16 U.S.C. § 485 : US Code - Section 485: Exchange of lands in national forests; cutting timber in national forests in exchange for lands therein

Search 16 U.S.C. § 485 : US Code - Section 485: Exchange of lands in national forests; cutting timber in national forests in exchange for lands therein

When the public interests will be benefited thereby, the
Secretary of Agriculture is authorized in his discretion to accept
on behalf of the United States title to any lands within the
exterior boundaries of the national forests which, in his opinion,
are chiefly valuable for national-forest purposes, and in exchange
therefor may patent not to exceed an equal value of such national-
forest land, in the same State, surveyed and nonmineral in
character, or he may authorize the grantor to cut and remove an
equal value of timber within the national forests of the same
State; the values in each case to be determined by him. Before any
such exchange is effected notice of the contemplated exchange
reciting the lands involved shall be published once each week for
four successive weeks in some newspaper of general circulation in
the county or counties in which may be situated the lands to be
accepted, and in some like newspaper published in any county in
which may be situated any lands or timber to be given in such
exchange. Timber given in such exchanges shall be cut and removed
under the laws and regulations relating to the national forests,
and under the direction and supervision and in accordance with the
requirements of the Secretary of Agriculture. Lands conveyed to the
United States under this section and section 486 of this title
shall, upon acceptance of title, become parts of the national
forest within whose exterior boundaries they are located.