Advancing Conservation and Education Act

Advancing Conservation and Education Act

This bill allows the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming (western states) to relinquish state land grant parcels wholly or primarily within eligible areas and select, in exchange, public land within the state.

The bill defines eligible areas as lands within the outer boundaries of units or components of the National Park, National Wilderness Preservation, National Wildlife Refuge, or National Landscape Conservation Systems, areas identified by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of the Department of the Interior through a inventory carried out in accordance with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA) as having wilderness characteristics as of the enactment of this bill or in a land use plan that was finalized under the FLPMA, certain designated lands within the National Forest System or administered by the BLM, and sentinel landscapes designated by the Department of Agriculture, Department of Defense, or Interior.

Interior shall create a process for the relinquishment of such parcels.

A western state may select, and Interior may convey, lands that are mineral in character.

The overall value of the state land grant parcels and the public land to be conveyed shall be equal or made equal.

The bill sets forth requirements regarding hazardous materials on land to be conveyed, water rights, grazing permits, road rights-of-ways, and protection of Indian rights.