16 U.S.C. § 521e

Small parcels and road rights-of-way

Read at: OLRCuscode.house.gov CornellLII GovInfogovinfo.gov JustiaTitle 16 CasesGoogle Scholar

The National Forest System lands which may be sold, exchanged, or interchanged under sections 521c to 521i of this title are those the sale or exchange of which is not practicable under any other authority of the Secretary, which have a value as determined by the Secretary of not more than $500,000, and which are—(1) parcels of forty acres or less which are interspersed with or adjacent to lands which have been transferred out of Federal ownership under the mining laws and which are determined by the Secretary, because of location or size, not to be subject to efficient administration;(2) parcels of ten acres or less which are encroached upon by improvements occupied or used under claim or color of title by persons to whom no advance notice was given that the improvements encroached or would encroach upon such parcels, and who in good faith relied upon an erroneous survey, title search, or other land description indicating that there was not such encroachment;(3) road rights-of-way, reserved or acquired, which are substantially surrounded by lands not owned by the United States and which are no longer needed by the United States, subject to the first right of abutting landowners to acquire such rights-of-way;(4) parcels of 40 acres or less that are determined by the Secretary—(A) to be physically isolated from other Federal land;(B) to be inaccessible; or(C) to have lost National Forest character;(5) parcels of 10 acres or less that are not eligible for conveyance under paragraph (2) but are encroached on by a permanent habitable improvement for which there is no evidence that the encroachment was intentional or negligent; or(6) parcels used as a cemetery (including a parcel of not more than 1 acre adjacent to the parcel used as a cemetery), a landfill, or a sewage treatment plant under a special use authorization issued or otherwise authorized by the Secretary.(Pub. L. 97–465, § 3, Jan. 12, 1983, 96 Stat. 2535; Pub. L. 115–334, title VIII, § 8621(a), (b), Dec. 20, 2018, 132 Stat. 4852.)Editorial NotesAmendments

2018—Pub. L. 115–334, § 8621(a), substituted “$500,000” for “$150,000” in introductory provisions.

Pars. (4) to (6). Pub. L. 115–334, § 8621(b), added pars. (4) to (6).

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 3 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 2016–2025 · leading case: United States Forest Serv. v. Cowpasture River Pres. Assn., 140 S. Ct. 1837 (2020).

Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment

United States Forest Serv. v. Cowpasture River Pres. Assn., 140 S. Ct. 1837 (2020). “, 16 U.S.C. § 521e(3) (providing that certain "rights-of-way" are "lands"); Black's Law Dictionary 1587 (11th ed.”

Johnson v. USA (9th Cir. 2025). · cites it 2× “See 16 U.S.C. § 521e(2). Johnson disputed the Forest Service’s decision, arguing that the corrals were not “authorized range improvements” and should be considered for sale.”

Robert Luciano, Jr. v. United States, 667 F. App'x 278 (9th Cir. 2016). “” 16 U.S.C. § 521e. The party seeking the boundary adjustment must have had “no advance notice .”

— 16 U.S.C. § 521e(2) — 1 case

Johnson v. USA (9th Cir. 2025). “See 16 U.S.C. § 521e(2). Johnson disputed the Forest Service’s decision, arguing that the corrals were not “authorized range improvements” and should be considered for sale.”

— 16 U.S.C. § 521e(3) — 1 case

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.