§460gg–6 Acquisition of property

Summary

The Secretary can get land or rights in land for the recreation area by buying them with donated or appropriated money, by donation, or by trading for them. The Secretary normally needs the owner’s agreement. The Secretary may buy land without the owner’s agreement only if negotiations failed and the total land taken without agreement is less than 5 percent of the privately owned acreage in the area as of December 31, 1975. Scenic easements are not limited by that 5 percent rule. The Secretary may get scenic easements without owner agreement only after the rules called for in section 460gg–7 are published and only when the land is being used, or is about to be used, in ways that break those rules. Land owned by the State of Oregon or its local governments can be accepted only as a donation. Land owned by the State of Idaho or its local governments can be accepted only as a donation or by exchange. Scenic easement: a right to control land use to protect its appearance, but it cannot stop farming or grazing that was happening on December 31, 1975. The Secretary must act quickly on offers to sell and must consider any hardship caused by delay. The Secretary may trade non-Federal land in the area for Federal land in the same State, so long as values are about equal or cash evens them out. The Secretary can acquire mineral rights with or without owner agreement; once acquired, those lands and minerals are removed from mining and mineral leasing laws. Federal property in the area may be transferred to the Secretary’s control without payment if the agency that holds it agrees, and such lands become part of the nearby national forest.