Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service manage about 628 million acres of public land, mostly in the 11 western states and Alaska. Under the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act (FLTFA), revenue raised from selling BLM lands is available to the agencies, primarily to acquire non-federal land within the boundaries of land they already own – known as in-holdings, which can create significant land management problems. To acquire land, the agencies can nominate parcels under state-level interagency agreements or the Secretaries can use their discretion to initiate acquisitions. FLTFA expires in 2010. The author was asked to determine (1)FLTFA revenue generated, (2)challenges to future sales, (3)FLTFA expenditures, and (4)challenges to future acquisitions. This is an edited and indexed edition.