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Title 16, ConservationRelease 119-102

§459t Secretary of the Interior Authorized to Execute Deeds and Leases for Project Lands; Inclusion of Conditional Covenants

Title 16 › CHAPTER 1 — NATIONAL PARKS, MILITARY PARKS, MONUMENTS, AND SEASHORES › SUBCHAPTER LXIV — RECREATIONAL DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS › § 459t

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of the Interior may sign deeds and leases so lands are used for public park, recreational, and conservation purposes. Each deed or lease must say the land can only be used that way and that the United States will not pay to operate or maintain it. Other agreed rules can be added if they don’t conflict. If the grantee or lessee breaks those rules for more than three years, after notice and a hearing the Secretary can take the land back. The land then returns to the Department of the Interior and may be handled as surplus federal property.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §459t

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to execute on behalf of the United States all necessary deeds and leases to effect the purposes of sections 459r to 459t of this title. Every such deed or lease shall contain the express condition that the grantee or lessee shall use the property exclusively for public park, recreational, and conservation purposes, and the further express condition that the United States assumes no obligation for the maintenance or operation of the property after the acceptance of such deed or during the term of such lease, and may contain such other conditions not inconsistent with such express conditions as may be agreed upon by the Secretary and the grantee or lessee: Provided, That the title and right to possession of any lands so conveyed or leased, together with the improvements thereon, shall revert to the United States upon a finding by the Secretary, after notice to such grantee or lessee and after an opportunity for a hearing, that the grantee or lessee has not complied with such conditions during a period of more than three years, which finding shall be final and conclusive, and such lands and improvements thereon, upon such reversion to the United States, shall be returned to the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior and upon determination of the Secretary may be considered as surplus real property to be disposed of in accordance with section 1303 of title 40.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification “Section 1303 of title 40” substituted in text for “the Act of August 27, 1935 (49 Stat. 885)” on authority of Pub. L. 107–217, § 5(c), Aug. 21, 2002, 116 Stat. 1303, the first section of which enacted Title 40, Public Buildings, Property, and Works.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 459t

Title 16, Conservation

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102