An applicant may amend the land description contained in his or her application if said description designates land other than that which the applicant intended to claim at the time of application and if the description as amended describes the land originally intended to be claimed. If the application is amended, this section shall operate to approve the application or to require its adjudication, as the case may be, with reference to the amended land description only: Provided, That the Secretary shall notify the State of Alaska and all interested parties, as shown by the records of the Department of the Interior of the intended correction of the entry’s location, and any such party shall have until the one hundred and eightieth day following the effective date of this Act or sixty days following mailing of the notice, whichever is later, to file with the Department of the Interior a protest as provided in subsection (a)(3) of this section, which protest, if timely, shall be deemed filed within one hundred and eighty days of the effective date of this Act notwithstanding the actual date of filing: Provided further, That the Secretary may require that all applications designating land in a specific area be amended, if at all, prior to a date certain which date shall be calculated to allow for orderly adoption of a plan or survey for the specified area, and the Secretary shall mail notification of the final date for amendment to each affected applicant, and shall provide such other notice as the Secretary deems appropriate, at least sixty days prior to said date: Provided further, That no application may be amended for location following adoption of a final plan of survey which includes the location of the entry as described in the application or its location as desired by amendment.

Where the land described in application (or such an application as adjusted or amended pursuant to subsection (b) or (c) of this section), was on that date withdrawn, reserved, or classified for powersite or power-project purposes, notwithstanding such withdrawal, reservation, or classification the described land shall be deemed vacant, unappropriated, and unreserved within the meaning of the Acts referred to in subsection (a)(1) hereof, and, as such, shall be subject to adjudication or approval pursuant to the terms of this section: Provided, however, That if the described land is included as part of a project licensed under part I of the Federal Power Act of June 10, 1920 (41 Stat. 24), as amended [16 U.S.C. 791a et seq.], or is presently utilized for purposes of generating or transmitting electrical power or for any other project authorized by Act of Congress, the foregoing provision shall not apply and the application shall be adjudicated pursuant to the appropriate Act: Provided further, That where the applicant commenced occupancy of the land after its withdrawal or classification for powersite purposes, the entry shall be made subject to the right of reentry provided the United States by section 24 of the Federal Power Act, as amended [16 U.S.C. 818]: Provided further, That any right of reentry reserved in a patent pursuant to this section shall expire twenty years after the effective date of this Act if at that time the land involved is not subject to a license or an application for a license under part I of the Federal Power Act, as amended, or actually utilized or being developed for a purpose authorized by that Act, as amended [16 U.S.C. 791a et seq.] or other Act of Congress.

Prior to issuing a patent for an entry subject to this section, the Secretary shall identify and adjudicate any record entry or application for title to land described in the application, other than the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act [43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.], the Alaska Statehood Act, or the Act of May 17, 1906, as amended, which entry or application claims land also described in the application, and shall determine whether such entry or application represents a valid existing right to which the application is subject. Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect rights, if any, acquired by actual use of the described land prior to its withdrawal or classification, as affecting National Forest lands.