16 U.S.C. § 543c: Administration

Summary

The Secretary of Agriculture, through the Forest Service, must manage the Scenic Area as its own unit inside the Inyo National Forest and follow the rules that apply to national forests. All Bureau of Land Management lands inside the Scenic Area are added to the Inyo National Forest, and several other specific parcels listed in the law are added too. The Secretary must protect the area’s geologic, ecological, and cultural resources while respecting California and local water rights. The area must be open for recreation, with trails, campgrounds, and interpretive programs that fit the law. Scientific study and research are allowed. Commercial logging is not allowed except for limited personal uses like firewood and for the smallest possible commercial cutting to stop fires, insects, or disease that threaten irreplaceable features or nearby important resources. People with current grazing permits may keep using them under the law. The Secretary may make cooperative agreements with California or local governments. A detailed management plan, including an inventory of resources, development plans with cost estimates, and preservation measures, must be sent to the committees mentioned in the law within three years after September 28, 1984. The plan must allow hunting, fishing, and state-authorized brine shrimp operations except when needed for health, safety, resource protection, research, or public use. A visitor center may be built. Federal lands in the area are withdrawn from new mining, mineral leasing, geothermal claims, and public land disposals, subject to valid existing rights. Mining claims and any patents after September 28, 1984, must follow rules that protect the area and limit surface use. A 1936 act is repealed, and free easements for certain Los Angeles rights-of-way filed October 24, 1944, and accepted January 4, 1945, must be granted; those easements take effect when the city relinquishes its October 20, 1944, and January 17, 1945, land-purchase applications. If the city stops using the land as it did on September 28, 1984, the land returns to the United States. Existing community recreational uses as of September 28, 1984, may continue where and how they were customarily used.

Title 16, §543c

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Scenic Area and other lands to be administered as part of Inyo National Forest

(1)Except as otherwise provided in sections 543 to 543h of this title, the Secretary, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service, shall administer the Scenic Area as a separate unit within the boundary of the Inyo National Forest in accordance with the laws, rules, and regulations applicable to the National Forest System. All Bureau of Land Management administered lands that fall within the boundaries of the Scenic Area are hereby added to the Inyo National Forest and shall be administered in accordance with the laws, rules, and regulations applicable to the National Forest System.

(2)In addition, the following parcels administered by the Bureau of Land Management are hereby added to the Inyo National Forest and shall be administered in accordance with the laws, rules, and regulations applicable to the National Forest System: township 1 south; range 26 east; Mount Diablo Meridian: east half of southwest quarter and south half of southeast quarter of section 10; and township 1 north; range 26 east; Mount Diablo Meridian: southwest quarter of northeast quarter and west half of southeast quarter of section 9; southwest quarter of southwest quarter of section 15; southwest quarter of northwest quarter and northwest quarter of southwest quarter of section 25; north half of southeast quarter of section 26, west half of northwest quarter and northwest quarter of southwest quarter of section 27; township 1 north; range 27 east; Mount Diablo Meridian: east half of southeast quarter of section 34; southwest quarter of northwest quarter of section 35; and west half of section 30 as intersected by Scenic Area Boundary.

(b)Water rights; protection of geologic, ecologic and cultural resources; recreational use of Scenic Area; related facilities and programs; scientific study and research; commercial timber harvesting

(1)In a manner consistent with the protection of the water rights of the State of California or any political subdivision thereof (including the city of Los Angeles) or of any person to the extent that such water rights have been granted or modified under the laws of the State of California, the Secretary shall manage the Scenic Area to protect its geologic, ecologic, and cultural resources. The Secretary shall provide for recreational use of the Scenic Area and shall provide recreational and interpretive facilities (including trails and campgrounds) for the use of the public which are compatible with the provisions of sections 543 to 543h of this title, and may assist adjacent affected local governmental agencies in the development of related interpretive programs. The Secretary shall permit the full use of the Scenic Area for scientific study and research in accordance with such rules and regulations as he may prescribe.

(2)Except as specifically provided in this subsection, no commercial timber harvesting shall be permitted in the Scenic Area, but the Secretary shall permit the utilization of wood material such as firewood, posts, poles, and Christmas trees by individuals for their domestic purposes under such regulations as he may prescribe to protect the natural and cultural resources of the Scenic Area. The Secretary may take action including the use of commercial timber harvest to the minimum extent necessary to control fires, insects and diseases that might—

(A)endanger irreplaceable features within the Scenic Area, or

(B)cause substantial damage to significant resources adjacent to the Scenic Area.

(c)Grazing permits

The Secretary shall permit those persons holding currently valid grazing permits within the boundary of the Scenic Area to continue to exercise such permits consistent with other applicable law.

(d)Cooperative agreements

The Secretary may enter into cooperative agreements with the State of California and any political subdivision thereof (including the city of Los Angeles) for purposes of protecting Scenic Area resources and administering areas owned by the State or by any such political subdivision which are within the Scenic Area.

(e)Management plan

Within three years after September 28, 1984, the Secretary shall submit to the committees referred to in section 543 of this title, a detailed and comprehensive management plan for the Scenic Area which is consistent with the protection of water rights as provided in subsection (b)(1). The plan shall include but not be limited to—

(1)an inventory of natural (including geologic) and cultural resources;

(2)general development plans for public use facilities, including cost estimates; and

(3)measures for the preservation of the natural and cultural resources of the Scenic Area in accordance with subsections (a) and (b) of this section.

Such plan shall provide for hunting and fishing (including commercial brine shrimp operations authorized under State law) within the Scenic Area in accordance with applicable Federal and State law, except to the extent otherwise necessary for reasons of public health and safety, the protection of resources, scientific research activities, or public use and enjoyment.

(f)Visitor center

The Secretary is authorized to construct a visitor center in the Scenic Area for the purpose of providing information through appropriate displays, printed material, and other interpretive programs, about the natural and cultural resources of the Scenic Area.

(g)Withdrawal of lands from operation of other Federal laws; regulation of mining claims

(1)Subject to valid existing rights, federally owned lands and interests therein within the Scenic Area are withdrawn from entry or appropriation under the mining laws of the United States, from the operation of the mineral leasing laws of the United States, from operation of the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 [30 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.], and from disposition under the public land laws.

(2)Subject to valid existing rights, all mining claims located within the Scenic Area shall be subject to such reasonable regulations as the Secretary may prescribe to assure that mining will, to the maximum extent practicable, be consistent with protection of the scenic, scientific, cultural, and other resources of the area, and any patent which may be issued after September 28, 1984, shall convey title only to the minerals together with the right to use the surface of lands for mining purposes subject to such reasonable regulations.

(h)Water rights

Nothing in sections 543 to 543h of this title shall be construed to reserve any water for purposes of the Scenic Area or to affirm, deny, or otherwise affect the present (or prospective) water rights of any person or of the State of California or of any political subdivision thereof (including the city of Los Angeles), nor shall any provision of sections 543 to 543h of this title be construed to cause, authorize, or allow any interference with or infringement of such water rights so long as, and to the extent that, those rights remain valid and enforceable under the laws of the State of California.

(i)Rights-of-way of city of Los Angeles

(1)The Act entitled “An Act authorizing and directing the Secretary of the Interior to sell to the city of Los Angeles, California, certain public lands in California; and granting rights-of-way over public lands and reserved lands to the city of Los Angeles in Mono County in the State of California”, approved June 23, 1936 (49 Stat. 1892), is hereby repealed.

(2)The Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior shall grant and convey rights-of-way easements, at no cost, to the city of Los Angeles for those rights-of-way on public lands and national forest lands in Mono County, California, as described and set forth in maps and accompanying descriptions which were—

(A)filed by the city of Los Angeles with the Secretary of the Interior on October 24, 1944, and

(B)accepted as proof of construction on behalf of the United States by the Commissioner of the General Land Office on January 4, 1945.

Such easement conveyances shall provide for the right of the city to continue its present operations and to maintain, reconstruct, and replace all existing water and power facilities located within the bounds of the area described in the maps and descriptions referred to in the preceding sentence. The United States shall reserve in the conveyance easements all rights to use and permit the use by others of the lands so conveyed to the extent that such use does not unreasonably interfere with the rights granted herein to the city of Los Angeles.

(3)The grant in paragraph (2) of this subsection shall become effective upon relinquishment in writing by the city of Los Angeles of its applications dated October 20, 1944, and January 17, 1945, to purchase twenty-three thousand eight hundred and fifty acres of Federal land.

(4)The easements granted under paragraph (2) of this subsection shall provide that whenever the city of Los Angeles ceases to use the land or any part thereof subject to such easements for the purposes for which it is currently being used, as of September 28, 1984, all interests in such land or part thereof shall revert to the United States.

(j)Existing community recreational uses

Existing community recreational uses, as of September 28, 1984, shall be permitted at the levels and locations customarily exercised.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The Geothermal Steam Act of 1970, referred to in subsec. (g)(1), is Pub. L. 91–581, Dec. 24, 1970, 84 Stat. 1566, which is classified principally to chapter 23 (§ 1001 et seq.) of Title 30, Mineral Lands and Mining. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

note set out under section 1001 of Title 30 and Tables. The Act entitled “An Act authorizing and directing the Secretary of the Interior to sell to the city of Los Angeles, California, certain public lands in California; and granting rights-of-way over public lands and reserved lands to the city of Los Angeles in Mono County in the State of California”, referred to in subsec. (i)(1), is act June 23, 1936, ch. 733, 49 Stat. 1892, which was not classified to the Code.

§543c Administration