[Public Land Statistics, 1996]
[Part 1 - LAND RESOURCES AND INFORMATION]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]


Part 1--LAND RESOURCES AND INFORMATION


The total area of the 50 States is 2.3 billion acres.  The Federal Government
has, at various times in U.S. history, held title to about 80 percent of the
Nation's total area (Table 1-1).  Today, Federal civil and defense agencies
administer about 660 million acres, or about 29 percent of the total area
(Table 1-3).

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the custodian of the public lands
records for the United States Government.  Over the years, the BLM has
developed a land records system using a microfilming process.  BLM is now in
the process of automating land records.  Automation will streamline the BLM's
responses to public inquiries, facilitate processing applications and permits,
improve access to land records and resource data, ensure accuracy and
consistency of data, and improve planning, tracking, and evaluation of uses on
the public lands.

The BLM also has National responsibility for legal identification of all
Federal land boundaries and the maintenance of the Public Land Survey System.
Cadastral surveys are an integral component of land title for the Federal
government, including the Alaska land conveyance program. BLM's 1994 and 1995
survey emphasis supported land and realty actions (i.e., land
exchanges/acquisition, trespass abatement) and boundary surveys of various
special land management designations such as Wilderness, Wild and Scenic
Rivers, and National Conservation  Areas.

The BLM has exclusive jurisdiction for about 40 percent, or 264 million acres,
of the federally owned lands (Table 1-4). Approximately one-third of this area
is in the State of Alaska.  Other major land-holding agencies in the
Department of the Interior include the National Park Service, Fish and
Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Reclamation.

Up to the present, title to approximately 1.1 billion acres has been
transferred to individual citizens, businesses, and non-Federal governmental
organizations under Federal legal authority generally referred to as the "land
laws."  Substantial portions, amounting to over 287 million acres, have been
removed from Federal ownership under the authority of the Homestead Laws.
Another 328 million acres have been granted to States to help support public
schools, develop transportation systems, and promote general economic
development (Table 1-2).

In Western Oregon, an area of approximately 2.6 million acres comprises the
Oregon and California (O&C) revested lands (Table 1-5). Originally public
domain, this acreage was reconveyed and revested to the United States from
grants made to private concerns to construct the Oregon and California
Railroad and the Coos Bay Military Wagon Road.

Use of the public lands has changed throughout our Nation's history and
continues to evolve.  Originally viewed as the Great American Desert, these
lands over time came to be regarded primarily as a source of livestock forage,
timber, and energy and mineral resources.  Today, the public lands are valued
more and more for their environmental resources, the recreational
opportunities they offer, the cultural resources they contain, and, in an
increasingly urban world, their vast open spaces.



To meet today's changing and diverse demands, the BLM is changing its
management of the public lands. To maintain the health of the public lands,
the agency is taking a "big picture" or landscape approach to land management.
 This promotes both biological diversity on the public lands and sustainable
development of their resources. BLM's mandate under the Federal Land Policy
and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA) is to manage the public lands for multiple
use, while protecting the long-term health of the land.