Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 112 Part 4.djvu/355

 PUBLIC LAW 105-277—OCT. 21, 1998 112 STAT. 2681-326 Subtitle D—Funding SEC. 551. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 16 USC 460///- 61 (a) AGRICULTURE.— T here are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Agriculture such sums as are necessary to— (1) permit the Secretary to exercise administrative jurisdiction over the Recreation Area under this title; and (2) administer the Recreation Area 2U"ea as a unit of the National Forest System. (b) INTERIOR.— T here are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of the Interior such sums as are necessary to carry out activities within the Recreation Area. TITLE VI INTERSTATE 90 LAND EXCHANGE ACT Interstate 90 Land Exdiange SEC. 601. SHORT TITLE. Act of 1998. 16 USC 539k This Act may be cited as the "Interstate 90 Land Exchange note. Act of 1998". SEC. 602. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. (a) FINDINGS.— Congress finds that— (1) certain parcels of private land located in central and southwest Washington are intermingled with National Forest System land owned by the United States and administered by the Secretary of A^culture as parts of the Mt. Baker- Snoqualmie National Forest, Wenatchee National Forest, and Gififord Pinchot National Forest; (2) the private land surface estate and some subsurface is owned by the Plum Creek Timber Company, L.P. in an intermingled checkerboard pattern, with the United States or Plum Creek owning alternate square mile sections of land or fractions of square mile sections; (3) the checkerboard land ownership pattern in the area has frustrated sound and efficient land management on both private and National Forest lands by complicating fish and vdldlife habitat meinagement, watershed protection, recreation use, road construction and timber harvest, boundary administration, and protection and management of threatened and endangered species and old growth forest habitat; (4) acquisition by the United States of certain parcels of land that have been offered by Plum Creek for addition to the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and Wenatchee National Forest will serve important public objectives, including— (A) enhancement of public access, aesthetics and recreation opportunities within or near areas of very heavy public recreational use including— (i) the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area; (ii) the Pacific Crest Trail; (iii) Snoqualmie Pass; (iv) Cle Elum Lake, Kachess Lake and Keechulus Lake; and (v) other popular recreation areas along the Interstate 90 corridor east of the Seattle-Tacoma Metropolitan Area;

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