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Opinion of the Court

In sum, we conclude that the application by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife to withdraw lands for a wildlife refuge reflected a clear intent to reserve submerged lands as well as uplands. The Range's boundary was drawn so that the periodically submerged tidelands were necessarily included within it; the boundary description referred on its face to submerged features such as bars and reefs. Moreover, the purpose of the federal reservation-protecting the habitats of various species found along the coast and in other navigable water bodies within the Range-supported inclusion of submerged lands within the Range.

2

We now consider whether, prior to Alaska's admission to the Union, the United States defeated the future State's title to the submerged lands included within the proposed Range.

The Alaska Statehood Act set forth a general rule that the United States would retain title to all property it held prior to Alaska's admission to the Union, while the State of Alaska would acquire title to all property held by the Territory of Alaska or its subdivisions. Pub. L. 85-508, § 5, 72 Stat. 340. There were several exceptions to that provision. Of primary relevance here is § 6(e), which transferred to Alaska "[a]ll real and personal property of the United States situated in the Territory of Alaska which is specifically used for the sole purpose of conservation and protection of the fisheries and wildlife of Alaska. . . [provided] [t]hat such transfer shall not include lands withdrawn or otherwise set apart as refuges or reservations for the protection of wildlife . . . Id., at 340-341.

In our view, under § 6(e) of the Alaska Statehood Act, the United States retained the Range as lands "withdrawn or otherwise set apart as refuges or reservations for the protection of wildlife," rather than transferring the lands to Alaska. As discussed above, the 1957 application reflected an intent to include submerged lands within the Range. Shortly after

Opinion of the Court

the application was filed, the Secretary of the Interior publicly announced the action. See U. S. Exh. 12 (Department of the Interior Press Release, Nov. 20, 1957); U. S. Exh. 32 (statement of Secretary Seaton). Formal notice of the application was published in the Federal Register in January 1958. 23 Fed. Reg. 364. Moreover, later in 1958, while Congress was considering Alaska's admission to the Union, the Secretary of the Interior informed Congress that the application for the Range was pending and submitted maps showing the area as a federal enclave embracing submerged lands. See U.S. Exh. 61 (Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Alaska: Federal Land Withdrawals and Reservations, July 1958, Section No. 8).2 By virtue of that submission, Congress was on notice when it passed the Alaska Statehood Act that the Secretary of the Interior had construed his authority to withdraw or reserve lands, delegated by the President, see Exec. Order No. 10355, 3 CFR 873 (1949-1953 Comp.), to reach submerged lands. If the 1957 application in fact had the legal effect of "withdraw[ing] or otherwise set[ting] apart" lands within the proposed Range "as refuges or reservations for the protection of wildlife" within the meaning of § 6(e), then the United States retained title to submerged lands as well as uplands within the Range. This is so despite § 6(m) of the Statehood Act, which applied the Submerged Lands Act of 1953 to Alaska. The Submerged Lands Act operated to confirm Alaska's title to equal footing lands and to transfer title to submerged lands be

2 Alaska claims that the map submitted to Congress did not depict the Range, but a 1943 withdrawal under Public Land Order 82, 8 Fed. Reg. 1599, revoked, 25 Fed. Reg. 12599 (1960). Five million acres of the land to be included in the Range were covered by PLO 82, and the Secretary of the Interior announced a modification of the terms of PLO 82 and the filing of the application for the Range at the same time. See U. S. Exh. 12, p. 2; U. S. Exh. 32, p. 2. The importance of the map is not that it precisely depicts the Range's current boundaries, but that it shows the area encompassing the Range as a proposed federal enclave embracing submerged lands.

Opinion of the Court

neath the territorial sea to Alaska at statehood, unless the United States clearly withheld submerged lands within either category prior to statehood. In §6(e) of the Statehood Act, Congress clearly contemplated continued federal ownership of certain submerged lands-both inland submerged lands and submerged lands beneath the territorial sea-so long as those submerged lands were among those "withdrawn or otherwise set apart as refuges or reservations for the protection of wildlife.”

Under Montana and Utah Div. of State Lands, an intent to defeat state title to submerged lands must be clear. As this discussion illustrates, the operative provision of the Alaska Statehood Act, §6(e), reflects a very clear intent to defeat state title. The only remaining question is whether an application by the head of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, upon which the Secretary of the Interior had not yet acted, had the effect of "withdraw[ing] or otherwise set[ting] apart" lands within the proposed Range "as refuges or reservations for the protection of wildlife" within the meaning of § 6(e).

Under a Department of the Interior regulation first promulgated in 1952, 17 Fed. Reg. 7368, and in effect at the time Congress passed the Statehood Act, an application for a withdrawal temporarily segregated the lands covered by the application. That regulation provided:

"The noting of the receipt of the application . . . shall temporarily segregate such lands from settlement, location, sale, selection, entry, lease, and other forms of disposal under the public land laws. . . to the extent that the withdrawal or reservation applied for, if effected, would prevent such forms of disposal. To that extent, action on all prior applications the allowance of which is discretionary, and on all subsequent applications, respecting such lands will be suspended until final action on the application for withdrawal or reservation has been taken." 43 CFR § 295.11(a) (Supp. 1958).

Opinion of the Court

The regulation temporarily foreclosed any use of the land that a decision by the Secretary of the Interior to grant the application would prevent. It also suspended all pending discretionary applications and all subsequent applications for other uses of the land. This temporary segregation remained in effect unless and until the Secretary of the Interior denied an application. §295.13(c).

The Special Master adopted the United States' view that the application and the regulation together "set apart" all lands within the Range. Report 464. We agree that this conclusion follows from a straightforward application of § 295.11. Alaska argues that the regulation was not intended to operate on submerged lands. The object of the regulation is quite clear: to prevent, during the pendency of an application, any use of the land that would frustrate federal control if the application were ultimately granted. That goal is implicated wherever a threat to future federal control exists-whether the lands in question are uplands or submerged lands. The State focuses on the fact that the regulation segregates lands from sale, entry, or other forms of disposal, and argues that submerged lands are ordinarily not subject to such forms of disposal. Cf. Utah Div. of State Lands, 482 U. S., at 203. But the language in Utah Div. of State Lands on which Alaska relies reflects the Court's recognition that under the general land laws opening up lands for settlement, private parties ordinarily cannot lay claims to submerged lands. In Alaska, however, specific laws had opened up certain submerged lands for mining well prior to the filing of the application for the Range. See, e. g., Act of June 6, 1900, § 26, 31 Stat. 329-330 (providing that "land and shoal water between low and mean high tide on the shores, bays, and inlets of Bering Sea... shall be subject to exploration and mining for gold and other precious metals"); Act of May 31, 1938, ch. 297, 52 Stat. 588 (extending provisions beyond the Bering Sea to "the shores, bays, and inlets of Alaska"); Act of Aug. 8, 1947, 61 Stat. 916 (extending

Opinion of the Court

provisions to lands beneath nontidal navigable waters). In light of these provisions, Alaska's premise that there would have been no need to withdraw or set apart submerged lands to preserve ultimate federal control-is flawed.

Although the Master concluded that the application and regulation together "set apart" all lands within the Range, the Master accepted Alaska's argument that the lands had not been set apart "as [a] refug[e] . . . for the protection of wildlife" within the meaning of § 6(e) of the Alaska Statehood Act. (Emphasis added.) The Master found that the application "did not have the same effect as a reservation of lands, dedicating them to a specific public purpose." Report 464. The Master reasoned that under the proviso to §6(e), the United States would retain ownership only of "wildlife refuges or reservations already established at statehood." Ibid. (emphasis added). Because the application had not yet been granted, the proviso to § 6(e) would not prevent the transfer of lands within the Range to Alaska.

We disagree. Under the Master's interpretation, §6(e) applies only to completed reservations of land. But Congress did not limit § 6(e) to completed reservations. Rather, Congress provided that the United States would not transfer to Alaska lands "withdrawn or otherwise set apart as refuges" for the protection of wildlife. (Emphasis added.) The Master's reading of § 6(e) would render the broader terminology superfluous. The Court will avoid an interpretation of a statute that "renders some words altogether redundant." Gustafson v. Alloyd Co., 513 U. S. 561, 574 (1995). In light of Congress' clear intent, it was error for the Master to conclude that the lands within the Range were not "otherwise set apart as [a] refug[e]" unless the United States could point to a completed reservation. In the phrase “set apart as [a] refug[e]," the word "as" does not carry the requirement that the refuge be presently established; the phrase aptly describes the administrative segregation of lands designated to become a wildlife refuge. Accordingly, the application

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