94 STAT. 2396
PUBLIC LAW 96-487—DEC. 2, 1980 SPECIAL STUDY
Caribou. 16 USC 3145 note.
Review. Contracts.
SEC. 306. (a) The Congress finds that the barren-ground caribou are a migratory species deserving of careful study and special protection, and that the Western Arctic and the Porcupine herds of such caribou are of national and international significance. O> The Secretary of the Interior shall conduct, and the Governor of t) Alaska is urged to cooperate with the Secretary in conducting, an ecological study of the barren-ground caribou herds north of the Yukon River and the herds that have been known to migrate between the United States and Canada, including, but not limited to, a determination of the seasonal migration patterns, reproduction and mortality rates, composition and age structure, behavioral characteristics, habitats (including but not limited to calving, feeding, summering and wintering areas, and key migration routes) that are critical to their natural stability and productivity and the effects on the herds of development by man, predation, and disease. In conducting this study the Secretary shall review the experience of other Arctic circumpolar countries with caribou and is authorized to enter into such contracts as he deems necessary to carry out portions or all of this study. TITLE IV—NATIONAL CONSERVATION AREA AND NATIONAL RECREATION AREA ESTABLISHMENT OF STEESE NATIONAL CONSERVATION AREA
16 USC 460mm.
SEC. 401. (a) In order to provide for the immediate and future protection of the lands in Federal ownership within the framework of a program of multiple use and sustained yield and for the maintenance of environmental quality, the Steese National Conservation Area is hereby established. (h) The Steese National Conservation Area shall include approximately one million two hundred twenty thousand acres of public lands, as generally depicted on the map entitled "Steese National Conservation Area—proposed", and dated October 1978. Special values to be considered in planning and management of the area are: caribou range and Birch Creek. ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS
Land use plan, development.
16 USC 460mm-1. 43 USC 1701 note.
43 USC 1716.
SEC. 402. (a) Subject to valid existing rights, the Secretary, through the Bureau of Land Management, shall administer the Steese National Conservation Area established in section 401 pursuant to the applicable provisions of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 dealing with the management and use of land in Federal ownership, and shall, within five years of the date of enactment of this Act, develop a land use plan for each such area, and for the area established in section 403. (b) No public lands within the national conservation area shall be transferred out of Federal ownership except by exchange pursuant to section 206 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. Where consistent with the land use plans for the area, mineral development may be permitted pursuant to the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, as amended, and supplemented (30 U.S.C. 181-287) or the Materials Act of 1947, as amended (30 U.S.C. 601-603). Subject to valid existing rights, the minerals in Federal lands within national conservation areas are hereby withdrawn from location, entry, and patent under the United States mining laws (30 U.S.C. 22-54). Where consistent
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