201 



CHARLES H. CALLISON 



Consultant 



Public Lands • Environmental Issues • Organizational Structure and Procedures 



June 30th, 1987 



Statement of Charles H. Callison, Public Lands Consultant 



To Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands, National Parks and Forests 



I have been authorized to speak for the Natural Resources Defense 

 Council, 1350 New York Avenue, N.W. , Washington, D.C. 20005, as 

 well as in my own behalf as an independent consultant on public land 

 issues. Until last November I was director of the Public Lands 

 Institute, an operating division of NRDC. 



Under Section 206 of the Federal Land Policy and Management 

 Act (FLPMA) , the Bureau of Land Management can negotiate exchanges 

 of public lands with other federal agencies or with states or private 

 owners if such trades serve the "public interest." The lands exchanged 

 must be of equal value, as determined by appraisal, or if not equal, 

 " the values shall be equalized by the payment of money to the grantor 

 or to the Secretary (of the Interior) ... so long as the payment does 

 not exceed 25 per centum of the total value of the lands or interest 

 conveyed out of federal ownership . " 



If a proposed exchange involves land in different states, FLPMA 

 goes on to say an act of Congress is required. That is why we are 

 here today — to consider an exchange initiated not by the 

 Secretary or his Bureau of Land Management — but by a corporation 

 that wants to unload 4,66 acres of land that it can't use in Florida 

 for 51,710 near-pristine acres in Nevada that has a guaranteed water 

 supply — a supply developed and proven by the U.S. Air Force with 

 taxpayers' money when it was exploring a base site for a grandiose 

 MX missile deployment system. 



Congress must determine if the proposed exchange is in the public 

 interest — and not merely in the interest of the Aerojet General 

 Corporation. 



The appraisals purport to show that the 4,460 acres in Florida are 

 worth $525 per acre, for a total of $2.4 million, and that some 

 of the Nevada land is worth $45 per acre, some of it $55 per acre, 

 for a total of $2.3 million. What a convenient balancing of values! 

 Congress must decide if the appraisals are valid. I believe they 

 are not. 



Aerojet' s Florida land could be worth $525 per acre only if 

 available to the south Florida realty market for development, and of 

 course it is not. Neither the State or Dade County could allow realty 

 development there because it lies within a drainage basin that 

 supplies essential fresh water for Everglades National Park. And 

 indeed development is not in prospect. Aerojet' s wetlands, under 

 the proposed deal, are destined to become the property of the South 

 Florida Water Management District." 



