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National Society of Professional Surveyors 5119 Pegasus Court, Suite Q Frederick, MD 21704 240-439-4615 (Phone) * 240-439-4952 (Fax) National Society of Professional Surveyors 5119 Pegasus Court, Suite Q Frederick, MD 21704 www.nsps.us.com 240-439-4615 (phone) * 240-439-4952 (fax) AK DNR/BLM DPPS Report November 14, 2016 Introduction This report was prepared pursuant to a letter from Gerald Jennings, Chief of the Survey Section for the Division of Mining, Land & Water, Department of Natural Resources, State of Alaska (DNR) to the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) requesting an analysis and comment on a new survey procedure considered for implementation by the Bureau of Land Management, Alaska State Office, Branch of Cadastral Survey (BLM). The new survey procedure is the Direct Point Positioning Survey (DPPS) which is proposed for surveys of certain lands to be conveyed to the State of Alaska under the Statehood Act. DPPS is a method of survey and documentation that will use direct survey-derived geographic coordinates to report measurements on the official survey record. BLM proposes to use DPPS methods to fix corners by geographic coordinates referenced to the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) geodetic datum. Physical monuments will be set at angle points on the perimeter of large tracts of state selected lands. Unmonumented corners are fixed in the official record by reporting each corner’s survey-derived geographic coordinates. BLM provided a draft plat for Group 948, Alaska as an example of how DPPS methods might be implemented. The sample Group 948 Plat covers 37 full and partial townships, 23 in the Fairbanks Meridian and 14 in the Kateel River Meridian, encompassing an area of approximately 1125 square miles. There are 49 physical monuments shown on the sample Group 948 Plat, with the remainder of the official corners identified by geographic coordinates listed in tables for each township. The NSPS analysis and comment committee was comprised of the following professionals: Dave Doyle, Geodesist – Maryland Timothy Kent, PLS – Washington John Kerr, PLS, CFedS – Alaska John Matonich, PLS – Michigan Glen Thurow, PLS, CFedS – New Mexico Karen Tilton, PLS, CFedS – Alaska Also contributing were the following professionals: Curt Sumner, PLS, NSPS Executive Director Jon Warren, PLS, NSPS Past President NSPS requested participation and comment from the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) on the DPPS proposal. NGS determined that a formal but separate response was more appropriate and will be forthcoming at a later date. 2 The thrust of this requested analysis and comment surrounds the methodology and expense to define the remaining lands to be selected by the State of Alaska. The Federal Government has patented or interim conveyed approximately two-thirds of the state selected lands. A portion of the remaining lands to be identified are those that are proposed to be surveyed by the DPPS method. The committee was provided numerous documents over the past year pertaining to all aspects of surveying the federal interest lands prior to patenting the same to the State of Alaska. These included historic documents along with other technical papers and also comments from some private surveyors in Alaska. The committee examined the impacts of BLM’s DPPS proposal with regard to: past agreements between BLM and the State of Alaska regarding the survey of state selected lands; widely accepted principles of boundary law and the hierarchy of evidence for monuments; survey procedures of state lands after patent using DPPS methods; the technical and training requirements needed to properly use DPPS now and in the future. The DPPS method is a substantial departure from established federal survey practice in Alaska, which may be unfamiliar to surveyors in other states. Therefore, some background discussion is necessary to understand the context of the DPPS discussion. Alaska Statehood and the MOU, History and Background While it is important to understand how the lands of other states were patented and surveyed, it is essential to look at the process in place when Alaska was granted statehood. The Manual of Instructions for the Survey of Public Lands of the United States 1947 was in effect when Alaska was granted statehood. This Manual directed that survey monumentation would be placed at intervals of every half mile around the exterior boundaries of townships. Given the size of the total acreage to be conveyed (102 million acres), this obviously created a tremendous federal obligation. Congress considered this obligation when crafting the Alaska Statehood Act. Sec. 6 (g) of the Act outlined the minimum size requirements for state selections and mandated that the Secretary of the Interior survey the exterior boundaries of the selection without interior subdivision.1 The historic documents provided to the committee indicate that immediately after statehood in 1959, the survey requirements for state selected land were a subject of vigorous dispute between the BLM and the State of Alaska. In 1960, the BLM surveyed and platted the boundaries of seven state selections comprising all or portions of Townships 23 and 24 North, Ranges 4, 5 and 6 West, Seward Meridian as part of Group 100, Alaska.2 The U.S. 1 Alaska Statehood Act, Public Law 85-508, July 7, 1958 (72 Stat. 339). 2 BLM Plat and field notes for Townships 23 North, Ranges 4, 5 and 6 West, Townships 24 North, Ranges 5 and 6 West, Seward Meridian, Alaska, approved October 16, 1961, retrieved from http://sdms.ak.blm.gov/sdms/ on September 18, 2016. 3 subsequently issued Patent No. 1226350 in April of 1962.3 Only the perimeter of the “block” of selected lands was surveyed. The State of Alaska protested the survey and patent as a violation of Section 6(g) of the Alaska Statehood Act. The State’s position was that each selection that met the minimum size requirements of Section 6(g) (i.e., 5,760 acres or approximately one-quarter township) was eligible for a survey of the exterior boundary. BLM concluded that such small selections were not “reasonably compact tracts” and combined state selections for purposes of survey and patent. Alaska’s congressional delegation brought the matter to Congress in 1962 and 1963 during hearings on appropriations for Department of the Interior and Related Agencies. In 1963, Senator E.L. “Bob” Bartlett of Alaska presented Alaska’s case in the dispute over the survey requirements of state selected lands as intended by the 1958 Alaska Statehood Act.4 The Senate’s Committee on Appropriations agreed with Alaska’s position that each state selection warranted boundary survey and directed the Secretary of the Interior to proceed with surveying the selections according to this directive. The Senate provided an additional $300,000 in funding for cadastral surveys in Alaska.5 The House and Senate appropriation committees met in conference to resolve their differences and finalize the budget for the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies for 1964 (H.R. 5279, passed as P.L. 88-79, July 26, 1963). House Report No. 551, dated July 11, 1963, memorializes this conference and the decisions made at the time, including the issue of the survey of Alaska State selections: The conferees are agreed that the directive included in the report of the Senate committee with regard to surveys of Alaska land selections made under the terms of the Alaska Statehood Act (Public Law 85-508) will be satisfied by surveys of the exterior boundaries of full townships (even if composed of as many as four land selections) with monumentation at an average of 2 miles around the perimeter.6 The resulting decision by the conference committee was a compromise between the wide range of survey effort that lies between surveying the boundary of every state selection and surveying only the exterior boundaries of as many selections deemed appropriate by the Secretary of the Interior. BLM internal correspondence from August, 1963 describes in detail the effect of the congressional direction on the state selection survey program.7 In a letter from Secretary of the Interior Udall to Alaska Governor William Egan dated September 4, 1963, Secretary Udall stated: “The Bureau of Land Management will proceed with the survey of State selections in a manner which follows the intent of Congress as expressed in the Conference Report on H.R. 5279” and “Monumentation will be accommodated to the State’s requirements provided the 3 Serial Patent No, 1226350, April 16, 1962, retrieved from http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ on September 9, 2016. 4 Congressional Record – Senate, 88th Congress, 1st sess. 1963, pg. 7619. 5 United States. Cong. Senate. Appropriations. 88th Cong., 1st sess. S. Rept. 181, May 22, 1963. 6 United States. Cong. House. Appropriations. 88th Cong., 1st sess. H. Rept. 551, July 11, 1963. 7 U.S. Government Memorandums (BLM), August 8, 1963 and August 15, 1963, RE: Alaska State Selection Program, digital copies provided by State of Alaska DNR. 4 monumentation requested does not exceed the maximum of an average of 2 miles around the exterior boundaries of a selection.”8 With a settled procedure in place, the State dropped the protest of the plat and patent that initiated the dispute. BLM went back in the field in 1963 and 1964 to place additional monumentation on the township lines of Townships 23 and 24 North, Ranges 4, 5 and 6 West, Seward Meridian. No changes were made to the plat. An additional set of field notes was added to the survey record to document the monuments set after plat approval and patent.9 1973 MOU Given the history recited above, it is clear that the practice of surveying state selections with two mile monumentation on the perimeter of each township was initiated 10 years before the 1973 BLM/State of Alaska Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) as a result of congressional directive and statement of intent.
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