Monday marked the first day that Alaskans can apply to stake a remote recreational cabin site in Southwest and Interior Alaska.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources is offering lands for sale including some around Snake Lake, 20 miles northwest of Dillingham. Natural resources specialist with the DNR’s land sale section Peter Burton says the state runs the recreational cabin site program that allows residents to stake their own parcels of land.
“We put out the brochure, the next step is we get applications in from people who are interested, we do a drawing to see who we award the authorizations to because we want to keep the feel of these areas remote, so we limit the number of people that we send out to each area. For Snake Lake, it’s 50 authorizations will be the cap.”
Burtons says after the 50 authorizations are chosen, the winners will be able to go out to the area and stake out a 5-20 acre parcel. The state will then survey and appraise the parcels and the residents will be able to purchase the land.
State lands are sold to the public like this after public review processes and careful consideration of the plans for the area. Burton says the state then determines if the land should remain preserved or find a different purpose.
“Land that is designated as settlements or remote settlements is what we’ll typically be using for our program. So it went through that process, it’s designated as appropriate for settlement and this is one of the Department of Natural Resources’ ways that they get the land out into people’s hands.”
Applications will be accepted through November 25th. It’s $25 to enter the lottery and it’s open to any Alaskan resident 18 years or older. The authorizations for Snake Lake will be chosen on December 11th. The brochure can be found at the Department of Natural Resource’s website at www.dnr.alaska.gov.