43 U.S.C. § 1712 — Land use plans

submitted 50 years ago by Pub. L. 94-579 to r/title-43-PUBLIC-LANDS · 1,334 words · no verdicts yet

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The Secretary must develop and revise public-land use plans with public involvement and specified scientific, environmental, and governmental coordination. The section also governs review of existing classifications, large-use exclusions, congressional review, and public participation procedures.

(a) The Secretary must, with public involvement and consistently with this Act, develop, maintain, and when appropriate revise land-use plans that assign uses to tracts or areas of public land. Plans must cover public lands whether or not they were previously classified, withdrawn, set aside, or designated for uses. (b) When developing or revising plans, the Secretary of Agriculture must coordinate National Forest System plans with Indian tribes’ land-use planning and management programs, including by considering approved tribal land-resource-management policies. (c) The Secretary must, when developing or revising plans: (1) follow multiple-use and sustained-yield principles in this and other applicable law; (2) use a systematic interdisciplinary approach considering physical, biological, economic, and other sciences together; (3) prioritize designating and protecting areas of critical environmental concern; (4) use available public-land inventories and their resource and other values; (5) consider present and possible uses; (6) consider the scarcity of values and alternative ways, including recycling, and alternative sites for realizing them; (7) weigh long-term public benefits against short-term benefits; (8) provide compliance with applicable pollution-control laws and State and Federal air, water, noise, and other standards or implementation plans; and (9) as consistent with public-land laws, coordinate inventory, planning, and management with other Federal agencies, States, local governments, and Indian tribes. This includes considering statewide outdoor-recreation plans under chapter 2003 of title 54 and approved State and tribal land-resource policies. To carry this out, the Secretary must, as practical, stay informed about State, local, and tribal plans; consider relevant ones; help resolve inconsistencies between Federal and non-Federal plans as practical; and provide meaningful involvement for elected and appointed State and local officials, including early notice of proposed decisions that may significantly affect non-Federal land. State officials may advise the Secretary about public-land plans, guidelines, rules, regulations, and other referred land-use matters. The Secretary’s plans must be consistent with State and local plans to the maximum extent consistent with Federal law and this Act’s purposes. (d) Every public-land classification and land-use plan in effect on October 21, 1976, may be reviewed in this planning process. Every public land, regardless of classification, may be included in a plan. The Secretary may modify or end a classification consistently with the plans. (e) The Secretary may issue management decisions implementing plans as follows. (1) Decisions, including total exclusions of principal or major uses, remain subject to reconsideration, change, and termination when the Secretary or delegate revises the plan under this section. (2) A decision or action that totally excludes one or more principal or major uses for at least two years from a tract of at least 100,000 acres must be reported to the House and Senate. If, within 90 days after notice, excluding days when either chamber is adjourned for more than three consecutive days, Congress adopts a concurrent resolution disapproving it, the Secretary must promptly end the decision or action. If the committee has not reported a referred resolution after 30 calendar days, the House or Senate may move to discharge the committee from that resolution or another resolution on the same decision. Only someone favoring the resolution may make the highly privileged motion; it may not be made after committee reporting, debate is limited to one hour divided equally for and against, amendments are barred, and reconsideration is barred. After agreeing or disagreeing to discharge, the motion cannot be made for another resolution on the same decision. Once the committee reprints the resolution or is discharged, a motion to consider it is in order even if an earlier similar motion failed. That motion is highly privileged, not debatable, and cannot be amended or reconsidered. (3) Withdrawals under section 1714 may implement management decisions. But public lands may be removed from or restored to the Mining Law of 1872, or transferred to another department, bureau, or agency, only through a section 1714 withdrawal or other action authorized by law. A wholly Government-owned corporation may still acquire and hold Mining Law rights as a citizen. (f) The Secretary must allow public involvement and issue regulations establishing procedures, including hearings when appropriate, that give Federal, State, and local governments and the public adequate notice and an opportunity to comment on and participate in creating public-land management plans and programs.

the actual law source: uscode.house.gov ↗public domain

(a) Development, maintenance, and revision by Secretary

The Secretary shall, with public involvement and consistent with the terms and conditions of this Act, develop, maintain, and, when appropriate, revise land use plans which provide by tracts or areas for the use of the public lands. Land use plans shall be developed for the public lands regardless of whether such lands previously have been classified, withdrawn, set aside, or otherwise designated for one or more uses.

(b) Coordination of plans for National Forest System lands with Indian land use planning and management programs for purposes of development and revision

In the development and revision of land use plans, the Secretary of Agriculture shall coordinate land use plans for lands in the National Forest System with the land use planning and management programs of and for Indian tribes by, among other things, considering the policies of approved tribal land resource management programs.

In the development and revision of land use plans, the Secretary shall—

(1)

use and observe the principles of multiple use and sustained yield set forth in this and other applicable law;

(2)

use a systematic interdisciplinary approach to achieve integrated consideration of physical, biological, economic, and other sciences;

(3)

give priority to the designation and protection of areas of critical environmental concern;

(4)

rely, to the extent it is available, on the inventory of the public lands, their resources, and other values;

(5)

consider present and potential uses of the public lands;

(6)

consider the relative scarcity of the values involved and the availability of alternative means (including recycling) and sites for realization of those values;

(7)

weigh long-term benefits to the public against short-term benefits;

(8)

provide for compliance with applicable pollution control laws, including State and Federal air, water, noise, or other pollution standards or implementation plans; and

(9)

to the extent consistent with the laws governing the administration of the public lands, coordinate the land use inventory, planning, and management activities of or for such lands with the land use planning and management programs of other Federal departments and agencies and of the States and local governments within which the lands are located, including, but not limited to, the statewide outdoor recreation plans developed under chapter 2003 of title 54, and of or for Indian tribes by, among other things, considering the policies of approved State and tribal land resource management programs. In implementing this directive, the Secretary shall, to the extent he finds practical, keep apprised of State, local, and tribal land use plans; assure that consideration is given to those State, local, and tribal plans that are germane in the development of land use plans for public lands; assist in resolving, to the extent practical, inconsistencies between Federal and non-Federal Government plans, and shall provide for meaningful public involvement of State and local government officials, both elected and appointed, in the development of land use programs, land use regulations, and land use decisions for public lands, including early public notice of proposed decisions which may have a significant impact on non-Federal lands. Such officials in each State are authorized to furnish advice to the Secretary with respect to the development and revision of land use plans, land use guidelines, land use rules, and land use regulations for the public lands within such State and with respect to such other land use matters as may be referred to them by him. Land use plans of the Secretary under this section shall be consistent with State and local plans to the maximum extent he finds consistent with Federal law and the purposes of this Act.

(d) Review and inclusion of classified public lands; review of existing land use plans; modification and termination of classifications

Any classification of public lands or any land use plan in effect on October 21, 1976, is subject to review in the land use planning process conducted under this section, and all public lands, regardless of classification, are subject to inclusion in any land use plan developed pursuant to this section. The Secretary may modify or terminate any such classification consistent with such land use plans.

(e) Management decisions for implementation of developed or revised plans

The Secretary may issue management decisions to implement land use plans developed or revised under this section in accordance with the following:

(1)

Such decisions, including but not limited to exclusions (that is, total elimination) of one or more of the principal or major uses made by a management decision shall remain subject to reconsideration, modification, and termination through revision by the Secretary or his delegate, under the provisions of this section, of the land use plan involved.

(2)

Any management decision or action pursuant to a management decision that excludes (that is, totally eliminates) one or more of the principal or major uses for two or more years with respect to a tract of land of one hundred thousand acres or more shall be reported by the Secretary to the House of Representatives and the Senate. If within ninety days from the giving of such notice (exclusive of days on which either House has adjourned for more than three consecutive days), the Congress adopts a concurrent resolution of nonapproval of the management decision or action, then the management decision or action shall be promptly terminated by the Secretary. If the committee to which a resolution has been referred during the said ninety day period, has not reported it at the end of thirty calendar days after its referral, it shall be in order to either discharge the committee from further consideration of such resolution or to discharge the committee from consideration of any other resolution with respect to the management decision or action. A motion to discharge may be made only by an individual favoring the resolution, shall be highly privileged (except that it may not be made after the committee has reported such a resolution), and debate thereon shall be limited to not more than one hour, to be divided equally between those favoring and those opposing the resolution. An amendment to the motion shall not be in order, and it shall not be in order to move to reconsider the vote by which the motion was agreed to or disagreed to. If the motion to discharge is agreed to or disagreed to, the motion may not be made with respect to any other resolution with respect to the same management decision or action. When the committee has reprinted, or has been discharged from further consideration of a resolution, it shall at any time thereafter be in order (even though a previous motion to the same effect has been disagreed to) to move to proceed to the consideration of the resolution. The motion shall be highly privileged and shall not be debatable. An amendment to the motion shall not be in order, and it shall not be in order to move to reconsider the vote by which the motion was agreed to or disagreed to.

(3)

Withdrawals made pursuant to section 1714 of this title may be used in carrying out management decisions, but public lands shall be removed from or restored to the operation of the Mining Law of 1872, as amended (R.S. 2318–2352; 30 U.S.C. 21 et seq.) or transferred to another department, bureau, or agency only by withdrawal action pursuant to section 1714 of this title or other action pursuant to applicable law: Provided, That nothing in this section shall prevent a wholly owned Government corporation from acquiring and holding rights as a citizen under the Mining Law of 1872.

(f) Procedures applicable to formulation of plans and programs for public land management

The Secretary shall allow an opportunity for public involvement and by regulation shall establish procedures, including public hearings where appropriate, to give Federal, State, and local governments and the public, adequate notice and opportunity to comment upon and participate in the formulation of plans and programs relating to the management of the public lands.

Source credit: (Pub. L. 94–579, title II, § 202, Oct. 21, 1976, 90 Stat. 2747; Pub. L. 113–287, § 5(l)(6), Dec. 19, 2014, 128 Stat. 3271.)

history & why it existsrecord from the source credit

1976Enacted · Pub. L. 94-579 · 90 Stat. 2747
2014Amended · Pub. L. 113-287 · 128 Stat. 3271

A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by Pub. L. 94-579 on 1976-10-21.

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