Title 16 — ConservationRelease 119-73

§51 Yosemite National Park; exchange of privately owned lands in park

Title 16 › Chapter CHAPTER 1— - NATIONAL PARKS, MILITARY PARKS, MONUMENTS, AND SEASHORES › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER VI— - SEQUOIA AND YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARKS › § 51

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Allows the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to trade timber or timber plus land to get full ownership of privately owned (patented) parcels inside Yosemite. The trades can use timber or lands from Yosemite or the Sierra and Stanislaus National Forests, and each secretary makes the needed transfers. They may also trade U.S. lands for private lands up to 640 acres in the Sierra and Stanislaus forests next to Yosemite. Any land gained this way becomes part of Yosemite and follows the rules in sections 55, 61, 471c, and 471d.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §51

Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Secretaries of the Departments of Interior and Agriculture, for the purpose of eliminating private holdings within the Yosemite National Park and to preserve intact timber along and adjoining the roads in the scenic portion of the park on patented lands, are empowered in their discretion to obtain and accept for the United States a complete title to any and all patented lands within the boundaries of said park by the exchange of timber or timber and lands within the Yosemite National Park and the Sierra and Stanislaus National Forests for such lands and the timber thereon within the park, necessary conveyances of park and national forest timber or timber and lands to be made by said secretaries, respectively. The secretaries of the said departments are authorized to acquire title in fee by the exchange of lands of the United States for patented lands not exceeding six hundred and forty acres in the Sierra and Stanislaus National Forests, adjacent and contiguous to the Yosemite National Park, and when such patented lands are thus acquired, said lands shall become a part of the Yosemite National Park and be subject to all the provisions of section 55, 61, 471c and 471d of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 51

Title 16 — Conservation

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73