Federal Land Exchange: Assessment of Mount Hood Land Appraisal	 
Reports (26-SEP-06, GAO-06-1135R).				 
                                                                 
In response to a Congressional request, we briefed Congressional 
staff on September 21, 2006, on the results of our review of two 
appraisal reports prepared for a proposed land exchange contained
within the pending bill H.R. 5025, the Mount Hood Stewardship	 
Legacy Act. This bill would authorize the exchange of private	 
land and business interests at Cooper Spur for Forest Service	 
land at Government Camp in Oregon. Specifically, Congress asked  
that we determine whether the appraisal reports supporting this  
land exchange were prepared in compliance with recognized	 
appraisal standards, namely, appraisal industry standards as	 
defined in the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal	 
Practices (USPAP) and federal standards as defined in the Uniform
Appraisal Standards for Federal Land Acquisitions (UASFLA).	 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-06-1135R					        
    ACCNO:   A61445						        
  TITLE:     Federal Land Exchange: Assessment of Mount Hood Land     
Appraisal Reports						 
     DATE:   09/26/2006 
  SUBJECT:   Appraisals 					 
	     Auditing standards 				 
	     Land management					 
	     Land transfers					 
	     Proposed legislation				 
	     Public lands					 

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GAO-06-1135R

     

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September 26, 2006

The Honorable Greg Walden

Chairman

Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health

Committee on Resources

House of Representatives

The Honorable Earl Blumenauer

House of Representatives

Subject: Federal Land Exchange: Assessment of Mount Hood Land Appraisal
Reports

In response to your request, we briefed you and your staff on September
21, 2006, on the results of our review of two appraisal reports prepared
for a proposed land exchange contained within the pending bill H.R. 5025,
the Mount Hood Stewardship Legacy Act. This bill would authorize the
exchange of private land and business interests at Cooper Spur for Forest
Service land at Government Camp in Oregon. Specifically, you asked that we
determine whether the appraisal reports supporting this land exchange were
prepared in compliance with recognized appraisal standards, namely,
appraisal industry standards as defined in the Uniform Standards of
Professional Appraisal Practices (USPAP) and federal standards as defined
in the Uniform Appraisal Standards for Federal Land Acquisitions (UASFLA).

To conduct this work, we contracted with two certified appraisers to
conduct separate and independent formal reviews of the Cooper Spur and
Government Camp appraisal reports and to provide their professional
opinions on whether these reports conform to the recognized industry and
federal appraisal standards. We asked the review appraisers to conduct a
desk review in accordance with appraisal standards, which consists of
reviewing the information and analyses contained within the reports, as
well as examining the internal logic and consistency. The appraisers did
not independently verify the data presented within the reports, visually
inspect the properties, or establish separate valuations of the
properties.

Both appraisers concluded that the Cooper Spur appraisal report did not
comply with the recognized standards, although they differed on whether
the Government Camp appraisal report complied with the standards. On the
basis of the review appraisers' reports and conclusions, we concluded that
the federal government has limited assurance that the Cooper Spur and
Government Camp appraisal reports reflect market value for the land and
business interests proposed for this exchange. We discussed our results
with the certified appraiser who prepared the appraisal reports and
considered his comments in preparing our final report. Enclosure I
provides the slides that we used in our briefing to you and your staff
members. We conducted this work from August 2006 through September 2006 in
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

United States Government Accountability Office

Washington, DC 20548

We are sending copies of this report to interested congressional
committees and members, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Chief of the
Forest Service, and other interested parties. We will also make copies
available to others on request. In addition, this report will be available
at no charge on the GAO Web site at http://www.gao.gov. Should you or your
staff have any questions, please contact me at (202) 512-3841 or by e-mail
at [email protected]. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional
Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this report.
Key contributors to this briefing include David P. Bixler, Assistant
Director; Nathan Anderson; Ellen W. Chu; Richard Johnson; and Arvin Wu.

Robin M. Nazzaro Director, Natural Resources and Environment

Enclosure

    Federal Land Exchange: Assessment of Mount Hood Land Appraisals Reports

(360753)

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