The mission of the Ahtna Land and Resource Department is to protect and preserve Ahtna lands and resources for future generations of the Ahtna people.
The management of Ahtna’s lands is guided by principles of cultural and traditional uses and values, land protection, strategic acquisition, conservative development strategies, and principles of culturally appropriate stewardship.
In 1980, seven of the eight Ahtna ANCSA Village Corporations merged with Ahtna to enhance land management and resource development opportunities on their former Village Corporation lands, among other goals.
Currently, Ahtna owns in fee title approximately 1,579,872 acres of land from an entitlement of 1,760,684 acres. Most of this land is located in the Ahtna region, which is roughly the size of the state of Ohio and is located in the southcentral interior of Alaska. The Ahtna region encompasses the entire Copper River Basin and is bordered by the Alaska Range to the north, the Canadian border to the east, Denali National Park to the west, and the Chugach Mountains to the south. Ahtna owns 624,105 acres within National Park Service (NPS) Unit Boundaries (622,000 acres in Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve and 2,105 acres within Denali National Park and Preserve).
The Land Department manages three main types of Ahtna natural resource holdings: surface estate (including gravel), subsurface estate, and timber.
Lands Department
