[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2438 Referred in Senate (RFS)]







104th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 2438


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 5, 1996

   Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and 
                           Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT


 
   To provide for the conveyance of lands to certain individuals in 
           Gunnison County, Colorado, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENT AND LAND CONVEYANCE, RAGGEDS WILDERNESS, 
              WHITE RIVER NATIONAL FOREST, COLORADO.

    (a) Findings.--The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Certain landowners in Gunnison County, Colorado, who 
        own real property adjacent to the portion of the Raggeds 
        Wilderness in the White River National Forest, Colorado, have 
        occupied or improved their property in good faith and in 
        reliance on erroneous surveys of their properties that the 
        landowners reasonably believed were accurate.
            (2) In 1993, a Forest Service resurvey of the Raggeds 
        Wilderness established accurate boundaries between the 
        wilderness area and adjacent private lands.
            (3) The resurvey indicated that a small portion of the 
        Raggeds Wilderness is occupied by adjacent landowners on the 
        basis of the earlier erroneous land surveys.
    (b) Purpose.--It is the purpose of this section to remove from the 
boundaries of the Raggeds Wilderness certain real property so as to 
permit the Secretary of Agriculture to use the authority of Public Law 
97-465 (commonly known as the Small Tracts Act; 16 U.S.C. 521c-521i) to 
convey the property to the landowners who occupied the property on the 
basis of erroneous land surveys.
    (c) Boundary Adjustment.--The boundary of the Raggeds Wilderness, 
Gunnison and White River National Forests, Colorado, as designated by 
section 102(a)(16) of Public Law 96-560 (16 U.S.C. 1132 note), is 
hereby modified to exclude from the area encompassed by the wilderness 
a parcel of real property approximately 0.86-acres in size situated in 
the SW\1/4\ of the NE\1/4\ of Section 28, Township 11 South, Range 88 
West of the 6th Principal Meridian, as depicted on the map entitled 
``Encroachment-Raggeds Wilderness'', dated November 17, 1993. Such map 
shall be on file and available for inspection in the appropriate 
offices of the United States Forest Service, Department of Agriculture.
    (d) Conveyance of Land Removed From Wilderness Area.--The Secretary 
of Agriculture shall use the authority provided by Public Law 97-465 
(commonly known as the Small Tracts Act; 16 U.S.C. 521c-521i) to convey 
all right, title, and interest of the United States in and to the real 
property excluded from the boundaries of the Raggeds Wilderness under 
subsection (c) to those owners of real property in Gunnison County, 
Colorado, whose real property adjoins the excluded lands and who have 
occupied the excluded lands in good faith reliance on an erroneous 
survey.

            Passed the House of Representatives September 4, 1996.

            Attest:

                                                ROBIN H. CARLE,

                                                                 Clerk.