Federal Lands: Reasons for and Effects of Inadequate Public Access.

Abstract

The total land area of the United States is 2.3 billion acres. Approximately one-third of this total, or about 700 million acres, is owned by the federal government. The Department of Agriculture's Forest Service and the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BI) manage about 465 million acres. This land contains many resources, including minerals, timber, rangeland, fish and wildlife habitats, recreation areas, and cultural and historic sites. Intermingled with the federal land, however, is state and local government land as well as land owned by corporations, Native American tribes, and private individuals. This checkerboard pattern of ownership, particularly in the western states, can make it difficult for the public to get to federal land without traversing nonfederal land. Unless the federal government obtains permanent, legal public access, nonfederal landowners can control or deny the public's ability to reach federal land.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1992
Accession Number
ADA291414

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • California
  • Contractors
  • Fire Protection
  • Geographic Regions
  • Governments
  • Habitats
  • Law
  • Law Enforcement
  • Local Governments
  • National Governments
  • Recreation
  • Social Sciences
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • Wilderness
  • Wildlife

Readers

  • Government and Public Administration Law.
  • Wetland-Land-Environmental Management.