16 U.S.C. § 460n–3 — Purposes and uses of area

(a) Public recreation, benefit, and use. The Secretary of the Interior must run the Lake Mead National Recreation Area mainly for public recreation, benefit, and use. The Secretary must manage it to preserve, develop, and improve its recreation potential as much as practical, and to protect its scenic, historic, scientific, and other important features — while still respecting any existing legal reservations or limits, and other already-authorized uses of the land. (b) Specific activities. On top of other related activities, the Secretary can allow: (1) general recreation, like swimming, boating, camping, and picnicking; (2) grazing; (3) mineral leasing; and (4) vacation cabin sites, following the Interior Department's existing policy on that, or any later revision of it. All of these are subject to whatever limits, conditions, or regulations the Secretary sets, and none of them can conflict with either the area's recreational use or the primary reclamation use of the part of the land withdrawn for that purpose.