§3103 Maps

Summary

Keep up-to-date boundary maps and legal descriptions on file and open for the public in the office of the Secretary of the Interior, and for National Forests in the office of the Secretary of Agriculture. If the numbers in the law and the map disagree, the map controls. In coastal Alaska, boundaries cannot extend seaward past the mean high tide line to include State-owned land unless the State agrees and the extension follows the Act’s notice and reporting steps. As soon as possible after December 2, 1980, each change in land status had to be published in the Federal Register and filed with the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate. Clerical fixes are allowed. Boundaries should follow natural features when possible, and the Secretaries may make small adjustments after telling Congress, so long as any change does not add or remove more than 23,000 acres. Only public lands inside those boundaries count as part of a conservation unit. Lands that are or become owned by a State, a Native Corporation, or a private owner are not subject to public-land-only rules unless the owner sells them to the Secretary. If the Secretary buys such lands under the law, they become part of the unit and are managed accordingly.