars, trucks), temporary camping, loading or unloading at a trail head, along an access route or waterway, or within a reasonable distance of a transportation route or waterway where there is a demonstrated need to provide for transportation to publicly owned lands or major waterways. Temporary camping, loading, or unloading shall be limited to 24 hours. Site easements shall not be reserved for recreational use such as fishing, unlimited camping, or other purposes not associated with use of the public easement for transportation. Site easements shall not be reserved for future logging or similar operations (e.g., log dumps, campsites, storage or staging areas). Before site easements are reserved on transportation routes or on major waterways, a reasonable effort shall be made to locate parking, camping, beaching, or aircraft landing sites on publicly owned lands; particularly, publicly owned lands in or around communities, or bordering the waterways. If a site easement is to be reserved, it shall:

(i) Be subject to the provisions of paragraphs (b)(1) (ii), (iii), (vi), (xii), (xiii), and (xiv) of this section.

(ii) Be no larger than one acre in size and located on existing sites unless a variance is in either instance, otherwise justified;

(iii) Be reserved on the marine coastline only at periodic points along the coast where they are determined to be reasonably necessary to facilitate transportation on coastal waters or transportation between coastal waters and publicly owned uplands;

(iv) Be reserved only at periodic points on major waterways. Uses shall be limited to those activities which are related to travel on the waterway or to travel between the waterway and publicly owned lands. Also, periodic site easements shall be those necessary to allow a reasonable pattern of travel on the waterway;

(v) Be reserved for aircraft landing strips only if they have present significant use and are a necessary part of a transportation system for access to publicly owned lands and are not suitable for reservation under section 14(c)(4) of the Act. Any such easement shall encompass only that area which is used for takeoffs and landings and any clear space around such site that is needed for parking or public safety.

(c) Miscellaneous easements. The public easements referred to in this subsection which do not fall into the categories above may be reserved in order to continue certain uses of publicly owned lands and major waterways. These public easements shall be limited in number. The identification and size of these public easements may vary from place to place depending upon particular circumstances. When not controlled by applicable law or regulation, size shall not exceed that which is reasonably necessary for the purposes of the identified easement. Miscellaneous easements may be reserved for the following purposes:

(1) Public easements which are for utility purposes (e.g., water, electricity, communications, oil, gas, and sewage) may be reserved and shall be based upon present existing use. Future easements for these purposes may also be reserved, but only if they are site specific and actually planned for construction within 5 years of the date of conveyance;

(2) Easements for air light or visibility purposes may be reserved if required to insure public safety or to permit proper use of improvements developed for public benefit or use; e.g., protection for aviation or navigation aids or communications sites;

(3) Public easements may be reserved to guarantee international treaty obligations or to implement any agreement entered into between the United States and the Native Corporation receiving the conveyance. For example, the agreement of May 14, 1974, related to Naval Petroleum Reserve Number Four (redesignated June 1, 1977, as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska) between the United States Department of the Navy and the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation and four Native village corporations, shall be incorporated in the appropriate conveyances and the easements necessary to implement the agreement shall be reserved.

(d) Conveyance provisions. (1) Public easement provisions shall be placed in interim conveyances and patents.

(2) Permissible uses of a specific easement shall be listed in the appropriate conveyance document. The conveyance documents shall include a general provision which states that uses which are not specifically listed are prohibited.

(3) The easements shall be identified on appropriate maps which shall be part of the pertinent interim conveyance and patent.

(4) All public easement shall be reserved to the United States and subject, as appropriate, to further Federal, State, or municipal corporation regulation.

(5) All conveyance documents shall contain a general provision which states that pursuant to section 17(b)(2) of the Act, any valid existing right recognized by the Act shall continue to have whatever right of access as is now provided for under existing law.

(a) Selected areas are to be surveyed as provided in section 13 of the Act. Any survey or description used as a basis for conveyance must be adequate to identify the lands to be conveyed.

(b) The following procedures shall be used to determine what acreage is not to be charged against Native entitlement:

(1) For any approved plat of survey where meanderable water bodies were not segregated from the survey but were included in the calculation of acreage to be charged against the Native corporation's land entitlement, the chargeable acreage shall, at no cost to the Native corporation, be recalculated to conform to the principles contained in the Bureau of Land Management's Manual of Surveying Instructions, 1973, except as modified by this part. Pursuant to such principles, the acreage of meanderable water bodies, as modified by this part, shall not be included in the acreage charged against the Native corporation's land entitlement.

(2) For any plat of survey approved after December 5, 1983, water bodies shall be meandered and segregated from the survey in accordance with the principles contained in the Bureau of Land Management's Manual of Surveying Instructions, 1973, as modified by this part, as the basis for determining acreage chargeability.

(3) If title to lands beneath navigable waters, as defined in the Submerged Lands Act, of a lake less than 50 acres in size or a river or stream less than 3 chains in width did not vest in the State on the date of Statehood, such lake, river or stream shall not be meandered and shall be charged against the Native corporation's entitlement.

(4) Any determinations of meanders which may be made pursuant to this paragraph shall not require monumentation on the ground unless specifically required by law or for good cause in the public interest.

To assure full entitlement, the rule of approximation may be applied with respect to the acreage limitations applicable to conveyances and surveys under this authority, i.e., any excess must be less than the deficiency would be if the smallest legal subdivision were eliminated (see 62 I.D. 417, 421).

Lands to be conveyed to a regional corporation, when selected in contiguous units, shall be grouped together for the purpose of survey and surveyed as one tract, with monuments being established on the exterior boundary at angle points and at intervals of approximately 2 miles on straight lines. If requested by the grantee, the Secretary may survey, insofar as practicable, the individual selections that comprise the total tract.

(a) Only the exterior boundaries of contiguous entitlements for each village corporation will be surveyed. Where land within the outer perimeter of a selection is not selected, the boundaries along the area excluded shall be deemed exterior boundaries. The survey will be made after the total acreage entitlement of the village has been selected.

(b) Surveys will be made within the village corporation selections to delineate those tracts required by law to be conveyed by the village corporations pursuant to section 14(c) of the Act.

(c) (1) The boundaries of the tracts described in paragraph (b) of this section shall be posted on the ground and shown on a map which has been approved in writing by the affected village corporation and submitted to the Bureau of Land Management. Conflicts arising among potential transferees identified in section 14(c) of the Act, or between the village corporation and such transferees, will be resolved prior to submission of the map. Occupied lots to be surveyed will be those which were occupied as of December 18, 1971.

(2) Lands shown by the records of the Bureau of Land Management as not having been conveyed to the village corporation will be excluded by adjustments on the map by the Bureau of Land Management. No surveys shall begin prior to final written approval of the map by the village corporation and the Bureau of Land Management. After such written approval, the map will constitute a plan of survey. Surveys will then be made in accordance with the plan of survey. No further changes will be made to accommodate additional section 14(c) transferees, and no additional survey work desired by the village corporation or municipality within the area covered by the plan of survey or immediately adjacent thereto will be performed by the Secretary.

Only those cemetery sites and historical places to be conveyed under section 14(h)(1) of the Act shall be surveyed.

All conveyances issued for lands not covered by officially approved surveys of the Bureau of Land Management shall note that upon the filing of an official plat of survey, the boundary of the selected area, described in terms of protraction diagrams or by metes and bounds, shall be redescribed in accordance with the plats of survey. However, no change will be made in the land selected.

(a) Notwithstanding any other provisions of the act, no village or regional corporation may select lands which are within 2 miles from the boundary of any home rule or first-class city (excluding boroughs) as the boundaries existed and the cities were classified on December 18, 1971, or which are within 6 miles from the boundary of Ketchikan, except that a village corporation organized by Natives of a community which is itself a first class or home-rule city is not prohibited from making selections within 2 miles from the boundary of that first class or home-rule city, unless such selections fall within 2 miles from the boundary of another first class or home-rule city which is not itself a Native village or within 6 miles from the boundary of Ketchikan.

(b) Determination as to which cities were classified as home rule or first class as of December 18, 1971, and their boundaries as of that date will be made in accordance with the laws of the State of Alaska.

(c) If any village corporation whose land withdrawals encompass Dutch Harbor is found eligible under this act, it may select lands pursuant to subpart 2651 of this chapter and receive a conveyance under the terms of section 14(a) of the Act.

In order to determine whether there are any adverse claimants to the land, the applicant should publish notice of his application. If the applicant decides to avail himself of the privilege of publishing a notice to all adverse claimants and requests it, the authorized officer will prepare a notice for publication. The publication will be in accordance with the following procedure:

(a) The applicant will have the notice published allowing all persons claiming the land adversely to file in the appropriate land office their objections to the issuance of any conveyance. The notice shall be published once a week for 4 consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation.

(b) The applicant shall file a statement of the publisher, accompanied by a copy of the published notice, showing that publication has been had for 4 consecutive weeks. The applicant must pay the cost of publication.

(c) Any adverse claimant must serve on the applicant a copy of his objections and furnish evidence of service thereof to the appropriate land office.

(d) For all land selections made under the Act, in order to give actual notice of the decision of the Bureau of Land Management proposing to convey lands, the decision shall be served on all known parties of record who claim to have a property interest or other valid existing right in land affected by such decision, the appropriate regional corporation, and any Federal agency of record. In order to give constructive notice of the decision to any unknown parties, or to known parties who cannot be located after reasonable efforts have been expended to locate, who claim a property interest or other valid existing right in land affected by the decision, notice of the decision shall be published once in the Federal Register and, once a week, for four (4) consecutive weeks, in one or more newspapers of general circulation in the State of Alaska nearest the locality where the land affected by the decision is situated, if possible. Any decision or notice actually served on parties or constructively served on parties in accord with this subsection shall state that any party claiming a property interest in land affected by the decision may appeal the decision to the Board of Land Appeals. The decision or notice of decision shall also state that:

(1) Any party receiving actual notice of the decision shall have 30 days from the receipt of actual notice to file an appeal; and,

(2) That any unknown parties, any parties unable to be located after reasonable efforts have been expended to locate, and any parties who failed or refused to sign a receipt for actual notice, shall have 30 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register to file an appeal. Furthermore, the decision or notice of decision shall inform readers where further information on the manner of, and requirements for, filing appeal may be obtained, and shall also state that any party known or unknown who may claim a property interest which is adversely affected by the decision shall be deemed to have waived their rights which were adversely affected unless an appeal is filed in accordance with the requirements stated in the decisions or notices provided for in this subsection and the regulation governing such appeals set out in 43 CFR part 4, subpart E.

Any decision relating to a land selection shall become final unless appealed to the Board of Land Appeals by a person entitled to appeal, under, and in accordance with, subpart E of part 4, 43 CFR.