OCR Text |
Show Over 179 million acres of the public domain have been reserved as national parks and national forests. Some, approximately 53.5 million acres, have been set aside for specific uses by the Department of Defense, Atomic Energy Commission, and other Federal agencies. In all cases the lands are still classed as part of the public domain for some purposes. The rest of the Federal lands have been acquired from non-Federal owners. Some 26 million acres have been acquired for inclusion in national forests and national wildlife refuges and another 29 million acres have been acquired for other purposes that are connected with or similar to those on which our review concentrated. The lands with which our review is concerned 20 are for the most part managed by four agencies of the Federal Government: the United States Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture, and the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service of the Department of the Interior. Smaller but significant acreages are administered by the military departments, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the Bureau of Reclamation.3 The Bureau of Land Management is responsible 3 The graph, Administration of Federal Lands by Agency, 1968, page 22, shows the proportion of public lands administered by each major agency. Areas administered by each agency are shown in Acreage of Lands Administered by Agency and State, Appendix F. |