An Act to establish a Redwood National Park in the State of California, and for other purposes.
PL 90-545 (S.2515), enacted 10/02/1968

82 STAT. ] 
PUBLIC LAW 90-545-OCT. 2, 1968 
931 
SEC. 604. Within two years from the date of enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary of the Interior shall review the area within the North 
Cascades National Park, including the Picket Range area and tlie 
Eldorado Peaks area, and shall report to the President, in accordance 
with subsections 3(c) and 3(d) of the Wilderness Act (78 Stat. 890; 
16 U.S.C. 1132 (c) and (d)), his recommendation as to the suitability 
or nonsuitability of any area within the park for preservation as 
wilderness, and any designation of any such area as a wilderness area 
shall be accomplished in accordance with said subsections of the 
Wilderness Act. 
Approved October 2, 1968. 
Area review; 
report to the 
President. 
Public Law 90-545 
AN ACT 
October::, 1968 
To establish a Redwood National Park in the State of California, and for 
^^- 2515] 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled^ That, in order to 
preserve significant examples of the primeval coastal redwood 
(Sequoia sempervirens) forests and the streams and seashores with 
which they are associated for purposes of public inspiration, enjoy-
ment, and scientific study, there is hereby established a Redwood 
National Park in Del Norte and Humboldt Counties, California. 
SEC. 2. (a) The area to be included within the Redwood National 
Park is that generally depicted on the maps entitled "Redwood 
National Park," numbered NPS-RED-7114-A and NPS-RED-7114-
B, and dated September 1968, copies of which maps shall be kept 
a.vailable for public inspection in the offices of the National Park 
Service, Department of the Interior, and shall be filed wdth appropriate 
officers of Del Norte and Humboldt Counties. The Secretary of the 
Interior (hereinafter referred to as the "Secretary") may from time 
to time, with a view to carrying out the purpose of this Act and with 
particular attention to minimizing siltation of the streams, damage 
to the timber, and assuring the preservation of the scenery within 
the boundaries of the national park as depicted on said maps, modify 
said boundaries, giving notice of any changes involved therein by pub-
lication of a revised drawing or boundary description in the Federal 
Register and by filing said revision with the officers with whom the 
original maps were filed, but the acreage within said park shall at no 
time exceed fifty-eight thousand acres, exclusive of submerged lands. 
(b) The Secretary is authorized to acquire by donation only all or 
jiart of existing publicly owned highways and roads with'n the bound-
aries of the park as he may deem necessary for park purposes. Until 
such highways and roads have been acquired, the Secretary may coop-
erate with appropriate State and local officials in patroling and main-
taining such roads and highways. 
SEC. 3. (a) The Secretary is authorized to acquire lands and inter-
ests in land within the boundaries of the Redwood National Park and, 
in addition thereto, not more than ten acres outside of those boiuidaries 
for an administrative site or sites. Such acquisition may be by donation, 
purchase with appropriated or donated funds, exchange, or otherwise, 
but lands and interests in land owned by the State of California may 
be acquired only by donation. 
(b) (1) Effective on the date of enactment of this Act, there is hereby 
vested in the LTnited States all right, title, and interest in, and the right 
Redwood Nation-
al Park, Calif. 
Establishment. 
Boundaries. 
Publication in 
Federal Register. 
932 
PUBLIC LAW 90-545-OCT. 2, 1968 
[82 STAT. 
to immediate possession of, all real property within the park bound-
aries designated in maps N P S - R E D - n i 4 - A and N P S - R E D - n i 4 - B , 
except real property owned by the State of California or a political 
subdivision thereof and except as provided in paragraph (3) of this 
subsection. The Secretary shall allow for the orderly termination of all 
operations on real property acquired by the LTnited States under this 
subsection, and for the removal of equipment, facilities, and personal 
property therefrom. 
(2) The United States will pay just compensation to the owner of 
any real property taken by paragraph (1) of this subsection. Such 
compensation shall be paid either: (A) by the Secretary of the Treas-
ury from money appropriated from the Land and Water Conservation 
Fund, including money appropriated to the Fund pursuant to section 
4(b) of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965, as 
78 Stat. 900. 
amended, subject to the appropriation limitation in section 10 of 
1
6 
460-7. 
^j^-g ^^^^ upon certification to him by the Secretary of the agreed 
negotiated value of such property, or the valuation of the property 
awarded by judgment, including interest at the rate of 6 per centum 
per annum from the date of taking the property to the date of pay-
ment therefor; or (B) by the Secretary, if the owner of the land 
concurs, with any federally owned property available to him for pur-
poses of exchange pursuant to the provisions of section 5 of this Act; 
or (C) by the Secretary using any combination of such money or 
federally owned property. Any action against the United States for 
the recovery of just compensation for the land and interests therein 
taken by the United States by this subsection shall be brought in the 
Court of Claims as provided in title 28, United States Code, section 
68 Stat. 1241. 
1491. 
(3) Subsection 3(b) shall apply to ownerships of fifty acres or less 
only if such ownerships are held or occupied primarily for nonresi-
dential or nonagricultural purposes, and if the Secretary gives notice 
to the owner within sixty days after the effective date of this Act of the 
application of this subsection. Notice by the Secretary shall be deemed 
to have been made as of the effective date of this Act. The district court 
of the United States for that district in which such ownerships are lo-
cated shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine any action brought 
by any person having an interest therein for damages occurring by 
reason of the temporary application of this paragraph, between the 
effective date of this Act and the date upon which the Secretary gives 
such notice. Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed as affecting 
the authority of the Secretary imder subsections (a) and (c) of this 
section to acquire such areas for the purposes of this Act. 
(c) If any individual tract or parcel of land acquired is partly inside 
and partly outside the boundaries of the park or the administrative site 
the Secretary may, in order to minimize the payment of severance 
damages, acquire the whole of the tract or parcel and exchange that 
part of it which is outside the boundaries for land or interests in land 
inside the boundaries or for other land or interests in land acquired 
pursuant to this Act, and dispose of so much thereof as is not so utilized 
in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Property and Admin-
istrative Services Act of 1949 (63 Stat. 377), as amended (40 U.S.C. 
471 et seq.). The cost of any land so acquired and disposed of shall 
not be charged against the limitation on authorized appropriations 
contained in section 10 of this Act. 
(d) The Secretary is further authorized to acquire, as provided in 
subsection (a) of this section, lands and interests in land bordering 
both sides of the highway between the present southern boundary of 
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and a point on Redwood Creek 
82 STAT. ] 
PUBLIC LAW 90-545-OCT. 2, 1968 
933 
near the town of Orick to a depth sufficient to maintain or to restore 
a screen of trees between the highway and the land behind the screen 
and the activities conducted thereon. 
(e) In order to afford as full protection as is reasonably possible to 
the timber, soil, and streams within the boundaries of the park, the 
Secretary is authorized, by any of the means set out in subsections (a) 
and (c) of this section, to acquire interests in land from, and to enter 
into contracts and cooperative agreements with, the owners of land 
on the periphery of the park and on watersheds tributary to streams 
within the park designed to assure that the consequences of forestry 
management, timbering, land use, and soil conservation practices con-
ducted thereon, or of the lack of such practices, will not adversely 
affect the timber, soil, and streams within the park as aforesaid. As ^
^ 
used in this subsection, the term "interests in land" does not include land"'*^'^^^*^'" 
fee title imless the Secretary finds that the cost of a necessary less-
than-fee interest would be disproportionately high as compared with 
the estimated cost of the fee. No acquisition other than by donation 
shall be effectuated and no contract or cooperative agreement shall be 
executed by the Secretary pursuant to the provisions of this subsection 
until sixty days after he has notified the President of the Senate and 
the Speaker of the House of Representatives of his intended action 
and of the costs and benefits to the United States involved therein. 
SEC. 4. (a) The owner of improved property on the date of its acqui-
sition by the Secretary under this Act may, as a condition of such acqui-
sition, retain for himself and his heirs and assigns a ri^ht of use and 
occupancy of the improved property for noncommercial residential 
purposes for a definite term of not more than twenty-five years or, in 
lieu thereof, for a term ending at the death of the owner or the death 
of his spouse, whichever is later. The owner shall elect the term to be 
reserved. Unless the property is wholly or partially donated to the 
United States, the Secretary shall pay the owner the fair market value 
of the property on the date of axxjuisition minus the fair market value 
on that date of the right retained by the owner. A right retained pur-
suant to this section shall be subject to termination oy the Secretary 
upon his determination that it is being exercised in a manner incon-
sistent with the purpose of this Act, and it shall terminate by operation 
of law upon the Secretary's notifying the holder of the right of such 
determination and tendering to him an amount equal to the fair market 
\alue of that portion of the right which remains unexpired. 
(b) The term "improved property", as used in this section, means a J^l'^^l°^^'^ 
detached, noncommercial residential dwelling, the construction of 
which was begun before October 9,1967, together with so much of the 
land on which the dwelling is situated, the said land being in the same 
ownership as the dwelling, as the Secretary shall designate to be rea-
sonably necessary for the enjoyment of the dwelling for the sole pur-
pose of noncommercial residential use, together with any structures 
accessory to the dwelling which are situated on the land so designated. 
(c) The Secretary shall have, with respect to any real property 
acquired by him in sections 5 and 8, township 13 north, range 1 east, 
Humboldt meridian, authority to sell or lease the same to the former 
owner under such conditions and restrictions as will assure that it is 
not utilized in a manner or for purposes inconsistent with the national 
park. 
SEC. 5. In exercising his authority to acquire property by exchange, 
the Secretary may accept title to any non-Federal property within Uie 
boundaries of the park, and outside of such boundaries within the 
limits prescribed in this Act. Notwithstanding any other provision of 
law, the Secretary may acquire such property from the grantor by 
property. 
934 
PUBLIC LAW 90-545-OCT. 2, 1968 
[82 STAT. 
exchange for any federally owned property under the jurisdiction of 
the Bureau of Land Management in California, except property needed 
for public use and management, which he classifies as suitable for 
exchange or other disposal, or any federally owned property he may 
designate within the Northern Redwood Purchase Unit in Del Norte 
County, California, except that section known and designated as the 
Yurok Experimental Forest, consisting of approximately nine hun-
dred and thirty-five acres. Such federally owned property shall also be 
available for use by the Secretary in lieu of, or together with, cash in 
payment of just compensation for any real property taken pursuant to 
section 3(b) of this Act. The values of the properties so exchanged 
either shall be approximately equal or, if they are not approximately 
equal, the value shall be equalized by the payment of cash to the grantor 
or to the Secretary as the circumstances require. Through the exercise 
of his exchange authority, the Secretary shall, to the extent possible, 
minimize economic dislocation and the disruption of the grantor's 
commercial operations. 
SEC. 6. Notwithstanding any other provision of lawj any Federal 
property located within any of the areas described in sections 2 and 3 of 
this Act may, with the concurrence of the head of the agency having 
custody thereof, be transferred without consideration to the admin-
istrative jurisdiction of the Secretary for use by him in carrying out 
the provisions of this Act. 
SEC. 7. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the 
Secretary shall have the same authority wdth respect to contracts for 
the acquisition of land and interests in land for the purposes of this 
Act as was given the Secretary of the Treasury for other land acquisi-
tions by section 34 of the Act of May 30,1908 (35 Stat. 545; 40 U.S.C. 
261), and the Secretary and the owner of land to be acquired under this 
Act may agree that the purchase price will be paid in periodic install-
ments over a period that does not exceed ten years, with interest on the 
unpaid balance thereof at a rate which is not in excess of the current 
average market yield on outstanding marketable obligations of the 
LTnited States with remaining periods to maturity comparable to the 
average maturities on the installments. 
(b) Judgments against the United States for amounts in excess of 
the deposit in court made in condemnation actions shall be subject to 
the provisions of section 1302 of the Act of July 27,1956 (70 Stat. 694), 
as amended (31 U.S.C. 724a), and the Act of June 25, 1948 (62 Stat. 
979), as amended (28 U.S.C. 2414,2517). 
SEC. 8. The present practice of the California Department of Parks 
and Recreation of maintaining memorial groves of redwood trees 
named for benefactors of the State redwood parks shall be continued 
by the Secretary in the Redwood National Park. 
SEC. 9. The Secretary shall administer the Redwood National Park 
in accordance with the provisions of the Act of August 25, 1916 (39 
Stat. 535; 16 U.S.C. 1-4), as amended and supplemented. 
App'-opriation 
gj,^, j^Q. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated $92,000,000 
for land acquisition to carry out the provisions of this Act. 
Approved October 2, 1968. 
75 Stat. 415. 
authorization.