S. 2016 — Chugach Alaska Land Exchange Oil Spill Recovery Act of 2025

This section states the purposes of the Act—to authorize, direct, and expedite a land exchange between Chugach Alaska Corporation and the United States and to consolidate federal ownership of surface and subsurface estates in lands acquired under the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council program—and sets forth congressional findings. The findings describe the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill; use of $900 million in civil settlement funds to acquire over 600,000 acres for conservation, including 241,000 acres of surface estate and easements in the Chugach Region purchased from four Alaska Native Village Corporations (Chenega Corporation, English Bay Corporation, Eyak Corporation, and Tatitlek Corporation) while leaving subsurface rights with Chugach Alaska; resulting split-estate conflicts under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA); a 2022 Bureau of Land Management study directed by Congress; and the proposed exchange of approximately 231,000 acres of Chugach Alaska subsurface estate for 65,374 acres of federal fee simple land.

This section defines terms used in the Act, including (1) Native Corporation, Regional Corporation, and Village Corporation, which have the meanings given in section 3 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1602); (2) Chugach Alaska, meaning the Chugach Alaska Corporation, a Regional Corporation; (3) Chugach Region Land Study Report, meaning the report and recommendations submitted to Congress by the Secretary of the Interior pursuant to section 1113 of the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act (Public Law 116-9); (4) Federal exchange land, meaning approximately 65,374 acres of fee simple land located in the Chugach Region as described in section 4(e); (5) non-Federal land, meaning parcels of subsurface land comprising approximately 231,000 acres owned by Chugach Alaska, conveyed pursuant to ANCSA (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), described in section 4(f), and for which the United States has acquired fee title to or a conservation easement on the surface estate, or the State has acquired fee title to and the United States a conservation easement on the surface estate, pursuant to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Habitat Protection and Acquisition Program of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council; (6) Program, meaning that Exxon Valdez program; (7) Secretary, meaning the Secretary of the Interior; and (8) State, meaning the State of Alaska.

This section directs the Secretary, not later than one year after enactment, to accept Chugach Alaska's offer to convey specified non-Federal land—including approximately 130,470 acres of subsurface estate across listed parcels—and convey in exchange approximately 65,374 acres of federal land administered by the Forest Service (63,414 acres of National Forest System land), BLM, and NPS (1,960 acres), all as identified in the Chugach Regional Land Study and Report. The exchange is subject to acceptable title for the non-Federal land and valid existing rights, with land conveyed to Chugach Alaska treated as conveyed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) (i.e., the 1971 law that resolved Alaska Native land claims by conveying approximately 44 million acres and nearly $1 billion to 12 regional and over 200 village Native corporations).

This section (1) authorizes the Secretary and Chugach Alaska to correct, by mutual agreement, minor errors in any map, acreage estimate, or description of land conveyed or exchanged under this Act; and (2) provides that, in the event of a conflict between such a map, acreage estimate, or description, the map controls unless the Secretary and Chugach Alaska mutually agree otherwise.