Title 16 — ConservationRelease 119-73

§1135 Gifts, bequests, and contributions

Title 16 › Chapter CHAPTER 23— - NATIONAL WILDERNESS PRESERVATION SYSTEM › § 1135

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of Agriculture can take gifts or bequests of land inside wilderness areas created by this law to keep them as wilderness. The Secretary can also take land next to those wilderness areas if they give 60 days advance notice to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Land taken this way becomes part of the wilderness area. Any rules for that land can follow agreements or conditions made when the gift was given, as long as they fit the chapter’s goals. The Secretary of Agriculture or the Secretary of the Interior may also accept private donations or gifts to help carry out the chapter’s purposes.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §1135

Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Secretary of Agriculture may accept gifts or bequests of land within wilderness areas designated by this chapter for preservation as wilderness. The Secretary of Agriculture may also accept gifts or bequests of land adjacent to wilderness areas designated by this chapter for preservation as wilderness if he has given sixty days advance notice thereof to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Land accepted by the Secretary of Agriculture under this section shall be come part of the wilderness area involved. Regulations with regard to any such land may be in accordance with such agreements, consistent with the policy of this chapter, as are made at the time of such gift, or such conditions, consistent with such policy, as may be included in, and accepted with, such bequest.

(b)The Secretary of Agriculture or the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to accept private contributions and gifts to be used to further the purposes of this chapter.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 1135

Title 16 — Conservation

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73