Public Lands

1. Public Lands • Lands owned by governments • They are not accidents of history • They reflect the decisions we, collectively, have made to produce particular goods and services • from lands owned by the federal government, rather than • from lands owned by the state governments, or • from lands owned privately, by individuals, or organizations

2. A Paradigm for Landscape • Public Acquisition of Private Rights Public Coercion of Private Rights • Fee title Regulation • Partial title –easement Financial coercion – taxes, loans, grants • Infrastructure – public works, public records • Information • Public Land Private Land

3. A Paradigm for Public Lands

4. Minnesota Recreation

5. Commercial Timberland in Minnesota

7. Federal Lands • Since the objective of federal domestic policy was to privatize the nation's land surface • Why does the federal government still possess title to approximately one third of it? • Remember • In the eighteenth & nineteenth centuries • individuals migrated into a largely uninhabited • continental interior in response to federal policy • aimed at creating and promoting private • landownership

8. Land Ownership in Minnesota

9. Federal Public lands • Various definitions • Any land or interest in land owned by the United States without regard to how the United States acquired ownership • Excludes • lands located on the Outer Continental Shelf • lands held for the benefit of Indians, Aleuts, and Eskimos • Public domain lands, lands that either • never left federal ownership or • have been acquired in exchange for public domain lands or for the timber on public domain lands • B. Acquired lands – lands that were acquired • voluntarily – purchase, donation, exchange • involuntarily – condemnation or forfeiture

10. The current situation: the result of the decisions that have been made

11. General Resources • Public Land Statistics (Bureau of Land Management) • Land Areas Report (Forest Service) • Real Property. General Services Administration • A Public Lands Journey (American Frontiers) • Recreation.gov (Recreation One-Stop E-Gov ) • The Evolution of the Conservation Movement (Library of Congress) • History of the US Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuge System • How and why to privatize federal lands (Cato Institute) • Should Congress transfer federal lands to the states? (Cato Institute)

12. 1796-1934 Privatizing land the principal objective • 1796-1812  Early attempts to privatize land under Congressional supervision • 1812-1946  Privatizing land - the federal real estate agency the General Land Office • 1812-1862  Land as a source of revenue • 1862-1934  Land as a subsidy for settlement - homestead, railways, etc

13. Reservations • 1872 Yellowstone National Park established • 1891 President authorized to reserve forest land still in federal ownership • part of the debate about repealing some of the privatization statutes • Thomas Donaldson The Public Domain (1880) • 1906 President authorized to protect antiquities on federal land

14. 1796-1934 Privatizing land the principal objective • 1911  Weeks Act, allowing the USDA to acquire privately owned cutover forestland for watershed purposes • 1924  Clarke-McNary Act, allowing the USDA to acquire cutover forestland for forestry demonstration purposes • 1934 The Taylor Grazing Act ending privatization in general • 1946 The Bureau of Land Management established as successor to the General Land Office • to manage lands owned by the federal government not managed by other federal agencies – National Park Service, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service • 261 million acres of land, primarily in the 12 Western States and Alaska

15. Conveyed to Individuals Homestead 287,500,000 Military bounties 61,000,000 Private land claims 34,000,000 Timber and stone    13,900,000 Timber culture 10,900,000 Desert land 10,700,000 Railroad corporations  94,400,000 Miscellaneous  303,500,000 Grand Total  1,144,380,000 Conveyed to States Schools 77,630,000 Swampland 64,920,000 Railroads 37,130,000 Other institutions  21,700,000 Miscellaneous 117,600,000 Canals and rivers 6,100,000 Wagon roads 3,400,000 Total to States  328,480,000 Gross Statistics

16. Rural Uses National Park System National Forests National Grasslands Wilderness Areas National Wildlife Refuges Dams and Reservoirs Army Corps of Engineers Bureau of Reclamation Urban Uses Federal Courthouses Customs & Immigration Posts Post Offices Flood Control Structures The Minneapolis Federal Reserve Building VA Hospitals EPA laboratories Fort Snelling National Cemetery Bureau of Mines property Federal Buildings in Minnesota (GSA) Major Uses of Federal Land

17. Federal Land Management Agencies • Approximately 650 million acres of land (28% of the nation's surface area) are owned by the federal government • Federal government once owned as much as 80% of the surface area but disposed of 1.1 billion acres to individuals, corporations, and states • Four agencies manage 96% of the federal land • The USDA Forest Service (1905) • The DoI National Park Service (1916) • The DoI Fish and Wildlife Service (1940) • The DoI Bureau of Land Management (1946) • Each of these agencies possesses its own mission and responsibilities for managing the lands, and their resources, under its jurisdiction • Each has acquired title to land throughout its existence

18. National Forests, National Parks, National Grasslands, National Wildlife Refuges

19. Disposing of Military Bases

20. American Indian Reservations

21. The Department of the Interior manages 445 million surface acres, including 56 million acres of lands held in trust for American Indians • Many of these lands are managed as separate units, including • 379 national parks • 74 national monuments • 521 wildlife refuges • 742 dams • 57,000 buildings • 3 billion acres of Outer Continental Shelf lands • The Bureau of Land Management manages 264 million acres of land, almost 12% nation’s total surface area and about 40% of all federal lands, land primarily located in the 11 western states and Alaska

22. Question of Jurisdiction • Nowhere comprehensively compiled • Article 1 Section 8 (Jurisdictional clause) • The Congress shall have Power to exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases • whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by • Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat • of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all • Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the • Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and • other needful Buildings

23. Question of Jurisdiction • Article IV Section 3 (Property clause) • The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and • Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United • States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any • Claims of the United States, or of any particular State

24. Minnesota Statutes 1.042 (Laws 1943 c 343) • Subdivision 1. The consent of the State of Minnesota is given in accordance with the Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 8, Clause 17, to the acquisition by the United States in any manner of any land or right or interest in land in this state required for sites for customs houses, courthouses, hospitals, sanitariums, post offices, prisons, reformatories, jails, forestry depots, supply houses, or offices, aviation fields or stations, radio stations, military or naval camps, bases, stations, arsenals, depots, terminals, cantonments, storage places, target ranges, or any other military or naval purpose of the United States • Subd. 3. Conditions and reservations. The right of the state to cause its civil and criminal process to be executed in any ceded land or place is reserved to the state.  The state also reserves the right to impose the following taxes ....

26. Minnesota jurisdiction on the Lands • Minnesota Statutes 1.041 (Laws 1943 c 343) • Except as otherwise expressly provided, the jurisdiction of the United States • over any land or other property in this state owned for national purposes is • concurrent with and subject to the jurisdiction and right of the state to cause its • civil and criminal process to be executed there, to punish offenses against its • laws committed there, and to protect, regulate, control, and dispose of any • property of the state there

27. Minnesota cession of jurisdiction • Minnesota Statutes 1.045 (Laws 1943 c 343) • Consent of the State of Minnesota is given to the acquisition by the United States • in any manner authorized by act of Congress of lands lying within the original • boundaries of the Chippewa National Forest and the Superior National Forest for • any purpose incident to the development or maintenance of those forests, • subject to concurrent jurisdiction of the state and the United States as defined in • section 1.041

28. Piecemeal acquisition of the lands, piecemeal acquisition of jurisdiction • Voyageurs National Park • Federal Legislation (Pub. L. 91–661, Jan. 8, 1971, 84 Stat. 1970; 16 USC 160 et seq) • Minnesota Statutes 84B.061 (Laws 1995 c.124) • Minnesota Statutes 1.045  (Laws 1995 c.124)

29. Federal lands comprise two groups • Lands the federal government has always owned – lands that were never sold or granted to individuals, corporations, or states • never offered under the federal land statutes – surveyed after 1891 when the President was authorized to establish forest reserves and subsequently reserved as forests, parks, monuments, wildlife refuges • never acquired by individuals, corporations, or states – considered "worthless" • B. Lands that the federal government reacquired after having conveyed them to individuals, corporations, or states • acquired voluntarily – by purchases, exchanges, donations • acquired involuntarily – by condemnation, confiscation, bankruptcy proceedings

30. Federal Forest Lands • Weeks Act 1911 • Clark-McNary Act 1924 amended the Weeks Act, expanding it to allow the Forest Service to purchase lands needed to produce timber and to enter into agreements with the states to protect state owned and private lands against fire • Also continued the cooperative relationships with nonfederal forestry programs formalized by the Weeks Act • CONGRESSIONAL RECORD— Extensions of Remarks E1044

31. Federal Forest Lands

32. Lands Managed by the US Forest Service

33. Federal Forest Lands • US Forest Service • Superior National Forest • Chippewa National Forest • Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness • Chronology of Historical Actions for Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness within Minnesota’s Superior National Forest (House Research) • State-owned land in BWCAW

34. National Park Service in Minnesota • 16 US Code National Parks, Military Parks, Monuments and Seashores • Voyageurs National Park (16 USC 160 et seq) • Wild and Scenic Rivers Legislation (1968) • St. Croix National Scenic Riverway (1968) • Lower St. Croix (1972) • Mississippi National River & Recreation Area (1988) • Pipestone NM (1937) • Grand Portage NM (1958) • North Country National Scenic Trail (1980) • Park Histories

35. Chronology of the National Parks

36. Voyageurs National Park • Contains 218,054 acres - 134,265 acres of land and 83,789 acres of water • Authorized on January 8, 1971 (16 USC 160 et seq) • The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to establish the Voyageurs National Park in the State of Minnesota, by publication of notice to that effect in the Federal Register at such time as the Secretary deems sufficient interests in lands or waters have been acquired for administration …. • Formally established on April 8 1975 (40 FR 15921) • National Park Service Site • Voyageurs National Park Association • Snowmobile Restrictions in Voyageurs NP • Minnesota Statutes 2007 • The Political Geography of National Parks (Pacific History Review 2004)

37. St Croix Wild & Scenic River • Upper St Croix authorized in Wild & Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 (16 USC 1271 et seq) • The Lower St. Croix River added in 1972 • National Park Service Site • Time and the River: A History of the St. Croix (Karamansky, 2002) • Endangered? The Scenic St. Croix • St. Croix River Crossing (Minnesota DoT)

38. US Fish & Wildlife Service in Minnesota • National Wildlife Refuge Legislation • Upper Mississippi Fish & Wildlife Refuge • Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge • Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge Protection Act of 1999 • Impact of Airport Expansion on the Minnesota Valley NWR (House Committee on Resources)

39. Land Acquisition Planning (USF&WS)