§698f Big Cypress National Preserve; Big Cypress National Preserve Addition

Summary

Creates the Big Cypress National Preserve to protect the natural, scenic, water, plant and animal life, and recreation in the Big Cypress Watershed in Florida. The preserve is the area shown on the map titled “Big Cypress National Preserve,” dated November 1971, number BC–91,001, which is filed with the National Park Service and county offices. The Secretary of the Interior must publish a detailed boundary in the Federal Register, and the preserve will include no more than 570,000 acres of land and water. The Secretary can get land inside the preserve or its Addition by donation, purchase, transfer from other federal agencies, or exchange. Land the State of Florida owns in the preserve can only be donated. Federal money cannot be used until Florida’s Governor agrees to transfer state-owned preserve lands to the United States and donate lands or remaining funds from the state’s 1973 Big Cypress Conservation Act. Improved property and oil and gas rights will not be taken without the owner’s consent unless the Secretary finds they harm the preserve. The Secretary may accept offers of $10,000 or less without an appraisal and may order appraisals of unimproved land without notice. Federal lands already in the area can be moved to the Secretary’s control without transferring funds. For the Addition, the United States will pay up to 80 percent of acquisition costs; if the State transfers land, the U.S. will reimburse 80 percent of the State’s costs but that payment is reduced by 20 percent of what the U.S. spent buying other Addition lands. “Total cost” means the full acquisition cost (including donated or exchanged land) minus costs paid by the Federal Highway Administration and the Florida DOT, such as severance damages from Interstate 75.