Frequently Asked Questions

In December 2022, the UA Land team issued a public notice for comment on a carbon credit program on its landholdings throughout the state. Of the approximately 13,000 acres in the Chilkat Valley, 7,636 acres are included in the plan. Please also note that establishing a carbon credit program is just one part of what the Land Management Team is planning for development in the Chilkat Valley.

As announced at the November 4, 2021 Board of Regents meeting, the University is re-evaluating all of its land holdings in the Haines area. As a land grant university, our primary role is to generate revenue from University lands to support our educational mission. Although the University remains committed to some timber development, we are looking at other development options to monetize University property. Read the full announcement here.

We appreciate all of the feedback we have received from the community over the last few years. We have heard about your needs for firewood, requests for small timber cuts on your own land, interest in carbon sequestration, hunting and recreational needs, local biomass supplies, and desire to see logs supplied to Alaskan buyers and small mills, and much more.

 The Land Management team has always been looking for best ways to monetize our lands, and carbon banking has been on our radar for some time now.  While conducting research and reaching out to other program participants, Land Management was informed of a carbon credit program for smaller parcels of lands, which could be a potential option for us.

We are still exploring small-scale timber sales, biomass innovation, subdivisions, conservation easements, and other revenue-generating opportunities. We continue to support our fiduciary responsibility of monetizing the university’s land assets to fund the university’s endowment while stimulating the local economy.

If there are other opportunities you may be interested in, please reach out , as always.

No, the University of Alaska is considered a private land owner, and separate from State of Alaska lands which are public domain lands.

The University currently prohibits hunting and camping on all of its lands but, we’ve heard from you and we understand that this is an important issue to the community in Haines. The university is exploring the possibility of hunting on land west of the Chilkat River. Once we have an update, we will share more information as soon as possible.

All activity requires an authorization (i.e. lease, permit or agreement) from the University unless the use is defined as casual use, per Board of Regents’ Policy 05.11.044.F.

Casual use means the occasional non-commercial recreational use of undeveloped university property by members of the public. Casual use may include hiking, biking, running, skiing, and snowshoeing on established trails; berry picking; and fishing.  Casual use does not include extraction of natural resources, cutting trees or other vegetation, clearing or cutting trails, hunting, camping or any commercial operation. 

Individuals must complete a Land Use Application form, located on the website here, to request use of any university lands. Examples of such authorizations vary from firewood permits, access permits, permits for a race event and utility easements. Management of university lands must be consistent with the University’s BOR Policy 05.11. 

Yes. The university has had conversations with Haines community members regarding the purchase of privately owned timber and the sale of university timber to small mill operators for value added production.

As a land grant institution, the University of Alaska has a fiduciary responsibility to develop its resources granted from the federal government. By doing so we convert our land assets into financial assets to advance the university’s mission. The revenue from development is deposited into the university’s Land Grant Endowment Trust Fund. The UA Board of Regents then allocates funding annually to support programs such as the UA Scholars Program, which offers individual $12,000 scholarships to the top 10 percent of the graduates from every Alaska high school each year.

  • To date, the land grant property development activities have helped to fund more than 9,000 Alaskan students with scholarships at UA.
  • Earnings from the Land Grant Trust Fund are used to fund the UA Scholars Program which awards $12,000 scholarships to the top ten percent of graduates from every high school in Alaska each year.
  • ​​Each $20,000 generated by UA Land funds 1.7 full scholarships to students across the state to attend UA.