Purchasing Federal Land

[WBouldin]

I was just curious about the potential to purchase small pieces of land from the feds (BLM,NFS, etc.). Is it possible? Is it difficult? The idea would be to buy an acre or two to build a small cabin-like outpost surrounded by public land. What would it cost?

 

[shoots-straight]

I hope you never get the chance. I don't think in the lower 48 there's much going on.

 

[Straight Arrow]

This must be a "hook" to stir up some controversy, right? You can't be serious.

 

[spook12]

Get a clue!

 

[Bambistew]

Your best bet would be to look for a pattened mining claim. Many of these exist and would be exaclty what you're looking for. They're private land surrounded by public.

As far as buying pubic land, small parcels come up for sale from time to time. I used to have a link to the FS page that listed all the property they had for sale/auction. I don't have it anymore though, and haven't sherched it again. I do recall there being a few FS cabins and small parcels for sale for sale in WA, OR and northern CA but they weren't in remote areas.

Mining claims would be your best bet.

 

[Ben Lamb]

Bambi's got it. Also look for other inholdings on FS lands.

Beyond that, there are a number of cabins that are on leases from the FS. If you are serious about having a recreational cabin, then you can go this route. Those cabins are bought and sold, but the land stays public. You just lease it.

 

[WapitiBob]

FS land comes up for auction once in a while. They had several parcels around here a few years ago. I think you can Google it and come up with answers.

 

[WBouldin]

I hope you never get the chance. I don't think in the lower 48 there's much going on.

What the hell is that about?

 

[shoots-straight]

I don't think anymore public lands should go to private ownership. Usually the public takes it in the shorts, on deals like land swaps, or sales.

We don't need more people living in the wilds of the lower 48.

 

[Straight Arrow]

BBD92, assuming you're looking for wildlife habiitat to build your "outpost" on (since you are on a hunting forum), in Montana and other western states the greatest threat to wildlife (aside from wolves) is the loss of habitat due to development of private lands. That's a difficult enough problem to mitigate, but to perpetuate the loss of public land by sale in small parcels for private "cabin-like outposts" is certainly not a program I nor many, many other hunters and wildlife advocates will support.

True there are mining claims to be made with incumbent mining development stipulations ... but typically not for the purpose of recreational cabins, particularly just for hunting.
The cabins on Forest Service lease properties in western Montana are bought and sold just like other real estate and go for hefty prices. The numbers are finite and most are in areas somewhat densely developed (not outposts) and have been established for decades by lease-holding families who may eventually sell them for significant profits.

That is why you have received a few somewhat cynical responses to your questions which do appear to be somewhat naiive. 'Sorry if I come across as rudely blunt, but loss of public land (especially wildlife habitat) is a real concern.

 

[Bambistew]

True there are mining claims to be made with incumbent mining development stipulations ... but typically not for the purpose of recreational cabins, particularly just for hunting.

If its patented you can do whatever you want on it...you own it outright, land and minerals.

 

[Straight Arrow]

Right ... and if located in prime hunting country, they go for similarly hefty recreational property prices ... even in today's economy. 'Wonder how many are available and where. (rhetorical ?)

 

[Horn Seeker]

Not the forest service so much, but the BLM has tons of little pieces of land that are landlocked by private and are virtually worthless to the public...and they are costing the govt. a friggin fortune to administer. It would be really scary to see the admin cost of all these little 40's added up. And they are doing the public no good... zero. It'd be nice to be able to get rid of them, but it is a huge PITA...

However, they are rarely located somewhere you'd want to put your little dream hunting cabin...

Id like to see the BLM and FS be able to buy up more land that is contiguous with their lands... thats not happening on a very big scale though, and wont.

 

[1_pointer]

.and they are costing the govt. a friggin fortune to administer. It would be really scary to see the admin cost of all these little 40's added up.

How so? I'd guess that most don't get any or very little attention and therefore are cheap. I agree that they are worthless to the public if landlocked.

Here's where Uncle Sam posts all land for sale.
http://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucindx/

There's a small chance of 'buying' BLM land through a Desert Land Entry. Very hard to do and you have to have water to make it work. But it is possible.

 

[Horn Seeker]

Ok, maybe not a fortune, but thats a relative term. They all have grazing leases on them which we (BLM/FS) have to administer at least once every 10 years when the lease is renewed. A land health survey needs to be completed, which now involves writing an environmental assesment. A range specialist, wildlife bio, possibly riparian specialist, fish bio, cultural specialist and maybe hydrologist all have to participate in the EA. Travel planning also has to include any routes that are located on them. All for a piece of land, maybe 10-80 acres, that has very little public value.

 

[Horn Seeker]

Then you mulitiply that by the hundreds, if not thousands, of parcels like this across the western US..it probably is a pretty good sized number.

Im all for maintaining a public land base, but lets spend our dollars where the public can get some benefit. And as I said earlier, most of these are not in areas that would be of much valuable to the trophy home/hunter cabin enthusiast.

Matter of opinion really.

 

[1_pointer]

Gotcha, thanks for explaining. I also agree that I'd like to see the agencies take a look at consolidating their holdings through land trades. But, that is a whole 'nuther can of worms.

 

[Horn Seeker]

Yeah, I'm not a realtor, but I sit next to one... and it is a huge can of worms... they are working on such deals all the time, but the other parties invovled usually get depressed about all the burocratic BS that they have to go through and quit half way through!

 

[1_pointer]

Doesn't help that for BLM all land trades have to get Congressional approval. I dealt with one and I think the only 2 reasons it went through were: 1. the guy was VERY well connected and 2. it was for thousands of acres.

Those lands would be much cheaper to administer if the BLM could still renew grazing permits on a CX. I'm still upset that Washington settled on that appeal...

 

[Horn Seeker]

That ruling has quad/quad trupled our work load... there were certainly some things the CX didn't do well, but there are many cases where it was adequate and very nice. Ugg.

Sounds like you are a little familiar with the process so I'll tell ya one more thing that just upped the work load. We've got a new Sage Grouse directive that is basically telling us we have to do a LOT of habitat assesments for sage grouse to include in our EA's... probably 50% of our allotments are in sage grouse core habitat... we dont have near the staff to deal with this.