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Welcome to the Lands and Realty Management website.

SPOTLIGHTS:

• Forest Service AGOL Land Status and Encumbrance Viewer
• The US Forest Service LWCF Map Service Viewer
• Multi-Agency LWCF Projects Service Viewer
• Release of Wind Energy Directives
• Rocky Mountain Front Mineral Withdrawal Area Map
• Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009 - Maps
• Weeks Act Centennial
• Pronunciation Guide for National Forests and Grasslands
• Establishment and Modifications of National Forest Boundaries and National Grasslands 1891 to 2012

About Map Viewers : The Status and Encumbrance Map View provides the most up to date Forest Service lands status information, including current NFS lands ownership data, regional and forest boundaries, and National Forest survey information.  These data are updated on a weekly basis.-

Please Note : You can create a shortcut to the Map Service Viewers listed above on your desktop. Here is how. If you are using IE 8,9, 11, Chrome or Firefox:

Our Mission

The Lands and Realty Management Program secures and protects the American public's rights, title, value, and interests in its national forests and grasslands and authorizes a variety of uses on those lands to meet the needs of present and future generations.

Our Goal

More than 192 million acres of public land are managed as national forests and grasslands. The protection of these lands and resources is a fundamental Forest Service responsibility. Through direct land management practices, the Lands and Realty Management program enables the agency to better manage federal lands within or adjacent to National Forest System (NFS) boundaries and deliver the necessary products and services that are essential for enhancing natural resource stewardship and providing for the public's enjoyment, future use, and access to NFS lands

Some of the uses and activities we facilitate include:

• Purchasing land to protect critical resource areas and provide increased public recreation opportunities
• Authorizing powerlines to provide electricity to a community
• Ensuring that a hydro-electric project protects riparian areas on the National Forest
• Exchanging and conveying lands to achieve a desired national forest landownership pattern that supports forest land and resource goals and objectives
• Conveying administrative sites to allow the agency to realign and enhance its asset portfolio
• Surveying national forest boundaries to identify and protect private and public lands
• Determining the market value of lands purchased, exchanged, or conveyed
• Authorizing a right-of-way for a road to a private home within the forest
• Accepting donations of land to protect archeological or historical sites
• Maintaining records of national forest land areas, land transactions, land status, permitted uses, and easements
• Securing public road and trail access to existing national forest system lands

For details about a specific location or area of interest, please contact your local Forest Service Office.

Find a contact in the Washington Office Lands Staff directory for a question about an agency-wide program or issue. For Land Adjustment contact information please contact the WO or Regional Land Adjustment Staffs.

The WO-Lands Automated Lands Program (ALP) provides annual acreage data to the FS Albuquerque Service Center (ASC) Budget & Finance staff for the purpose of computing All Service Receipts (ASR) revenue sharing payments to states and counties. ALP also provides the Department of the Interior (DOI) with an annual accounting of NFS acres subject to Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT). PILT acreage data is used to compute Federal payments to local governments to help offset losses in property taxes due to non-taxable Federal lands within their boundaries. Geospatial datasets depicting the annual ASR and PILT acreage data are now available for download here.

Land Areas of the National Forest System is the link to the latest statistics available on land areas administered by the Forest Service.

Print versions of the Mission and Goal statement are available in two file formats: PDF file or text only version. Note: You will need Adobe Reader (available free of charge from the Adobe website) to open the PDF file.