Federal Public Land Policy

Report Outline
Basic Issues in Public Land Problem
Major Changes in Federal Land Policy
Questions of Policy Raised by Hoover Proposals

A reexamination of federal policies affecting the public domain, with a view to the formulation of a definitive plan for disposal of the remaining unreserved public lands, will be undertaken early in the winter by a special presidential commission. President Hoover's intention to appoint such a commission-in order that “these matters may be gone into exhaustively and that I may be advised intelligently”-was announced in a letter to Assistant Secretary of the Interior Dixon, dated August 21, 1929. The letter was submitted on August 26 to a conference at Salt Lake City of the governors of the eleven public-land states. The President proposed that the special commission should inquire into the feasibility of:

1. The cession of federal lands now unreserved-approximating 190.000,000 acres and useful principally for grazing-to the states in which they are located, and of

2. The transfer to the states of the administrative responsibility for new reclamation projects.