October will see the publication of a brochure listing remote recreational land sale projects including some offerings near Dillingham.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources runs a program that allows individuals the opportunity to own a remote cabin site. This year the lands include some around Snake Lake 20 miles northwest of Dillingham.
Natural Resources Specialist with DNR’s Land Sale section Peter Burton says after the brochure is released the Department takes applications from those interested. Of those applications only some will be considered.
“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 we send out to each area. For Snake Lake its 50 authorizations will be the cap. And then people will be able to go out and stake a 5-20 acre parcel and after that point the state will come through and survey all the parcels and they will appraise them and let people purchase the parcels they stake themselves.”
Applications will be accepted starting in October and run through November 25th. Its $25 to enter the lottery and Burton says it’s open to any Alaskan resident 18 years or older.
“There’s going to be 50 authorizations for Snake Lake so if we have 100 people apply then we’ll have to do a drawing and half those people will be awarded authorizations. If we have less than 50 or 50 people apply then we wouldn’t have to do drawing and we would just award everyone that applied with an authorization.”
State lands are sold to the public like this after public review processes and careful consideration of the plans for the area. The authorizations for Snake Lake will be chosen on December 11th. When the brochure is released applications will be available on the Department of Natural Resource’s website at www.dnr.alaska.gov.