page_title: Federal lands
section_title: Legal background
hierarchical_section_title: Federal lands / Legal background
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of all federally owned land in the United States.
context_page_description: Federal lands are lands in the United States owned by the federal government. Pursuant to the Property Clause of the United States Constitution, the Congress has the power to retain, buy, sell, and regulate federal lands, such as by limiting cattle grazing on them. These powers have been recognized in a long line of U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
  The federal government owns about 640 million acres of land in the United States, about 28% of the total land area of 2.27 billion acres. The majority of federal lands are administered by the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, or U.S. Forest Service. BLM, FWS, and NPS are part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, while the Forest Service is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. An additional 11.4 million acres of land is owned by the U.S. Department of Defense. The majority of federal lands are located in Alaska and the Western states.
context_section_description: The United States Supreme Court has upheld the broad powers of the federal government to deal with federal lands, for example having unanimously held in Kleppe v. New Mexico that "the complete power that Congress has over federal lands under this clause necessarily includes the power to regulate and protect wildlife living there, state law notwithstanding."
  Lands held by the United States in trust for Native American tribes are generally not considered public lands. There are some 55 million acres of land held in trust by the federal government for Indian tribes and almost 11 million acres of land held in trust by the federal government for individual Natives. Although the United States holds legal title to these lands, the tribe or individual holds beneficial title (the right to use and benefit from the property). As a result, Indian Country is "quasi-private, not public, land." Nevertheless, "because the United States is a legal title holder, the federal government is a necessary part in all leases and dispositions of resources including trust land. For example, the secretary of the interior must approve any contract for payment or grant by an Indian tribe for services for the tribe 'relative to their lands' (25 U.S.C. § 81)."
caption: Ownership of Federal lands in the 50 states, including subsurface rights.  This map includes as "federal lands" land held "in trust" for Native Americans, which are not generally considered, "federal lands" in other contexts.
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