§484a — Title 16 Conservation | U.S. Code

Summary

If a state, county, city, or public school authority wants to swap land with the Forest Service but does not have enough land to offer, it can pay part or all of the land’s value to the Secretary of Agriculture to finish the exchange. That money must go into a special Treasury fund. When Congress approves spending it, the Secretary must use it to buy land in the same State for the same purposes. Land bought this way follows the same rules as the land chosen for exchange. No single state, county, city, or public school authority can receive more than 80 acres in one of these exchanges. Land can be given to those governments only if they were using it on January 12, 1983, and it can be used only for the same purpose as before.

Title 16, §484a

Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Whenever an exchange of land is proposed by a State, county, or municipal government or public school district or other public school authority under section 485 and 486 of this title or other authority under which the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to exchange national forest lands or other lands administered by the Forest Service, if the State, county, or municipal government or public school authority proposing the exchange has insufficient land to offer, the exchange may be completed upon deposit with the Secretary of Agriculture of a portion or all of the value of the selected land. Any amount so deposited shall be covered into a special fund in the Treasury which when appropriated shall be available until expended by the Secretary of Agriculture for the acquisition of lands in the same State as the selected lands and which are determined by him to be suitable for the same purposes as the selected lands. Lands so acquired shall have the same status and shall be subject to the same laws, regulations, and rules as the selected lands. The provisions of this section shall not be applicable to the conveyance in exchange of more than eighty acres to any one State, county, or municipal government or public school district or other public school authority. Lands may be conveyed to any State, county, or municipal government pursuant to this section only if the lands were being utilized by such entities on January 12, 1983. Lands so conveyed may be used only for the purposes for which they were being used prior to conveyance.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1983—Pub. L. 97–465 inserted references to State, county, or municipal government in three places in existing provisions and inserted provision authorizing the conveyance of lands to any State, county, or municipal government pursuant to this section only if the lands were being utilized by such entities on January 12, 1983, and requiring that lands so conveyed be used only for the purposes for which they were being used prior to conveyance.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Short Title

This section is popularly known as the Sisk Act.

§484a Exchange of Lands in National Forests; Public Schools; Deposit of Funds by School Authority with Insufficient Exchange Land; Limitations on Use