[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 589 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 589

To provide for a boundary adjustment and land conveyance involving the 
 Raggeds Wilderness, White River National Forest, Colorado, to correct 
             the effects of earlier erroneous land surveys.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 16, 1997

 Mr. Campbell introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
       referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide for a boundary adjustment and land conveyance involving the 
 Raggeds Wilderness, White River National Forest, Colorado, to correct 
             the effects of earlier erroneous land surveys.

    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.--Congress finds that--
            (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; and
            (3) the resurvey indicates that a small portion of the 
        Raggeds Wilderness is occupied by adjacent landowners on the 
        basis of the earlier erroneous land surveys.
    (b) Purpose.--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 et 
seq.) 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 National Forest and White River National Forest, Colorado, as 
designated by section 102(a)(16) of Public Law 96-560 (94 Stat. 3267; 
16 U.S.C. 1132 note), is 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.
    (d) Map.--The map described in subsection (c) shall be on file and 
available for inspection in the appropriate offices of the Forest 
Service, Department of Agriculture.
    (e) 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 et seq.) 
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 the owners of real property in 
Gunnison County, Colorado, whose real property adjoins the excluded 
real property and who have occupied the excluded real property in good 
faith reliance on an erroneous survey.
                                 <all>