PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

Since fiscal year 1997, the Secretary of the Interior may use certain Bureau of Land Management funds, including Wildland Fire Management money given to the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs, to make cooperative agreements with other federal agencies, tribes, state and local governments, private groups, nonprofits, and landowners. These agreements are for protecting, restoring, and improving fish and wildlife habitat and other resources on public or private land, and for lowering natural disaster risks that threaten public safety when those actions help public lands in the same watershed. The Secretary can make agreements directly with a willing private landowner or indirectly through a government, public agency, school, or nonprofit. Each agreement must have terms both sides agree to, must benefit fish, wildlife, or other living resources on public land in the watershed, can include technical planning help from the Secretary, must spell out how costs are shared, and requires the Secretary to find any spending to be in the public interest. The Secretary may add other agreed terms to protect the public’s investment on private land.

Title 16, §1011

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)In general

For fiscal year 1997 and each fiscal year thereafter, appropriations made for the Bureau of Land Management including appropriations for the Wildland Fire Management account allocated to the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs may be used by the Secretary of the Interior for the purpose of entering into cooperative agreements with the heads of other Federal agencies, tribal, State, and local governments, private and nonprofit entities, and landowners for the protection, restoration, and enhancement of fish and wildlife habitat and other resources on public or private land and the reduction of risk from natural disaster where public safety is threatened that benefit these resources on public lands within the watershed.

(b)Direct and indirect watershed agreements

The Secretary of the Interior may enter into a watershed restoration and enhancement agreement—

(1)directly with a willing private landowner; or

(2)indirectly through an agreement with a state, local, or tribal government or other public entity, educational institution, or private nonprofit organization.

(c)Terms and conditions

In order for the Secretary to enter into a watershed restoration and enhancement agreement—

(1)the agreement shall—

(A)include such terms and conditions mutually agreed to by the Secretary and the landowner;

(B)improve the viability of and otherwise benefit the fish, wildlife, and other biotic resources on public land in the watershed;

(C)authorize the provision of technical assistance by the Secretary in the planning of management activities that will further the purposes of the agreement;

(D)provide for the sharing of costs of implementing the agreement among the Federal government, the landowner, and other entities, as mutually agreed on by the affected interests; and

(E)ensure that any expenditure by the Secretary pursuant to the agreement is determined by the Secretary to be in the public interest; and

(2)the Secretary may require such other terms and conditions as are necessary to protect the public investment on private lands, provided such terms and conditions are mutually agreed to by the Secretary and the landowner.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Section was enacted as part of the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1997, and also as part of the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act, 1997, and not as part of the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act which comprises this chapter.

Amendments

2003—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 108–7 inserted “including appropriations for the Wildland Fire Management account allocated to the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs” after “appropriations made for the Bureau of Land Management”. 1998—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 105–277 substituted “with the heads of other Federal agencies, tribal, State, and local governments, private and nonprofit entities, and landowners for the protection, restoration, and enhancement of fish and wildlife habitat and other resources on public or private land and the reduction of risk from natural disaster where public safety is threatened” for “with willing private landowners for restoration and enhancement of fish, wildlife, and other biotic resources on public or private land or both”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Federal and State Cooperative Watershed Restoration and Protection Pub. L. 106–291, title III, § 331, Oct. 11, 2000, 114 Stat. 996, as amended by Pub. L. 108–447, div. E, title III, § 336, Dec. 8, 2004, 118 Stat. 3102; Pub. L. 111–88, div. A, title IV, § 422, Oct. 30, 2009, 123 Stat. 2961; Pub. L. 113–76, div. G, title IV, § 417, Jan. 17, 2014, 128 Stat. 341, authorized the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior, through Sept. 30, 2018, to use cooperative agreements and contracts to permit State forestry programs to perform watershed restoration and protection services on National Forest System and Bureau of Land Management lands when similar and complementary services were being performed on adjacent State or private lands. Watershed Agreements Pub. L. 105–277, div. A, § 101(e) [title III, § 323], Oct. 21, 1998, 112 Stat. 2681–231, 2681–290, as amended, formerly set out as a note under this section, was transferred and is classified to section 1011a of this title.

§1011 Watershed Restoration and Enhancement Agreements