Federal Land Designations: A Brief Guide

This report provides a brief guide to selected titles—such as national park, national wildlife refuge, national monument, national conservation area, national recreation area, and others—that Congress and the executive branch have used to designate certain U.S. lands. These titles may be considered federal land designations, in the sense that they are land designations conferred by federal entities (Congress, the President, and executive branch officials). Also, most (but not all) of the designations apply to federal land—that is, land owned by the federal government. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and National Park Service (NPS) in the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service (FS) in the Department of Agriculture administer most federally owned land. Congress and executive branch entities also have recognized the national significance of some nonfederally owned lands by giving them federal designations, such as national heritage area or national historic landmark. Depending on multiple factors, federal designations may bring few management changes to a site or may involve significant management changes. The designations may authorize new federal funding for an area but do not always do so. Management provisions may vary, even among sites with the same designation, based on the individual designating law for a particular site. The report discusses some factors that Congress may consider when contemplating which, if any, federal designation might be suitable for a given area. For instance, legislators may consider which entity would own and manage the land under various designations, what resource values the designation might highlight or protect, and what types of land uses would be allowed, as well as whether a chosen designation would need to be conferred through legislation or could be applied administratively under existing statutory authorities. A table compares selected land designations across multiple attributes.