Title 16 › Chapter CHAPTER 6— - GAME AND BIRD PRESERVES; PROTECTION › § 698
Creates the Big Thicket National Preserve to protect and share the area's natural, scenic, and recreational value. The preserve covers 15 named units shown on a map titled "Big Thicket National Preserve" dated October 1992, map number 175–80008, which is on file with the National Park Service and the preserve superintendent. The Secretary of the Interior may make small boundary changes after telling, in writing, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the House Committee on Natural Resources. The Secretary must publish a detailed boundary description in the Federal Register no later than six months after October 11, 1974. When setting stream corridor boundaries, the Secretary must measure from the stream bank and must try to leave out improved year-round homes that are not needed to protect or manage the preserve. The Secretary may acquire lands or interests inside the preserve by donation, purchase with donated or appropriated funds, transfer from other federal agencies, or exchange. Private lands inside the Village Creek Corridor, Big Sandy Corridor, and Canyonlands units can be acquired only with the owner’s consent. Lands owned by commercial timber companies can be taken only by donation or exchange. State or local government lands can be taken only by donation. The Secretary may also take about 15 acres just outside the preserve at US Highway 69 and State Farm‑Market Road 420 for a visitor and administrative site. With written notice to the same congressional committees, the Secretary may accept donations of land outside the preserve and manage them as part of the preserve after publishing notice in the Federal Register. Federal lands already inside the preserve may be transferred to the Secretary’s administration with the other agency’s agreement and without moving funds. Within 60 days after July 1, 1993, the Secretary and the Secretary of Agriculture must identify lands for possible exchange with commercial timber lands in the preserve, using specified National Forest areas when appropriate; exchanges must be equal in value and finished no later than five years after July 1, 1993, and the exchange authority ends July 1, 1998. The Secretary may not acquire a 37‑acre area on Big Sandy Creek owned by Louisiana‑Pacific or its subsidiary without the owner’s consent while it is used only as a youth camp.
Full Legal Text
Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
16 U.S.C. § 698
Title 16 — Conservation
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73