118 STAT. 872 PUBLIC LAW 108–279—JULY 22, 2004 Public Law 108–279 108th Congress An Act To resolve boundary conflicts in Barry and Stone Counties in the State of Missouri. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. RESOLUTION OF BOUNDARY CONFLICTS, VICINITY OF MARK TWAIN NATIONAL FOREST, BARRY AND STONE COUNTIES, MISSOURI. (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: (1) The term ‘‘appropriate Secretary’’ means the Secretary of the Army or the Secretary of Agriculture. (2) The term ‘‘boundary conflict’’ means the situation in which the private claim of ownership to certain lands, based on subsequent Federal land surveys, overlaps or conflicts with Federal ownership of the same lands. (3) The term ‘‘Federal land surveys’’ means any land survey made by any agency or department of the Federal Government using Federal employees, or by Federal contract with State licensed private land surveyors or corporations and businesses licensed to provide professional land surveying services in the State of Missouri for Table Rock Reservoir. (4) The term ‘‘original land surveys’’ means the land sur veys made by the United States General Land Office as part of the Public Land Survey System in the State of Missouri, and upon which Government land patents were issued con veying the land. (5) The term ‘‘Public Land Survey System’’ means the rectangular system of original Government land surveys made by the United States General Land Office and its successor, the Bureau of Land Management, under Federal laws providing for the survey of the public lands upon which the original land patents were issued. (6) The term ‘‘qualifying claimant’’ means a private owner of real property in Barry or Stone County, Missouri, who has a boundary conflict as a result of good faith and innocent reliance on subsequent Federal land surveys, and as a result of such reliance, has occupied or improved Federal lands administered by the appropriate Secretary. (7) The term ‘‘subsequent Federal land surveys’’ means any Federal land surveys made after the original land surveys that are inconsistent with the Public Land Survey System. (b) RESOLUTION OF BOUNDARY CONFLICTS.—The Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of Agriculture shall cooperatively undertake actions to rectify boundary conflicts and landownership claims against Federal lands resulting from subsequent Federal July 22, 2004 [S. 1167]
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