[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 749 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 749

 To direct the Secretary of the Interior to establish the Cooperative 
                    Landscape Conservation Program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 12, 2003

Mr. Udall of Colorado introduced the following bill; which was referred 
                     to the Committee on Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To direct the Secretary of the Interior to establish the Cooperative 
                    Landscape Conservation Program.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

     This Act may be cited as the ``Cooperative Landscape Conservation 
Act''.

SEC. 2. PURPOSE.

     The purpose of this Act is to establish a program administered by 
the Secretary of the Interior to provide matching grants to certain 
eligible entities to facilitate the acquisition of permanent 
conservation easements on lands in order to conserve wildlife, 
fisheries, public recreation, open space, and other important 
conservation values where consistent with the continuation of 
traditional uses of those lands by private landowners.

SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COOPERATIVE LANDSCAPE PROTECTION PROGRAM.

    (a) Establishment.--The Secretary of the Interior shall establish 
and carry out a program, to be known as the Cooperative Landscape 
Conservation Program, under which the Secretary, subject to the 
availability of appropriations, shall provide grants to eligible 
entities to provide the Federal share of the cost of acquiring 
permanent conservation easements on private lands that provide 
important wildlife, fisheries, public recreation, open space, or other 
conservation benefits to the public, for the purpose of preventing the 
loss of those benefits due to development that is inconsistent with the 
traditional uses of the land.
    (b) Application for Easements.--To request a grant under this 
section, an eligible entity shall submit an application that--
            (1) describes the property that will be subject to the 
        easement and the conservation benefits that will result from 
        acquiring the easement; and
            (2) demonstrates how the traditional use of the property 
        will be maintained.
    (c) Priority.--In providing grants under this section, the 
Secretary shall give priority to grants to acquire easements that--
            (1) are in areas where rapid population growth and 
        increasing land values are creating development pressures that 
        threaten traditional use of land and the ability to maintain 
        open space; and
            (2) in comparison to other easements for which grant 
        applications are submitted under this section in the same year, 
        will provide the greatest conservation benefit for wildlife, 
        fish, natural resources, or open space while maintaining the 
        traditional use of land.
    (d) Cost Sharing.--
            (1) Federal share.--The Federal share of the cost of 
        acquiring a conservation easement with a grant under this 
        section may not exceed 50 percent of the total cost of 
        acquiring the easement.
            (2) In-kind contributions.--Subject to such reasonable 
        conditions as the Secretary may establish, the Secretary shall 
        apply to the non-Federal share of the cost of such acquisition 
        the value of any land, interest in land, good, or service 
        applied to that acquisition.
    (e) Title; Enforcement.--Title to a conservation easement acquired 
with a grant under this section may be held and enforced only by an 
eligible entity.
    (f) State Certification.--As a condition of the receipt by an 
eligible entity of a grant under subsection (a), the attorney general 
of the State in which the conservation easement is to be acquired using 
the grant funds must certify that the conservation easement to be 
acquired is in a form that is sufficient, under the laws of the State, 
to achieve the conservation purposes of the easement and the terms and 
conditions of the grant.
    (g) Technical Assistance.--The Secretary may not use more than 10 
percent of the amount that is available for any fiscal year to carry 
out this Act to provide technical assistance to carry out this section.
    (h) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Eligible entity.--The term ``eligible entity'' means--
                    (A) an agency of a State or local government;
                    (B) a federally recognized Indian tribe; or
                    (C) any organization that is organized for, and at 
                all times since its formation has been operated 
                principally for, one or more of the conservation 
                purposes specified in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) of 
                section 170(h)(4)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code of 
                1986 and--
                            (i) is described in section 501(c)(3) of 
                        the Code;
                            (ii) is exempt from taxation under section 
                        501(a) of the Code; and
                            (iii)(I) is described in paragraph (2) of 
                        section 509(a) of the Code; or
                            (II) is described in paragraph (3) of such 
                        section, but is controlled by an organization 
                        described in paragraph (2) of such section.
            (2) Traditional use.--The term ``traditional use'' means 
        the uses of land that are in practice at the time of the 
        submission of an application for a grant under this section.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

     There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of the 
Interior to carry out this Act $100,000,000 for each of the fiscal 
years 2004 through 2009.
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