165 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Note 27. Stewardship Property, Plant, and Equipment

Stewardship PP&E consists of items whose physical properties resemble those of general PP&E traditionally capitalized

in financial statements. However, stewardship PP&E differs from general PP&E in that their values may be indeterminable or

may have little meaning (for example, museum collections, monuments, assets acquired in the formation of the nation) or that

allocating the cost of such assets to accounting periods that benefit from the ownership of such assets is meaningless.

Stewardship PP&E includes stewardship land (land not acquired for or in connection with general PP&E) and heritage assets

(for example, federal monuments and memorials and historically or culturally significant property). The majority of

stewardship land was acquired by the government during the first century of the nation’s existence.

Stewardship land is land and land rights owned by the federal government but not acquired for or in connection with

items of general PP&E. Examples of stewardship land include land used as forests and parks, and land used for wildlife and

grazing. “Land” is defined as the solid part of the surface of the earth. Excluded from the definition are the natural resources

(that is, depletable resources, such as mineral deposits and petroleum; renewable resources, such as timber; and the outercontinental shelf resources) related to land.

Additional information concerning stewardship land, such as entity stewardship policies, physical units by major

categories, and the condition of stewardship land, can be obtained from the financial statements of DOD, DOI, EPA, HHS,

TVA, and USDA.

Heritage assets are government-owned assets that have one or more of the following characteristics:

• Historical or natural significance;

• Cultural, educational, or artistic importance; or

• Significant architectural characteristics.

Heritage assets are classified into two categories: collection and non-collection. Collection type heritage assets include

objects gathered and maintained for exhibition, for example, museum collections, art collections, and library collections.

Non-collection type heritage assets include parks, memorials, monuments, and buildings. In some cases, heritage assets may

serve two purposes: a heritage function and general government operations. In those cases, the heritage asset should be

considered a multi-use heritage asset if the predominant use of the asset is in general government operations (e.g., the main

Treasury building used as an office building). The cost of acquisition, improvement, reconstruction, or renovation of multiuse heritage assets should be capitalized as general PP&E and depreciated over its estimated useful life.

Entities provide protection and preservation services to maintain all heritage assets in the best possible condition as part

of America’s history. Examples of heritage assets include the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the

Bill of Rights preserved by the National Archives.

This discussion of the government’s heritage assets is not exhaustive. Rather, it highlights significant heritage assets

reported by federal entities. Please refer to the individual financial statements of DOI, DOC, DHS, VA, DOT, State, DOD,

TVA, GSA, NASA, and USDA for additional information on multi-use heritage assets, entity stewardship policies, and

physical units by major categories.