Sucker Bay/Silver Salmon Creek Land Exchange

The National Park Service is considering a land exchange in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. The properties are located near Sucker Bay and Silver Salmon Creek. The Southcentral Foundation owns a 79.98-acre tract located on the southwestern shore of Lake Clark in the preserve at Sucker Bay and wishes to exchange it for a 4.95-acre parcel near Silver Salmon Creek between Tuxedni and Chinitna Bays in the park owned by the NPS. Neither of the subject properties for the proposed land exchange is within existing or proposed wilderness areas.

The purpose of this land exchange is to facilitate park management and to resolve status issues. The proposed exchange would provide legal access and usury rights for SCF and their guests approximately 2 miles from the mouth of Silver Salmon Creek within Lake Clark National Park and situated along the west shore of Cook Inlet. The proposed exchange would also enhance fishery habitat management.

This land exchange would legitimize this long-established camp, safeguard the broader national interests for this park, and further the ability of the NPS to meet legislative conservation mandates. In particular, the proposed land exchange would allow the NPS:
• to protect critical sockeye (red) salmon spawning habitat for a genetic population unique to any other in Bristol Bay;
• to pursue the NPS legislatively mandated goal to protect Kvichak River sockeye salmon spawning habitat;
• to protect the majority of the spawning shoreline of Sucker Bay; and
• to pursue the NPS goal that emphasizes conservation objectives for the Lake Clark shoreline specifically.