§544l Implementation Measures

Summary

The Secretary must give free technical help to counties that are making the land use rules required by other parts of the law. If a county does not get the Commission’s approval for its land use rule within three years after the help begins, the Secretary must stop helping. For certain timber money paid to Oregon and Washington for special areas in Mount Hood and Gifford Pinchot National Forests, at least 50% must go to public schools in counties that adopt the required implementation measures, and the rest must go to public roads or other public uses in those counties. That rule does not apply to payments at the end of any fiscal year before November 17, 1986, or to counties that do not have an approved land use ordinance. When the Secretary buys land that paid local property taxes in the five years before the purchase, and the land is in a county with an approved ordinance, the Secretary must pay the county each year an amount equal to 1% of the land’s fair market value at purchase, but not more than the property taxes that were last assessed before the purchase. Those payments stop after the eighth full fiscal year of payments, except lands already receiving a payment in fiscal year 2000 will be continued so they get a total of eight fiscal years of payments. Federal agencies must carry out work in the scenic area in a way that follows the law as the Secretary decides, unless another part of the law says otherwise. If the Commission is not set up within 15 months after November 17, 1986, or is disbanded, no new federal spending, new financial help, or new permits or exemptions may be made available for activities outside urban areas that the Secretary finds inconsistent with the law’s implementation measures, standards, or purposes. “New” means actions with money or binding commitments made on or after October 1, 1986, or permits issued on or after that date, with some specific payments excluded. After consulting the Secretary, federal officers may still approve certain actions that are needed and consistent with the law, such as maintenance of channels, repair (but not expansion) of essential public roads or facilities, military activities for national security, fish and wildlife and research projects, navigation aids, coastal projects, emergency life‑saving actions, and nonstructural shoreline stabilization. The Director of OMB must certify each agency’s compliance each year starting after September 30, 1987, to Congress. Nothing here changes how federal law relates to state or local law, and it does not remove state rights to protect or restore lands. Finally, public lands in the scenic area that the Interior manages through the BLM are transferred, subject to valid existing rights, to the Secretary to be managed as National Forest lands under the law.