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Federally managedlands in the 50states,including subsurface rights. This map includes federal lands held in trust forNative Americans,which may not be considered federal lands in other contexts.

Federal landsare publicly owned lands in theUnited Statesmanaged by thefederal government.Pursuant to theProperty Clauseof theUnited States Constitution(Article 4,section 3, clause 2),Congresshas the power to retain, buy, sell, and regulate federal lands, such as by limiting cattle grazing on them. These powers have been recognized in a long series ofUnited States Supreme Courtdecisions.[1][2]

In Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 the United States Constitution empowers the federal government with exclusive legislative authority like that exercised forWashington D.C.over "Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, Dock-yards, and other needful Buildings."[3]

The federal government manages about 640 million acres (2.6 million km2) of land in the United States, which is about 28% of the total land area of 2.27 billion acres (9.2 million km2).[4][5]The majority of federal lands (610.1 million acres (2.469 million km2) or 95 percent area in 2015) are administered by theBureau of Land Management(BLM),United States Fish and Wildlife Service(FWS),National Park Service(NPS), orUnited States Forest Service(USFS). BLM, FWS, and NPS are part of theUnited States Department of the Interior,while the Forest Service is part of theUnited States Department of Agriculture.An additional 11.4 million acres (46 thousand km2) of land (about 2% of all federal land) is managed by theUnited States Department of Defense(DOD).[5]The majority of federal lands are located inAlaskaand theWesternstates.[5]

Legal background[edit]

TheUnited States Supreme Courthas upheld the broad powers of the federal government to deal with federal lands, for example having unanimously held inKleppe v. New Mexico[6]that "the complete power that Congress has over federal lands under this clause necessarily includes the power to regulate and protect wildlife living there, state law notwithstanding."[1]

Lands held by the United Statesin trustforNative Americantribes are generally not considered public lands.[7]There are some 55 million acres (0.22 million km2) of land held in trust by the federal government for Indian tribes and almost 11 million acres (45 thousand km2) of land held in trust by the federal government for individual Natives. Although the United States holdslegal titleto these lands, the tribe or individual holdsbeneficial title(the right to use and benefit from the property).[8]As a result,Indian Countryis "quasi-private, not public, land."[7]Nevertheless, "because the United States is a legal title holder, the federal government is a necessary part in all leases and dispositions of resources including trust land. For example, the secretary of the interior must approve any contract for payment or grant by an Indian tribe for services for the tribe 'relative to their lands' (25 U.S.C. § 81)."[8]

History of federal lands[edit]

TheLand Ordinance of 1785and theNorthwest Ordinanceof 1787 provided for the survey and settlement of the lands that the originalThirteen Coloniesceded to the federal government after theAmerican Revolution.[9]As additional lands were acquired by the United States fromSpain,France,Native American Nations and other countries, theUnited States Congressdirected that they be explored, surveyed, and made available for settlement.[9]During the Revolutionary War, military bounty land was promised to soldiers who fought for the colonies.[10]After the war, theTreaty of Paris of 1783,signed by the United States, theKingdom of Great Britain,France,andSpain,ceded territory to the United States.[11][12]In the 1780s, other states relinquished their own claims to land in modern-dayOhio.[13]By this time, the United States needed revenue to function.[14]Land was sold so that the government would have money to survive.[14]In order to sell the land, surveys needed to be conducted. TheLand Ordinance of 1785instructed a geographer to oversee this work as undertaken by a group of surveyors.[14]The first years of surveying were completed by trial and error; once the territory of Ohio had been surveyed, a modern public land survey system had been developed.[15]In 1812, Congress established theUnited States General Land Officeas part of theDepartment of the Treasuryto oversee the disposition of these federal lands.[13]By the early 1800s, promised bounty land claims were finally fulfilled.[16]

In the 19th century, other bounty land and homestead laws were enacted to dispose of federal land.[9][16]These included, among others, theHomestead Act of 1862and the Desert Lands Entry Act of 1877.[5]Several different types of patents existed.[17]These include cash entry, credit, homestead, Indian, military warrants, mineral certificates, private land claims, railroads, state selections, swamps, town sites, and town lots.[17]A system of local land offices spread throughout the territories, patenting land that was surveyed via the correspondingOffice of the Surveyor Generalof a particular territory.[17]This pattern gradually spread across the entire United States.[15]Homestead entries peaked in 1910, when they amounted to 18.3 million acres (0.074 million km2), and sharply declined after 1935 and were eliminated in 1986.[5]The laws that spurred mass federal land transfers, with the exception of theGeneral Mining Law of 1872and theDesert Land Actof 1877, have since been repealed or superseded.[18]

Between 1781 and 2018, the federal government divested itself of estimated 1.29 billion acres (5.2 million km2) of public domain land.[5]The vast majority (97%) of transfers of federal land to private ownership occurred before 1940.[5]Beginning in the early 20th century, U.S. government policy shifted from disposing of public land to retaining and managing it.[5]Congress took additional steps toward recognizing the value of the assets on public lands and directed theExecutive Branchto manage activities on the remaining public lands.[18]TheMineral Leasing Act of 1920allowed leasing, exploration, and production of selected commodities, such ascoal,oil,gas,andsodiumto take place on public lands.[19]TheTaylor Grazing Actof 1934 established theUnited States Grazing Servicetomanage the public rangelandsby establishment of advisory boards that set grazing fees.[20][21]TheOregon and California Revested Lands Sustained Yield Management Actof 1937, commonly referred as the O&C Act, required sustainedyield managementof the timberlands in western Oregon.[22]

Sagebrush Rebellionmovement in theWestern United Statesin the 1970s and the 1980s sought major changes to federal land control, use, and disposal policy in 13 western states in which federal land holdings include between 20% and 85% of a state's area.[23][24]Supporters of the movement wanted more state and local control over the lands, if not outright transfer of them to state and local authorities and/orprivatization.[25]

From 1990 to 2018, the overall acreage held by the federal government decreased by 4.9% (i.e., from 646.9 million acres (2.618 million km2) to 615.3 million acres (2.490 million km2)).[5]Over that time period, the federal acreage held by the Bureau of Land Management and Department of Defense decreased by 10.2% and 56.8%, respectively, and the federal acreage held by the Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service increased by 0.8%, 2.7%, and 5.0%, respectively.[5]Over the 1990–2018 time period, the largest decline in federal acreage was in Alaska (a decrease of 9.4%, or 23.0 million acres (0.093 million km2)) and in the 11 contiguous states of the West (a 3% decrease in federal land, or 10.7 million acres (0.043 million km2)).[5]

Primary federal land holders[edit]

This map shows land owned by different federal government agencies.

The four primary federal land holders are:

The fifth largest federal landowner is theUnited States Department of Defense,which owns, leases, or possessed 26.1 million acres (0.106 million km2) worldwide, of which 8.8 million acres (0.036 million km2) are located in the United States (this figure excludedUnited States Army Corps of Engineersland). DoD thus administers approximately 1% of federal land. DOD land is mostlymilitary basesand reservations.[5]The largest single DOD-owned, all-land tract is the 2.3-million-acreWhite Sands Missile RangeinNew Mexico.[26]

Together, the BLM, FWS, NPS, Forest Service, and DOD manage about 96% of federal land.[5]The remaining 4% of federal land is controlled by other federal agencies, including the United States Army Corps of Engineers, theBureau of Reclamation,theUnited States Postal Service,theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration,and theU.S. Department of Energy.[5]

Distribution[edit]

Federal land is concentrated in theWestern United States.Nationwide, the federal government owns 27.4% of all land area. There are significant variations regionally; the federal government owns 61.3% of the land area in Alaska, 46.4% of the land area in the 11contiguousWestern states; and 4.2% of the land area of other states. The state with the highest percentage of land held by the federal government isNevada(80.1%); the states with the lowest percentage of land held by the federal government areConnecticutandIowa(0.3%).[5]

Primary laws regarding federal lands[edit]

Acquired lands[edit]

In the United States,acquired landsrefer to a category ofpublic landsunder federal management that were obtained by thefederal governmentthrough purchase,condemnation,gift, or exchange.[27]

Uses[edit]

In the United States, federal lands are often used forenvironmental conservation.The administration of Joe Biden turned intoprotected areas12.5 million acres in 2023 alone.[28]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^abPaul Rodgers,United States Constitutional Law: An Introduction(2011), p. 100-101.
  2. ^Gibson v. Chouteau,80 U.S. 92, 99 (1872),U.S. v. Grimaud,220 U.S. 506 (1911),Light v. U.S.220 U.S. 523 (1911),Utah Power & Light Co. v. U.S.,243 U.S. 389, 405 (1917),Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority,297 U.S. 288, 336 (1936).
  3. ^Cornell University Law School,[1],Cornell University Legal Information Institute]
  4. ^Lipton, Eric, and Clifford Krauss,Giving Reins to the States Over Drilling,New York Times,August 24, 2012.
  5. ^abcdefghijklmnopqrsCarol Hardy Vincent, Carla N. Argueta, & Laura A. Hanson,Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data,Congressional Research Service (updated February 21, 2020).
  6. ^Kleppe v. New Mexico,426 U.S. 529 (1976).
  7. ^abTom Fredericks & Andrea Aseff,When Did Congress Deem Indian Lands Public Lands?: The Problem of BLM Exercising Oil and Gas Regulatory Jurisdiction,33 Energy Law Journal 119 (2012).
  8. ^ab"Trust Land" inTreaties with American Indians: An Encyclopedia of Rights, Conflicts, and Sovereignty(ed. Donald L. Fixico: ABC-CLIO, 2008), p. 956.
  9. ^abc"The BLM: The Agency and its History".GPO.Archivedfrom the original on November 26, 2014.RetrievedNovember 14,2014.
  10. ^"Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application Files (p. 7)"(PDF).National Archives and Records Administration (1974).Archived(PDF)from the original on February 13, 2015.RetrievedNovember 14,2014.
  11. ^"British-American Diplomacy Treaty of Paris – Hunter Miller's Notes".The Avalon Project at Yale Law School.Archivedfrom the original on May 16, 2015.RetrievedOctober 19,2014.
  12. ^Black, Jeremy.British foreign policy in an age of revolutions, 1783–1793(1994) pp 11–20
  13. ^abA History of the Rectangular Survey System by C. Albert White, 1983, Pub: Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management: For sale by G.P.O.
  14. ^abcVernon Carstensen, "Patterns on the American Land."Journal of Federalism,Fall 1987, Vol. 18 Issue 4, pp 31–39
  15. ^abWhite, C. Albert (1991).A history of the rectangular survey system.Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
  16. ^ab"Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application Files (p. 3)"(PDF).National Archives and Records Administration (1974).Archived(PDF)from the original on February 13, 2015.RetrievedNovember 14,2014.
  17. ^abc"Records of the Bureau of Land Management [BLM] (Record Group 49) 1685–1993 (bulk 1770–1982)".National Archives and Records Administration.Archivedfrom the original on November 29, 2014.RetrievedNovember 14,2014.
  18. ^ab"BLM and Its Predecessors: A Long and Varied History".BLM. Archived fromthe originalon November 26, 2014.RetrievedNovember 14,2014.
  19. ^"Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 As Amended"(PDF).BLM.Archived(PDF)from the original on September 23, 2015.RetrievedNovember 14,2014.
  20. ^Wishart, David J.(ed.)."Taylor Grazing Act".Encyclopedia of the Great Plains.University of Nebraska-Lincoln.Archivedfrom the original on November 29, 2014.RetrievedNovember 14,2014.
  21. ^Elliott, Clayton R. (August 2010).Innovation in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management: Insights from Integrating Mule Deer Management with Oil and Gas Leasing (Masters Thesis).University of Montana.p. 45.hdl:2027.42/77588.
  22. ^"O&C Sustained Yield Act: the Law, the Land, the Legacy"(PDF).Bureau of Land Management.Archived(PDF)from the original on October 24, 2012.RetrievedMarch 6,2012.
  23. ^Ross W. Gorte; Carol Hardy Vincent; Laura A. Hanson; Marc R. Rosenblum (8 February 2012)."Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data"(PDF).Table 1. Federal Land by State, 2010.Congressional Research Service.Retrieved28 April2014.
  24. ^"The Open West, Owned by the Federal Government".New York Times.23 Mar 2012.
  25. ^"Andrus predicts end to West's 'rebellion'".Eugene Register-Guard.(Oregon). Associated Press. June 11, 1980. p. 15C.
  26. ^White Sands Missile Range and Trinity Site,National Park Service (revised 03/14/12).
  27. ^Public DomainThis article incorporatespublic domain materialfromJasper Womach.Report for Congress: Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws, 2005 Edition(PDF).Congressional Research Service.
  28. ^Hananel, Sam."The Biden Administration Has Reached Conservation Records in 2023".Center for American progress.Retrieved24 December2023.

Further reading[edit]

  • Vincent, Carol Hardy; Comay, Laura B.; Crafton, R. Eliot; Hoover, Katie (November 23, 2018).Federal Land Ownership: Acquisition and Disposal Authorities(PDF).Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service.Retrieved11 December2018.
  • Wilson, Randall K.America's Public Lands: From Yellowstone to Smokey Bear and Beyond.Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014.
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