Alaska Administrative Code
Title 11 - Natural Resources
Part 6 - Lands
Chapter 96 - Miscellaneous Land Use
Article 1 - Provisions for General Land Use Activity
11 AAC 96.020 - Generally allowed uses
Universal Citation: 11 AK Admin Code 96.020
Current through August 30, 2024
(a) A permit or other written authorization is required for uses and activities not appearing on the list in this subsection. Unless otherwise provided in (b) of this section, in a special use land requirement in 11 AAC 96.014, or in a public use area land requirement under 11 AAC 96.016, the following land uses and activities, alone or in combination, are generally allowed uses on state-owned public domain land without any permit or other written authorization from the department, except that a land use or activity for a commercial recreation purpose requires prior registration under 11 AAC 96.018:
(1) travel
or travel-related activities, as follows:
(A)
hiking, backpacking, skiing, climbing, or other foot travel;
(B) bicycling;
(C) travel by horse or dogsled or with pack
animals;
(D) using a highway
vehicle with a curb weight of up to 10,000 pounds, including a pickup truck and
four-wheel-drive vehicle, on or off an established road easement, if the use
off the road easement does not cause or contribute to water quality
degradation, alteration of drainage systems, significant rutting, ground
disturbance, or thermal erosion;
(E) using a recreational-type off-road or
all-terrain vehicle with a curb weight of up to 1,500 pounds, including a
snowmobile and four-wheeler, on or off an established road easement if use off
the road easement does not cause or contribute to water quality degradation,
alteration of drainage systems, significant rutting, ground disturbance, or
thermal erosion;
(F) landing an
aircraft or using watercraft without damaging the land, including shoreland,
tideland, and submerged land;
(G)
driving livestock, including any number of reindeer or up to 100 horses,
cattle, or other domesticated animals;
(2) access improvements, as follows:
(A) brushing or cutting a trail less than
five feet wide using only hand-held tools such as a chainsaw; making a trail
does not create a property right or interest in the trail;
(B) anchoring a mooring buoy in a lake,
river, or marine waters, or placing a float, dock, boat haulout, floating
breakwater, or boathouse in a lake, river, or marine waters, for the personal,
noncommercial use of the upland owner, if the use does not interfere with
public access or another public use, and if the improvement is placed within
the projected sidelines of the contiguous upland owners parcel or otherwise has
the consent of the affected upland owner; in this subparagraph,
(i) "float" or "dock" means an open structure
without walls or roof that is designed and used for access to and from the
water rather than for storage, residential use, or other purposes;
(ii) "boat haulout" means either a rail
system, at ground level or elevated with pilings, or a line attached from the
uplands to an anchor or mooring buoy;
(iii) "floating breakwater" means a
structure, including a log bundle, designed to dissipate wave or swell
action;
(iv) "boathouse" means a
structure designed and used to protect a boat from the weather rather than for
other storage, residential use, or other purposes;
(3) removing or using state
resources, as follows:
(A) hunting, fishing,
or trapping, or placement of a crab pot, shrimp pot, herring pound, or fish
wheel; nothing in this subparagraph relieves a person from complying with
applicable state and federal statutes and regulations on the taking of fish and
game;
(B) harvesting wild plants,
mushrooms, berries, and other plant material for personal, noncommercial use;
however, the cutting of trees is not a generally allowed use under this
subparagraph;
(C) using dead and
down wood for a cooking or warming fire, unless the department has closed the
area to fires during the fire season;
(D) grazing no more than five domesticated
animals;
(E) recreational gold
panning;
(F) hard-rock mineral
prospecting or mining using light portable field equipment, including a
hand-operated pick, shovel, pan, earth auger, or a backpack power drill or
auger;
(G) suction dredging using a
suction dredge with a nozzle intake of six inches or less, powered by an engine
of 18 horsepower or less, and pumping no more than 30,000 gallons of water per
day;
(4) other
improvements and structures on state land, as follows:
(A) setting up and using a camp for personal,
noncommercial recreational purposes, or for any non-recreational purpose,
including as a support camp during mineral exploration, for no more than 14
days at one site, using a tent platform or other temporary structure that can
readily be dismantled and removed, or a floathouse that can readily be moved;
the entire camp must be moved at least two miles before the end of the 14-day
period; a cabin or other permanent improvement is not allowed, even if on skids
or another nonpermanent foundation; the camp must be removed immediately if the
department determines that it interferes with public access or other public
uses or interests;
(B) brushing or
cutting a survey line less than five feet wide using only hand-held tools,
including a chainsaw, or setting a survey marker; however, a survey monument
may not be set without written survey instructions issued under 11 AAC
53;
(C) placing a residential sewer
outfall into marine waters from a contiguous privately owned upland parcel,
with the consent of the affected parcel owners, if the outfall is within the
projected sidelines of the contiguous upland parcel and is buried to the extent
possible or, where it crosses bedrock, secured and covered with rocks to
prevent damage; nothing in this subparagraph relieves a person from complying
with state and federal statutes and regulations applicable to residential sewer
outfalls;
(D) placing riprap or
other suitable bank stabilization material to prevent erosion of a contiguous
privately owned upland parcel if
(i) no more
than one cubic yard of material per running foot is placed onto state
shoreland; and
(ii) the project is
otherwise within the scope of the United States Army Corps of Engineers
Nationwide Permit 13 (Bank Stabilization), as set out in 67 Fed. Reg. 2,020 -
2,095, dated January 15, 2002 and adopted by reference;
(5) uses not listed in (1) - (4)
of this subsection that
(A) are not conducted
for a commercial recreational purpose;
(B) are not listed in 11 AAC 96.010;
(C) do not cause or
contribute to significant disturbance of vegetation, drainage, or soil
stability;
(D) do not interfere
with public access or other public uses or interests; and
(E) do not continue for more than 14
consecutive days at any site; moving the use to another site at least two miles
away starts a new 14-day period.
(b) The list of generally allowed uses in (a) of this section does not
(1) apply to land
withdrawn from the public domain and no longer managed under AS 38, including a
state park and land owned by the University of Alaska;
(2) exempt a user from complying with other
applicable federal, state, or municipal statutes, ordinances, and regulations;
or
(3) authorize a use if another
person has already acquired an exclusive property right to undertake that
use.
(c) In order to operate under a generally allowed use listed in this section, the user must comply with the conditions set out in 11 AAC 96.025.
(d) If the department determines that, under the circumstances of a particular case, an otherwise generally allowed use interferes with public access or other public uses or interests, the use must cease.
Authority:AS 38.05.020
AS 38.05.035
AS 38.05.850
Disclaimer: These regulations may not be the most recent version. Alaska may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.
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