Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 113 Part 3.djvu/175

 PUBLIC LAW 106-138—DEC. 7, 1999 113 STAT. 1693 Public Law 106-138 106th Congress An Act To provide for the conveyance of certain National Forest System lands in the Dec. 7, 1999 State of South Dakota. [H.R. 2079] Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, Terry Peak Land Transfer Act of SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1999. This Act may be cited as the "Terry Peak Land Transfer Act of 1999". SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. (a) FINDINGS. —Congress finds the following: (1) Certain National Forest System land located in the Black Hills National Forest in Lawrence County, South Dakota, is currently permitted to the Terry Peak Ski Area by the Secretary of Agriculture pursuant to section 3 of the National Forest Ski Area Permit Act of 1986 (16 U.S.C. 497b). (2) The National Forest System land comprises only 10 percent of the land at the Ski Area, with the remaining 90 percent located on private land owned by the Ski Area operator. (3) As the fractional Forest Service land holding at the Ski Area is also encumbered by ski lifts, ski trails, a base lodge parking lot and other privately owned improvements, it serves little purpose in continued public ownership, and can more logically be conveyed to the Ski Area to unify land management and eliminate permitting and other administrative costs to the United States. (4) The Ski Area is interested in acquiring the land from the United States, but the Secretary does not have administrative authority to convey such land in a nonsimultaneous land exchange absent specific authorization from Congress. (5) The Black Hills National Forest contains several small inholdings of undeveloped private land with multiple landowners which complicate National Forest land management and which can be acquired by the United States from willing sellers if acquisition funds are made available to the Secretary. (6) The proceeds from the Terry Peak conveyance can provide a modest, but readily available and flexible, funding source for the Secretary to acquire certain inholdings in the Black Hills National Forest from willing sellers, and given the small and scattered nature of such inholdings, and number of potential sellers involved, can do so more efficiently and quickly thsin through administrative land exchanges. (7) It is, therefore, in the public interest to convey the National Forest System land at Terry Peak to the Ski Area

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