H.R. 718 — Public Lands in Public Hands Act

This section defines the term “publicly accessible tract” as a tract of federal land managed by the Secretary of the Interior or the Chief of the Forest Service that can be accessed by public road, public trail, public waterway, public easement, or public right-of-way.

This section prohibits the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture from transferring title to Federal land to a non-Federal entity if the land is a publicly accessible tract or contiguous with (1) a publicly accessible tract or (2) publicly accessible land owned by a state, county, or municipal government. Exceptions apply to (1) transfers of Federal land that is less than 300 acres—or less than 5 acres and accessible via public waterway—authorized under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA); (2) transfers authorized by specified laws, including the Sisk Act (16 U.S.C. 479a, which authorizes conveyance of up to 80 acres of National Forest System land to public school districts for educational purposes), the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act of 1998, the Small Tract Act of 1983, the Recreation and Public Purposes Act, and others; (3) transfers explicitly authorized by Federal law; and (4) land exchanges authorized by Federal law. The section further prohibits the Secretaries from subdividing Federal land to meet the acreage minimums in the FLPMA exception.