Doyon Ltd. shareholders rejected a resolution last week that had sought to ask the federal government for more time for public comment on a proposed land swap within the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, according to the corporation.

The proposed trade would give Doyon more than 100,000 acres of federal land — thought to be rich in oil and gas — in exchange for wetlands and property important to wildlife habitat within the Yukon Flats refuge.

Friday’s resolution, which emerged for a vote at the corporation’s annual meeting Friday in Fairbanks, aimed to ask the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to extend the 60-day comment period — which ends in one week — on the Environmental Impact Statement for the land swap. Doyon reported after the meeting that more than 90 percent of the votes were cast against the proposal, which soundly defeated the resolution.

The vote came one day after directors at Tanana Chiefs Conference voted to extend the comment period. TCC, a nonprofit, and for-profit Doyon, Limited, are Alaska Native organizations that cover the Interior Alaska region. Doyon Senior Vice President Aaron Schutt did not speculate on how the corporation should interpret shareholders’ motives in rejecting Friday’s resolution. He said the company follows the will of its shareholders and board of directors.

“It was a pretty overwhelming vote,” Schutt said.

The proposed land trade has caused concern from some Interior Alaska communities, which, proponents say, would benefit from a jump-start to rural economies. Others have urged the government to do more to make the 400-page EIS accessible to Alaska Natives, some of whom speak English as a second language.

The resolution had not been included in the set agenda for the corporation’s annual meeting Friday but was instead unexpectedly proposed from the floor by a shareholder, Schutt said. Meeting organizers then drafted the motion into a written measure and distributed it thorough ballots to those in attendance, who Schutt said represented 62 percent of the corporation’s stockholders.

“Something as important as this, we wanted to make sure we took the time to have ballots made and distributed” instead of simply holding a voice vote, he said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service already extended the comment period on the EIS from 45 to 60 days to give people extra time to weigh the pros and cons of the proposal, agency spokesman Bruce Woods said.

“We recognized that it’s a controversial and complicated deal,” he said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service’s Alaska regional director will decide whether the federal government will continue with the land exchange, according to the service. If the director signs the exchange agreement, it will be forwarded to Congress for further review, the agency has said.

The public can read the plan, and comment on it in writing or electronically, through March 25. It can be found online at yukonflatseis.ensr.com/yukon_flats/default2.html.