manner possbile. This will be accomplished, where practicable, by the following procedures.

(a) Encouragement and assistance will be extended to State, county, and local governments in master planning and zoning. They will be encouraged to utilize the best modern techniques for quality land utilization, including preservation of natural beauty and open space values, and the prevention of uneconomic use and development of flood plains.

(b) Inclusion in patents of suitable conditions or restrictions on the use of the land, in those situations where a tract of land is suitable for disposal but has been evaluated as having a flood hazard potential which may cause economic loss to improvements or may endanger human life. If inclusion of needed conditions or restrictions in the deed are not permitted by law, the tract may be withheld from disposal to avoid, such losses.

(c) Participation of the public and consultation with local government will be invited in the formulation of plans for transfers of public lands.

(d) Timely and orderly identification and disposition of lands needed for urban or suburban purposes, or chiefly valuable for residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, or public purposes will be made.

(e) Practices and procedures will be utilized which will achieve appropriate dispositions with minimum administrative costs.

(f) Priorities will be established based upon availability of funds, urgency of needs for public lands, and resulting economies or effectiveness of Government operations.

§ 1725.2-1 Pricing policy.

The public land laws generally require as consideration for transfer of public lands out of Federal ownership, a fair return in the form of one or more of the following: Money, scrip, lands, or other property; development of the lands; or some public benefit, tangible or intangible. Where the law requires the Secretary to determine the return, such determination will be made in accordance with the following principles:

(a) Wherever the law does not provide otherwise, disposals to private permade at not less than fair market values for the interests conveyed and through competitive bidding.

sons and profit organizations will be (b) Transfers to States and local government agencies for commercial, or industrial purposes will be through negotiated sale at fair market values.

(c) Transfer of land to States and local government agencies and to nonprofit organizations to be developed for public purposes will be made at prices and other terms that will encourage and facilitate the accomplishment of the public purposes involved.

(d) Where development is required by law or regulation in lieu of less than full payment, there must be appropriate assurance that the development effort will be bona fide and substantial.

§ 1725.3 Management policy.

§ 1725.3-1 Priority of use for lands retained for multiple use management. No overall priority is assigned by the Classification and Multiple Use Act or by the Secretary to any specific use. The Secretary or his delegate will authorize, under applicable authority, that use or combination of uses which will best achieve the objectives of multiple use, taking into consideration all pertinent factors, including, but not limited to, ecology, existing uses, and the relative values of the various resources in particular areas.

§ 1725.3-3 Components of multiple use

management.

Section 1 of the Classification and Multiple Use Act lists ten objectives of public land management. The methods of management of the public lands will be governed by the provision of existing laws. The listed objectives as interpreted by the Secretary are as follows:

(a) Domestic livestock grazing. Management of public lands for domestic livestock grazing involves the protection, regulated use, and development of forage producing public lands and the management of livestock (cattle, sheep, horses, and goats) use to obtain a sustained yield of forage.

(b) Fish and wildlife development and utilization. Management of public lands for fish and wildlife development and utilization involves the protection, regulated use, and development of habitat on public lands and waters to obtain a sustained yield of fish and wildlife and provision and maintenance of public access to fish and wildlife resources.

(c) Industrial development. Management of public lands for industrial development involves the protection, regulated use, and development of public lands in a manner to facilitate the growth and stability of industry, whether off-site or on-site, long term or short term.

(d) Mineral production. Management of public lands for mineral production involves the protection, regulated use, and development of public lands in a manner to facilitate the extraction and processing of minerals, whether off-site or on-site, long term or short term.

(e) Occupancy. Management of public lands for occupancy involves the protection, regulated use, and development of lands as sites for economically and socially useful structures, either publicly or privately owned.

(f) Outdoor recreation. Management of public lands for outdoor recreation involves the protection, regulated use, and development of public lands having open-space values in a manner that will preserve those values and will make them available for appropriate recreation enjoyment by the public.

(g) Timber production. Management of public lands for timber production in

volves the protection, regulated use, and development of public forest and woodland areas to obtain a sustained yield of forest products.

Manage

(h) Watershed protection. ment of public lands for watershed protection involves the protection, regulated use, and development of any public lands in a manner to control runoff; to minimize soil erosion, siltation, and other destructive consequences of uncontrolled water flows; and to maintain and improve storage, yield, quality, and quantity of surface and subsurface waters.

(i) Wilderness preservation. Management of public lands for wilderness preservation involves the protection and regulated use of public lands which are in a roadless and primitive condition in a manner to preserve their essential wilderness character.

(j) Preservation of public values. Management of public land for preservation of public values that would be lost if the land passed from Federal ownership involves the protection, regulated use, and development of any public lands having unique or scarce characteristics or site values in a manner to insure their continued availability to the general public, either national or local, temporarily or permanently. It also involves the prevention of avoidable losses and damage, including avoidance of use and development which may require future expenditures for flood protection and flood damage relief.

Group 1800-Public Administrative Procedures

PART 1810-INTRODUCTION AND

1815.2

Application for relief.

Requirements for relief.

1815.1-4 Length of extension of time. Timber sale contracts-Disaster Relief Act of 1969.

1815.2-1 Relief granted.

1815.2-2 Disaster to which Act applies. 1815.2-3 Applications.

AUTHORITY: The provisions of this Part 1810 issued under R.S. 2478; 43 U.S.C. 1201, unless otherwise noted.

Subpart 1810-General Rules

SOURCE: The provisions of this Subpart 1810 appear at 35 F.R. 9513, June 13, 1970, unless otherwise noted.

§ 1810.1 Rules of construction; words and phrases.

Except where the context of the regulation or of the Act of the Congress on which it is based, indicates otherwise, when used in the regulations of this chapter:

(a) Words importing the singular include and apply to the plural also;

(b) Words importing the plural include the singular;

(c) Words importing the masculine gender include the feminine as well;

(d) Words used in the present tense include the future as well as the present;

(e) The words "person" and "whoever" include corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals;

(f) "Officer" and "authorized officer" include any person authorized by law or by lawful delegation of authority to perform the duties described;

(g) "Signature" or "subscription" includes a mark when the person making the same intended it as such;

(h) "Oath" includes "affirmation", and "sworn" includes "affirmed";

(i) "Writing" includes printing and typewriting as well as holographs, and "copies" include all types of reproductions on paper, including photographs, multigraphs, mimeographs and manifolds.

(j) The word “company” or “association", when used in reference to a corporation, shall be deemed to embrace the words "successors and assigns of such company or association”, in like manner as if these last-named words, or words of similar import, were expressed.

§ 1810.2

Communications by mail; when mailing requirements are met. (a) Where the regulations in this chapter provide for communication by mail by the authorized officer, the requirement for mailing is met when the communication, addressed to the addressee at his last address of record in the appropriate office of the Bureau of Land Management, is deposited in the mail.

(b) Where the authorized officer uses the mails to send a notice or other communication to any person entitled to such a communication under the regulations of this chapter, that person will be deemed to have received the communication if it was delivered to his last address of record in the appropriate office of the Bureau of Land Management, regardless of whether it was in fact received by him. An offer of delivery which cannot be consummated at such last address of record because the addressee had moved therefrom without leaving a forwarding address or because delivery was refused or because no such address exists will meet the requirements of this section where the attempt to deliver is substantiated by post office authorities.

§ 1810.3 Effect of laches; authority to bind government.

(a) The authority of the United States to enforce a public right or protect a public interest is not vitiated or lost by acquiescence of its officers or agents, or by their laches, neglect of duty, failure to act, or delays in the performance of their duties.

No person other than officers or employees of the Department of the Interior shall direct any inquiry to any employee of the Bureau with respect to any matter pending before it other than to the head of the unit in which the matter is pending, to a superior officer, or to an employee of the unit authorized by the unit head to answer inquiries.

Subpart 1813-Public Land Records

SOURCE: The provisions of this Subpart 1813 appear at 35 F.R. 9513, June 1970, unless otherwise noted.

§ 1813.1 Tract books and plats.

§ 1813.1-1 Notations to records.

(a) Notations shall be made on the tract books and plats of all applications

and entries of public lands, regardless of their character, in order that the status of a tract may be readily ascertained by the person exmining either tract book or plat, and the manager shall cause the proper notations to be made on the plats as well as on the tract books.

(b) All withdrawals, reservations, classifications, designations, and similar orders affecting the disposition of the land will be noted on the appropriate records.

§ 1813.1-2 Filing of township plats.

(a) After acceptance of a survey, the original plat thereof will be returned to the State Director, the duplicate plat will be retained in the files of the Bureau of Land Management in Washington, D.C., and the triplicate plat will be forwarded to the appropriate land office. The plat will be placed on record in the open files of the respective offices immediately upon receipt thereof and will then be available to the public as a matter of information only with respect to the technical data and descriptions appearing thereon; copies of such plat and the related field notes will be furnished upon request and payment of the costs as provided in § 2.4 of this title. When the manager of the land office is instructed to file the plat without the usual public notice, such plat will be regarded as officially filed in his office on the date of receipt.

(b) If public notice of the filing of the plat is to be given, the authorized officer shall prepare the notice for publication in the FEDERAL REGISTER.

§ 1813.2 Serial register. § 1813.2-1

Inspection of serial register.

The serial register is a public record and may be reasonably inspected by any person, provided such examination may be made without interfering with the orderly dispatch of public business. Should the manager ascertain that any person is obtaining information therefrom for improper purposes, he will deny such person further access thereto. § 1813.3

§ 1813.3-1

Production of records in court.
Statutory authority.

Whenever, pursuant to the act of April 19, 1904 (33 Stat. 186; 43 U.S.C. 13), the

manager shall be served with a subpena duces tecum or other valid legal process requiring him to produce, in any United States court or in any court of record of any State, the original application for entry of public lands or the final proof of residence and cultivation or any other original papers on file in the Bureau of Land Management on which a patent to land has been issued or which furnish the basis for such patent, it shall be the duty of such manager to at once notify the Director of the Bureau of Land Management of the service of such process, specifying the particular papers he is required to produce, and upon receipt of such notice from any manager the Director of the Bureau of Land Management shall at once transmit to such manager the original papers specified in such notice, and attach to such papers a certificate, under seal of his office, properly authenticating them as the original papers upon which patent was issued. The said act also provides that such papers so authenticated shall be received in evidence in all courts of the United States and in the several State courts of the States of the Union. (33 Stat. 186; 43 U.S.C. 13)

CROSS REFERENCE: For testimony of employees and use of books, records and files in judicial and administrative proceedings, see Part 2 of this title.

Subpart 1815-Disaster Relief

AUTHORITY: The provisions of this Subpart 1815 issued under secs. 2, 11, 80 Stat. 1316, 1321; 42 U.S.C. 1855aa, 1855gg.

SOURCE: The provisions of this Subpart 1815 appear at 35 F.R. 9514, June 13, 1970, unless otherwise noted.

§ 1815.0-3 Authority

Disaster Relief Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1855aa-1855ii) as supplemented by the Disaster Relief Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 1855ccc) [35 F.R. 15996, Oct. 10, 1970] § 1815.0-5 Definitions.

(a) Major disaster. As defined in section 2 of the Disaster Relief Act of 1966 (80 Stat. 1316), hereinafter called "the Act," "major disaster” means any flood, drought, fire, hurricane, earthquake, storm, or other catastrophe in any part

of the United States which, in the determination of the President, is or threatens to be of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant disaster assistance by the Federal Government to supplement the efforts and available resources of States and local governments in alleviating the damage, hardship, or suffering caused thereby, and respecting which the governor of any State (or the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia) in which such catastrophe may occur or threaten certifies the need for disaster assistance and shall give assurance of expenditure of a reasonable amount of the funds of the government of such State, local governments therein, or other agencies, for the same or similar purposes with respect to such catastrophe. § 1815.1 Extensions of time in public land matters.

§ 1815.1-1 Authority.

Section 11 of the Act (80 Stat. 1321) authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to grant an extension of time to the holder of any lease, license, permit, contract, or entry on lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management where a major disaster has impeded timely fulfilment of requirements and where rights of other parties will not be prejudiced by such relief.

§ 1815.1-2 Application for relief.

(a) Place of filing. The application shall be filed in the proper land office (see § 1821.2-1 of this chapter).

(b) Fees. Application for an extension of time under this subpart must be accompanied by a nonrefundable service fee of $10.

(c) Form of application. No special form of application is required. (d) Contents of application. An application for relief under this subpart shall state:

(1) The law under which the lease, license, permit, contract, or entry was issued.

(2) The date of issuance and any other identification number.

(3) The extent to which requirements had been fulfilled prior to the disaster. (4) The nature of the disaster.