PUBLIC LAW 106-138—DEC. 7, 1999
113 STAT. 1693
Public Law 106-138
106th Congress
An Act
To provide for the conveyance of certain National Forest System lands in the
Dec. 7, 1999
State of South Dakota.
[H.R. 2079]
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
Terry Peak Land
Transfer Act of
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
1999.
This Act may be cited as the "Terry Peak Land Transfer Act
of 1999".
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.
(a) FINDINGS. —Congress finds the following:
(1) Certain National Forest System land located in the
Black Hills National Forest in Lawrence County, South Dakota,
is currently permitted to the Terry Peak Ski Area by the
Secretary of Agriculture pursuant to section 3 of the National
Forest Ski Area Permit Act of 1986 (16 U.S.C. 497b).
(2) The National Forest System land comprises only 10
percent of the land at the Ski Area, with the remaining 90
percent located on private land owned by the Ski Area operator.
(3) As the fractional Forest Service land holding at the
Ski Area is also encumbered by ski lifts, ski trails, a base
lodge parking lot and other privately owned improvements,
it serves little purpose in continued public ownership, and
can more logically be conveyed to the Ski Area to unify land
management and eliminate permitting and other administrative costs to the United States.
(4) The Ski Area is interested in acquiring the land from
the United States, but the Secretary does not have administrative authority to convey such land in a nonsimultaneous land
exchange absent specific authorization from Congress.
(5) The Black Hills National Forest contains several small
inholdings of undeveloped private land with multiple landowners which complicate National Forest land management
and which can be acquired by the United States from willing
sellers if acquisition funds are made available to the Secretary.
(6) The proceeds from the Terry Peak conveyance can provide a modest, but readily available and flexible, funding source
for the Secretary to acquire certain inholdings in the Black
Hills National Forest from willing sellers, and given the small
and scattered nature of such inholdings, and number of potential sellers involved, can do so more efficiently and quickly
thsin through administrative land exchanges.
(7) It is, therefore, in the public interest to convey the
National Forest System land at Terry Peak to the Ski Area
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