FAYETTEVILLE — You may own land, but does the federal government own what’s underneath?
A significant portion of federally owned land in the U.S. is located out West. For instance, of the 53.5 million acres in Idaho that make up its land mass, 34.5 million, or nearly 65 percent, are federally-owned, according to the Idaho Department of Lands. While landowners may have rights to what’s on the surface, the area below may belong to the government if the land is a federal-private split estate.
A session at the 3rd Annual Western Water, Agricultural, and Environmental Law Conference will detail federal-private split estates, particularly those existing under the Stock-Raising Homestead Act of 1916, or SRHA. Holland and Hart LLP Associate Katy DeVries Riker, who specializes in environmental and natural resource law, will lead the session, titled, “Federal-Private Split Estate: Considerations for Living and Operating on Stock-Raising Homestead Act Lands.”
resulted in millions of acres of public lands being privatized.
“While the SRHA provided homesteaders with the ability to own and occupy the land’s surface, it severed and reserved what’s below the surface – or the mineral estate – to the U.S.,” Riker said. “It’s had a tremendous impact on our country and how landowners are allowed to operate, especially in the Western U.S. It is still a topic that raises many questions for those who live and run their agricultural operations on these lands.”
