Sec. 38.05.965. Definitions. 

In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires,

(1) "acquired land" means land belonging to the state including

tide, submerged, and shoreland which has been obtained by escheat,

purchase, or any means other than by general land grant;

(2) "agricultural land" means land chiefly valuable for

agricultural purposes;

(3) "commissioner" means the commissioner of natural resources;

(4) "department" means the Department of Natural Resources;

(5) "director" means the director of the division of lands of

the Department of Natural Resources;

(6) "geothermal resources" means the natural heat of the earth

at temperatures greater than 120 degrees Celsius, measured at the point

where the highest-temperature resources encountered enter or contact a

well or other resource extraction device, and includes

(A) the energy, including pressure, in whatever form

present in, resulting from, created by, or that may be extracted from

that natural heat;

(B) the material medium, including the geothermal fluid

naturally present, as well as substances artificially introduced to

serve as a heat transfer medium; and

(C) all dissolved or entrained minerals and gases that may

be obtained from the material medium, but excluding hydrocarbon

substances and helium;

(7) "grazing land" means land chiefly valuable for grazing

purposes;

(8) "industrial and commercial land" means land chiefly

valuable for industrial trade, manufacturing, or business use;

(9) "initial project term" means the duration sufficient to

support an investment decision by the sponsors of a North Slope natural

gas project to permit realization of a competitive economic return, to

enable necessary financing, and to support agreements for the sale of

hydrocarbons transported on a North Slope natural gas project;

(10) "lieu and indemnity land" means land which the state is

entitled to select under the provisions of the Act of March 4, 1915, 38

Stat. 1214 (48 U.S.C. 353), as amended, or a similar statute to

compensate for land in place of surveyed rectangulars, which have been

lost to the state by reason of deficient sections, prior rights,

claims, withdrawals, reservations, and other appropriations;

(11) "materials"

(A) means all common variety rock and minerals of any

quality, that are saleable and not subject to location under state or

federal mining laws;

(B) includes aggregate, riprap, railroad ballast, road

ballast, road metal, peat, silt, loam, sand, gravel, stone, pumice, and

common clay;

(12) "mineral land" means land prospectively valuable for

mineral deposits;

(13) "multiple use" has the meaning given in AS 38.04.910;

(14) "navigable water" means any water of the state forming a

river, stream, lake, pond, slough, creek, bay, sound, estuary, inlet,

strait, passage, canal, sea or ocean, or any other body of water or

waterway within the territorial limits of the state or subject to its

jurisdiction, that is navigable in fact for any useful public purpose,

including but not limited to water suitable for commercial navigation,

floating of logs, landing and takeoff of aircraft, and public boating,

trapping, hunting waterfowl and aquatic animals, fishing, or other

public recreational purposes;

(15) "nonconventional gas" means coal bed methane, gas

contained in shales, or gas hydrates;
(16) "North Slope natural gas project" means a project to

produce or transport natural gas from state oil and gas and gas only

leases that include land north of 68 degrees North latitude for

transport in a gaseous state from the North Slope;

(17) "park and recreation land" means land chiefly valuable for

public park and recreation use;

(18) "preference right forest lease" means a lease granted to a

lessee whose United States Forest Service term special use permit was

cancelled to allow the land under permit to be selected by the state;

(19) "preference right grazing lease" means a grazing lease

granted to a lessee whose federal grazing lease was cancelled to allow

the land under lease to be selected by the state;

(20) "project services" means services provided by a gas

treatment plant, pipeline, liquefaction facility, or marine terminal,

marine transportation services, or other services necessary to

transport natural gas to market.

(21) "public water" means navigable water and all other water,

whether inland or coastal, fresh or salt, that is reasonably suitable

for public use and utility, habitat for fish and wildlife in which

there is a public interest, or migration and spawning of fish in which

there is a public interest;

(22) "rule of approximation" is the rule which is applied in

determining whether or not a lease complies with the area limits set

forth in this chapter and regulations adopted under it and in keeping

the boundaries of leased land coincidental with legal subdivisions;

under the rule, if the area covered by a lease in excess of the

permitted maximum is smaller than the area of any deficiency that would

result by eliminating from the lease the smallest legal subdivision

covered by the lease or application for lease, the excess area will be

permitted to remain in the lease; if the excess area is greater than

the deficient area would be, then the smallest legal subdivision will

be eliminated from the lease;

(23) "shoreland" means land belonging to the state which is

covered by nontidal water that is navigable under the laws of the

United States up to ordinary high water mark as modified by accretion,

erosion, or reliction;

(24) "state land" or "land" means all land, including shore,

tide, and submerged land, or resources belonging to or acquired by the

state;

(25) "submerged land" means land covered by tidal water between

the line of mean low water and seaward to a distance of three

geographical miles or further as may hereafter be properly claimed by

the state;

(26) "tideland" means land that is periodically covered by

tidal water between the elevation of mean high water and mean low

water;

(27) "timber land" means state land chiefly valuable for timber

and other forest products;

(28) "university land"

(A) means

(i) all sections 33 reserved to the university under

the Act of March 4, 1915, 38 Stat. 1214, as amended;

(ii) all land granted to or reserved for the benefit

of the university that retains its designation as university land;

(iii) all other land owned in fee by the University

of Alaska including land transferred in fee to the Board of Regents of

the University of Alaska to replace land formerly designated as

university land;

(B) does not include former university land that has been

conveyed to the department under the settlement approved by the

legislature in ch. 22, SLA 1983.