Legislation proposed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, would give the Cape Fox Corp. of Saxman access to 99 acres of timber, which the Alaska Native village corporation plans to log.
Murkowski recently reintroduced the legislation on behalf of Cape Fox Corp., which would gain surface rights to the acreage on the outskirts of Ketchikan. Sealaska Corp., the regional Native firm would gain subsurface rights.
Senate Bill 203 would resolve conveyance issues and allow alternative land selections, Murkowski said.
“This is really to complete our timber selection,” said Bruce Borup, chief executive officer of the village corporation, which has about 300 shareholders. Borup said in a telephone interview in mid-January that the proposed selection area is rich with cedar, spruce and hemlock.
Cape Fox was actively engaged in timber harvests for its first 30 years. “This is the first year Cape Fox was profitable without timber,” said Borup, an Army veteran, and former chair of the business department of Alaska Pacific University.
The 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act dictated that Cape Fox was required to take conveyance of 160 acres of unusable land in mountainous terrain, Murkowski said. Her legislation would allow it instead to select 99 acres adjoining its existing holdings, rather than the other conveyance.
Murkowski said the initial land claims legislation put Cape Fox on unequal economic footing relative to other Native village corporations in Southeast Alaska under ANCSA. Cape Fox was restricted from selecting lands within six miles of the boundary of the home-rule city of Ketchikan.
Cape Fox's land selections were further limited by the fact that the Annette Island Indian Reservation is within its selection area, and those lands were unavailable for ANCSA selection.
Cape Fox is engaged in several businesses, from construction management to wholesaling and tourism.
APM LLC, a construction management firm headquartered in Los Angeles, is currently doing work at 14 military bases and NASA installations in eight states. Cape Fox Professional Services has a military contract to provide driver safety programs at 40 foreign and domestic military bases. DJR Associations, based in Frederick, Md., with offices in Bristol, Tenn., and Austin, Texas, has military contracts in aerospace engineering,
The corporation's Cape Fox Tours contracts with the cruise industry to guide some 45,000 people a year through cultural tours of Saxman and Ketchikan during summer months. Cape Fox Lodge operates year-round, catering to tourism in summer months and businesses the rest of the year, Borup said.
Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.
