Title 16 › Chapter 6— GAME AND BIRD PRESERVES; PROTECTION › § 698
Creates the Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas to protect its natural, scenic, and recreational areas and to let the public enjoy them. The preserve is shown on an official map dated October 1992 (map no. 175–80008) that is kept by the National Park Service and the preserve superintendent. The Secretary of the Interior may make small boundary changes after telling two Congressional committees in writing and must publish a full boundary description in the Federal Register no later than six months after October 11, 1974. Stream-corridor lines will be measured from each stream bank, and the Secretary should try to leave out year-round homes that are not needed for protection or management. The preserve includes many named units across several counties, such as Big Sandy Creek, Menard Creek Corridor, Hickory Creek Savannah, Turkey Creek, Beech Creek, the Neches River corridors, Beaumont, Loblolly, Pine Island Bayou areas, Lance Rosier, Village Creek Corridor, Big Sandy Corridor, Canyonlands, and others, as shown on the official map. The Secretary may acquire land inside the preserve by donation, purchase with donated or appropriated funds, transfer from other federal agencies, or exchange, but some private lands in certain units can be bought only with the owner’s consent and timber-company lands only by donation or exchange; state-owned lands only by donation. About 15 acres just outside the preserve near U.S. Highway 69 and Farm-to-Market Road 420 may be taken for visitor and admin use. After notice, lands outside the preserve offered as donations may be accepted and run as part of the preserve. The Secretary and the Secretary of Agriculture must identify lands for possible exchanges within 60 days after July 1, 1993; exchanges must be equal in value and finished no later than five years after July 1, 1993, and the exchange authority ends July 1, 1998. A 37-acre area owned by Louisiana-Pacific or its subsidiary used as a youth camp cannot be taken without the owner’s consent while it is used solely as a youth camp.
Full Legal Text
Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
16 U.S.C. § 698
Title 16 — Conservation
Last Updated
Apr 5, 2026
Release point: 119-73not60