KRAI - Tipton Introduces Protection for Private Land Owners from Feds

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By Unknown

Congressman Scott Tipton (R-CO) has introduced two pieces of legislation to protect private landowners from federal land management agency errors, and increase transparency in federal land exchanges and acquisitions. In 2009, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) conducted a resurvey of federal land in Mesa County. The BLM initiates resurveys under the guise that existing boundary lines were inaccurately drawn during the initial survey, which in some instances may have occurred over fifty years ago. The resurvey resulted in the reclassification of land, originally thought to be owned by a private owner as federal land. The BLM charged that individual with trespassing and the illegal removal of sand and gravel from federal lands, which resulted in a fine of over $250,000. Tipton says other private landowners, around the nation and in Colorado face similar situations-forced to relinquish property, believed to be their own, on which they have lived and worked on for generations, and without any just compensation, due to BLM land resurveys. H.R. 5075, the Resurveys Entitle Adjacent Landowners to Protection (REAL Protection) Act would create a more transparent and equitable process of conducting resurveys and advances the rights of landowners by providing safeguards against BLM actions. Tipton also introduced H.R. 5074, the Land Adjacency Notification and Disclosure (LAND) Act, which seeks to improve the transparency, oversight and notification of land exchanges involving U.S. Forest Service (USFS) lands or public lands under the jurisdiction of the BLM. You can view the full text of each proposal by clicking the links below.

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