Land in the United States which is owned by the federal government
Federally managed lands in the 50 states, including subsurface rights. This map includes federal lands held in trust for Native Americans, which may not be considered federal lands in other contexts.
Federal lands are publicly owned lands in the United States managed by the federal government. Pursuant to the Property Clause of the United States Constitution (Article 4, section 3, clause 2), Congress has 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 of United States Supreme Court decisions.[1][2]
In Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 the United States Constitution empowers the federal government with exclusive legislative authority like that exercised for Washington 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 the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Park Service (NPS), or United States Forest Service (USFS). BLM, FWS, and NPS are part of the United States Department of the Interior, while the Forest Service is part of the United States Department of Agriculture. An additional 11.4 million acres (46 thousand km2) of land (about 2% of all federal land) is managed by the United States Department of Defense (DOD).[5] The majority of federal lands are located in Alaska and the Western states.[5]
^Paul Rodgers, United States Constitutional Law: An Introduction (2011), p. 100-101.
^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).
^ Cornell University Law School, [1], Cornell University Legal Information Institute]
^Lipton, Eric, and Clifford Krauss, Giving Reins to the States Over Drilling, New York Times, August 24, 2012.
^ abcCarol Hardy Vincent, Carla N. Argueta, & Laura A. Hanson, Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data, Congressional Research Service (updated February 21, 2020).
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states, and the federal government- all manage land which are referred to as either public lands or the public domain. The federal government owns 640...
Service or National Wildlife Refuges), state parks and forests, local public lands, and private properties. Two national reserves are currently managed as...
major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program and the FederalLands Highway Program. Its role had previously been performed...
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numbers of Native Americans. The federal government had charge of Indian affairs, and one by one purchased Indian lands. Individuals who were willing to...
executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation of most federallands and natural resources. It also...
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Affordable Care Act, various environmental regulations, and the transfer of federallands to individual states. Zinke was appointed secretary of the interior...
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royalties for coal mining on federallands. In January 2016, the Obama administration announced a three-year moratorium on federal coal lease sales on public...
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United States federal government. It also empowers Congress to admit new states and administer the territories and other federallands. The Full Faith...
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National Park Service, but reside on a variety of federal, state, county, city, town, and private lands. The three National Heritage Areas in Colorado are:...
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public lands near Bunkerville, Nevada. According to Bundy, the federal government lacks the constitutional authority to own vast tracts of lands, an argument...
officers, mainly within the Northwest Territory. The decision to offer federallands to Revolutionary War veterans helped to establish a precedent that would...
announced, Racist terms have no place in our vernacular or on our federallands. Our nation’s lands and waters should be places to celebrate the outdoors and...
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