The Bureau of Land Management has taken a major step toward restarting a popular federal lands purchase and exchange program that Congress allowed to lapse more than a decade ago.
BLM this week finalized the criteria it will use to determine which state or private lands it purchases from willing sellers under the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act.
The law, which Congress permanently reauthorized in 2018 after it lapsed seven years earlier, allows BLM, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and the Forest Service to use the proceeds obtained from the sale or exchange of surplus federal lands to states, local governments and private entities to purchase private lands, such as inholdings inside national monuments.
BLM on Tuesday outlined the criteria for land purchases under the law. Doing so is one of the last procedural steps for the bureau to begin using its proceeds from the sale of surplus federal lands to make these purchases.
