Sec. 401. Management of covered land
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/bill/117/hr/8601/ih/section-401A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Except in cases in which motorized vehicles are needed for administrative purposes or to respond to an emergency, the use of motorized vehicles in the covered land shall be permitted only on designated routes. Except as necessary for administrative purposes, protection of public health and safety, or providing reasonable access to private property, the Secretary shall not construct any permanent or temporary road within the covered land after the date of enactment of this Act.
Subject to valid existing rights, all public land within the covered land, including any land or interest in land that is acquired by the United States within the covered land after the date of enactment of this Act, is withdrawn from— entry, appropriation or disposal under the public land laws; location, entry, and patent under the mining laws; and operation of the mineral leasing, mineral materials, and geothermal leasing laws, except as provided in section 102(e). Any acquisition of land or interests in land under this Act shall be only by purchase from willing sellers, donation, or exchange.
The Secretary shall issue and administer any grazing leases or permits and trailing permits and administer allotments in the covered land in accordance with the laws (including regulations) applicable to the issuance and administration of leases and permits on other land under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management or Forest Service, as applicable. To ensure reasonable use and enjoyment of private property (whether in existence on the date of enactment of this Act or in an improved state), the Secretary shall grant reasonable and feasible access through the covered land to any private property that is located within or adjacent to the covered land, if other routes to the private property are blocked by physical barriers, such as the Dolores River or the cliffs of the Dolores River.
The Secretary may lease or acquire easements on private land from willing lessors, donors, or sellers for recreation, access, conservation, or other permitted uses, to the extent necessary to fulfill the purposes of the Conservation Area or Special Management Area, as applicable. The Secretary may take any measures that the Secretary determines to be necessary to control fire, insects, and diseases in the covered land (including, as the Secretary determines to be appropriate, the coordination of the measures with the State or a local agency).
The Secretary shall manage the areas of the Conservation Area and Special Management Area identified on the Map as Ponderosa Gorge in a manner that maintains the wilderness character of those areas as of the date of enactment of this Act. Subject to paragraph (3), in the areas described in paragraph (1), the following activities shall be prohibited: New permanent or temporary road construction or the renovation of nonsystem roads in existence on the date of enactment of this Act.
The use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment, or mechanical transport, except as necessary to meet the minimum requirements for the administration of the Federal land, to protect public health and safety, or to conduct ecological restoration activities to improve the aquatic habitat of the Dolores River channel. Projects undertaken for the purpose of harvesting commercial timber (other than activities relating to the harvest of merchantable products that are byproducts of activities conducted for ecological restoration or to further the purposes of this Act).
Nothing in this subsection affects the operation, maintenance, or location of the utility right-of-way within the corridor, as depicted on the Map. Nothing in this Act prohibits the Secretary from issuing a new permit and right-of-way within the covered land for a width of not more than 150 feet for a right-of-way that serves a transmission line in existence on the date of enactment of this Act, on the condition that the Secretary shall relocate the right-of-way in a manner that furthers the purposes of this Act.
Subject to such terms and conditions as the Secretary may require, nothing in this Act precludes the installation and maintenance of hydrologic, meteorological, or climatological collection devices in the covered land if the facilities and access to the facilities are essential to public safety, flood warning, flood control, water reservoir operation activities, or the collection of hydrologic data for water resource management purposes.