STAT. 3156
16 USC 1131 note.
Regulations.
Study.
Public lands.
16 USC 1131. 43 USC 1702.
PUBLIC LAW 98-603—OCT. 30, 1984
regulations, policies, and practices as the Secretary of the Interior deems necessary, as long as such regulations, policies, and practices fully conform with and implement the intent of Congress regarding grazing in such areas as such intent is expressed in the Wilderness Act and this Act. SEC. 103. (a) In recognition of its paramount aesthetic, natural, scientific, educational, and paleontological values, the approximately two thousand seven hundred and twenty acre area in the Albuquerque District of the Bureau of Land Management, New Mexico, known as the "Fossil Forest", as generally depicted on a map entitled "Fossil Forest", dated June 1983, is hereby withdrawn, subject to valid existing rights, from all forms of appropriation under the mining laws and from disposition under all laws pertaining to mineral leasing and geothermal leasing and all amendments thereto. The Secretary of the Interior shall administer the area in accordance with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and shall take such measures as are necessary to ensure that no activities are permitted within the area which would significantly disturb the land surface or impair the area's existing natural, educational, and scientific research values, including paleontological study, excavation, and interpretation. (b) Within one year of the date of enactment of this Act the Secretary of the Interior shall promulgate rules and regulations for the administration of the Fossil Forest area referred to in subsection (a) in accordance with the provisions of this Act and shall file a copy of such rules and regulations with the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs of the United States House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the United States Senate. (c) The Bureau of Land Management is hereby directed to conduct a long-range study of the Fossil Forest to determine how best to manage the area's resource values identified in section 103(a) of this Act. Within eight years of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall forward the study results and management plan for the area to Congress. During the study period and until Congress determines otherwise, the Fossil Forest area shall be managed under the provisions of this Act. SEC. 104. (a) The Secretary of the Interior shall exchange such public lands or interest in such lands, mineral or nonmineral, as are of approximately equal value and selected by the State of New Mexico, acting through its commissioner of public lands, for any State lands or interest therein, mineral or nonmineral, located within the boundaries of any of the tracts designated as wilderness under section 2. For the purpose of this section, the term public lands shall have the same meaning as defined in section 103(c) of the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act of 1976. (b) Within one hundred and twenty days of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Interior shall give notice to the New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands of the tracts to be designated as wilderness pursuant to section 102 of this Act and of the Secretary's duty to exchange public lands selected by the State for any State land contained within the boundaries of the designated wilderness areas. Such notice shall contain a listing of all public lands which are located within the boundaries of the State, which have not been withdrawn from entry and which the Secretary identifies as being available to the State in exchange for such State lands as may be within the designated wilderness areas.
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