Forest Service purchases land in Cube Cove, returning it to wilderness
JUNEAU — Sept. 16 marked the completion of the purchase of the first two segments of a multi-segment land acquisition in Cube Cove on Admiralty Island.
In July, a landmark purchase agreement between the Forest Service and Shee Atiká Corporation was completed in order to turn over 22,000 acres of land back into Wilderness within the million-acre Admiralty Island National Monument. Due to the size of the property, the purchase agreement established a method to acquire the property in segments through the LWCF. Friday’s purchase of 4,463.45 acres represents approximately 20 percent of the total purchase.
Funds for the purchase came from the congressionally-designated Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Cube Cove is located 30 miles south of Juneau.
When this purchase is completed it will be the largest transfer of lands from a private inholding back into Forest Service-managed Wilderness in the history of the agency.
Admiralty Island is located within the Tongass National Forest, which is the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world and home to large populations of brown bears and other wildlife, and also critical watersheds for salmon and fish stocks.
The land owner, Shee Atiká Corporation, is a Sitka-based urban Native corporation organized under terms of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The Cube Cove lands were conveyed to Shee Atiká in the early 1980s as part of ANCSA.
