FAIRBANKS — Sen. Lisa Murkowski said years of simmering unease about federal land management in Alaska recently erupted into outright anger.

She said the “tipping point” in that relationship — the arrest of 71-year-old Central resident Jim Wilde during a contentious boat check on the Yukon River last September — has illustrated the need to improve the relationship between the state and federal government.

“I think there is a hightened sense that enforcement with federal agencies has just topped out,” Murkowski said.

The Alaska Republican said she had that in mind when she arranged a roundtable discussion Monday between a group of six state and federal officials at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The discussion, witnessed by about 40 people at Davis Concert Hall, was designed to look at ways to achieve some common ground between state and federal managers.

State officials believe Alaska has sovereign rights over its navigable waters — even those that pass through federal lands. Attorney General John Burns said the state’s jurisdiction is clear, citing laws that include the Statehood Act and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

Murkowski agrees, saying it’s obvious the intent of ANILCA was to treat federal lands in Alaska differently than those in the Lower 48.

But federal officials at the discussion said it isn’t that clear cut. Greg Dudgeon, the superintendent of the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, said the state and federal government can and should share jurisdiction.

Dudgeon said the Park Service has an obligation to protect the quality of its land, and managing the watersheds that run through them needs to be a part of that. Activities that could harm those waterways need to be monitored, he said.

Mitch Ellis, the regional chief for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said federal officials also have an obligation to make sure people are acting safely when they recreate on federal lands.

Since the presence of the state and U.S. Coast Guard alone can’t keep up with that task, he said it makes sense for other agencies, such as Park Service rangers, to coordinate the effort together.

“I think that serves the taxpayers well,” Ellis said. “It makes our tax dollars go farther.”

But Craig Fleener, deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the disputes aren’t typically about law-enforcement powers, but are more often “values” disagreements between state and federal managers.

“The people of Alaska shouldn’t be afraid of their government,” Fleener said. “They shouldn’t be afraid to hunt and fish.”

Burns said federal agencies have demonstrated “unprecedented overreach” in recent years. He cited permit requirements for mushers guiding dog teams down rivers in national parks and the prohibition of hovercraft on similar waters.

Burns said the state has filed numerous lawsuits against the federal government to assert its role in land management, but he believes they’re necessary to keep the state from falling victim to expanding federal reach.

“Once you lose a right, it’s so difficult to regain it,” he said.

He said the ultimate solution should come from Congress, which needs to clarify jurisdiction issues on Alaska’s waterways.

“The real fix is the recognition of what the state’s sovereign authority is all about … Unless that is corrected, we will revisit this issue time and again,” he said.

In response to the Wilde incident, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, successfully attached language to an Interior Appropriations bill that would make boating and other activities inside the Yukon-Charley National Preserve off-limits to National Park Service enforcement.

Murkowski said she’d like a broader solution than the one called for in Young’s rider, which she described as a “very specialized, almost Band-Aid-type approach to what I believe is a bigger problem.”

Murkowski said she hopes Interior Secretary Ken Salazar eases back on federal regulations on navigable waters. She agreed Congress should weigh in, but didn’t sound hopeful it would actually happen.

“Any time you wait upon an act of Congress, it’s undetermined at best about what you might expect,” she said.

Contact staff writer Jeff Richardson at 459-7518.