S1363-119

What This Bill Does

Requires USDA and Interior officials in New Mexico to enter a memorandum of understanding with the New Mexico Land Grant Council on permits, authorizations, fee waivers, vehicle and equipment use, infrastructure maintenance, notice, Tribal consultation, and land-use planning for qualified land grant-merced historical or traditional noncommercial uses on federal land.

Who Benefits and How

Qualified land grant-mercedes benefit because the MOU must identify how community users and governing bodies can seek permits for long-established noncommercial uses such as water use, herb gathering, wood gathering, grazing, subsistence hunting or fishing, cemetery maintenance, monuments, shrines, and small-quantity soil or rock gathering. Community users benefit because USDA and Interior must consider socioeconomic conditions and land-grant operating budgets when fee reductions or waivers are allowed. The New Mexico Land Grant Council benefits from a formal role in developing, executing, and implementing the MOU. Indian Tribes benefit because proposed historical or traditional uses that directly affect them require consultation and the Act preserves treaty-reserved and other Tribal rights.

Who Bears the Burden and How

USDA New Mexico officials and Interior New Mexico officials must negotiate the initial MOU within two years, renew or revise successors, describe permit procedures, describe fee processes, and include notice methods such as online, print, mail, email, and listserv notice. Federal land managers must evaluate vehicle use, nonnative materials, routine maintenance, major improvements, restrictions, and land-use-plan impacts without directly authorizing uses outside existing law. Governing bodies of land grant-mercedes must still obtain permits and comply with land-use plans, valid existing rights, federal law, state water law, and state game and fish regulation. State water and wildlife regulators retain authority but may need to coordinate around traditional-use requests.

Key Provisions

• Defines community users, qualified land grant-mercedes, historical or traditional uses, noncommercial benefit, federal land exclusions, and the Secretary concerned.
• Requires USDA and Interior officials in New Mexico to enter an initial MOU with the New Mexico Land Grant Council within two years.
• Requires the MOU to describe permit requirements, administrative procedures, fee waiver or reduction processes, vehicle and equipment use, restrictions, Tribal consultation, and notice.
• Provides for subsidiary agreements and routine maintenance or minor improvements connected to historical or traditional uses.
• Requires land-use plans to consider the impact of other uses on qualified land grant-merced historical or traditional uses.
• Preserves Tribal rights, state water and game authority, valid existing rights, existing permits, and clarifies that no new federal-land use right is created.