The Forest Service recently issued a notice seeking input from the public as to the information the agency requests from parties which are interested in exchanging private land for federal land. The basic steps of the process involve entering into an Agreement to Initiate and then a binding Exchange Agreement. Information is collected from the private party as part of both steps, but the agency does not have any standardized forms for these steps. The agency estimates that it takes a private party about 3 hours to provide the information needed for an Agreement to Initiate an exchange, and about 1 hour to provide information for a binding Exchange Agreement. Notably, the notice indicates that the Forest Service enters into approximately 25 proposed land exchanges each year.
The agency is seeking comments as to whether the information it seeks is necessary, its estimate of the hours expended is accurate, and any ways it could improve the information collecting process. Comments are due by September 30, 2019.