**GAO-09-611**                      Published: Jun 12, 2009. Publicly Released: Jun 12, 2009.                  

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## Highlights

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the Department of the Interior (Interior) and the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture (USDA) manage millions of acres of public land. To enhance land management and fulfill other public objectives, they acquire and dispose of land using exchanges--trading federal lands for lands owned by willing private entities, individuals, or state or local governments. GAO and others have raised concerns about whether the public interest has always been served in these land exchanges. GAO was asked to (1) analyze the number, trends, and characteristics of BLM and Forest Service land exchanges and (2) determine the effectiveness of agency actions to address previously identified key problems. GAO interviewed and surveyed agency officials, analyzed agency data on recent exchanges, and reviewed documents on a nongeneralizable sample of 31 land exchanges representing at least 85 percent of the acres that agencies acquired, or plan to acquire, during the time of GAO's review.

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## Topics

Natural Resources and Environment

AccountabilityAppraisalsEmployee trainingEmployee turnoverFederal agenciesFederal propertyFederal property managementInformation disclosureInternal controlsLand managementPrioritizingProgram managementProperty disposalPublic landsReal estate salesReal property acquisitionRecords managementRecords retentionSchedule slippagesCorrective actionPolicies and proceduresProgram goals or objectivesTransparency