Title 16 › Chapter CHAPTER 91— - NATIONAL LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION SYSTEM › § 7202
Creates the National Landscape Conservation System inside the Bureau of Land Management to conserve, protect, and restore nationally important lands with special cultural, ecological, and scientific value for people now and in the future. The system must include several kinds of protected areas (for example, national monuments, national conservation areas, wilderness study areas, parts of national scenic or historic trails, Wild and Scenic Rivers components, and Wilderness Preservation System lands) plus any areas Congress adds. It also names examples Congress already placed in the system, like the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area, the Headwaters Forest Reserve, Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, and public lands in the California Desert Conservation Area. The Secretary must manage the system under the laws that apply to each area and must protect the reasons the areas were set aside. Nothing here changes or overrides the laws or proclamations that created or govern those places (including the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the Wilderness Act, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the National Trails System Act, and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act). State authority over fish and resident wildlife, and rules about hunting, fishing, trapping, and recreational shooting, remain the same, and access for those activities is not limited.
Full Legal Text
Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
16 U.S.C. § 7202
Title 16 — Conservation
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73