Public Land Management and Land Exchanges

Prior to joining Troutman Sanders, several of our attorneys accumulated years of expertise in managing public lands, and with land exchanges. We bring that experience to bear on behalf of our clients, working with private landowners, negotiating the allocation of environmental liabilities associated with proposed land transfers to conservation organizations and advising on land-exchange legislation from drafting to enactment. We also work with municipalities exploring the acquisition of public land for municipal purposes. Our clients have availed themselves of this experience with great success. For example, our experience includes:

• Writing, helping negotiate and following through to enactment an important land exchange bill for a large utility client. The bill allowed our client to save a significant amount of money in fees imposed for occupying federal land. The measure moved from introduction to passage in less than six months -- without hearings or any negative votes cast;
• Advising Virginia General Assembly subcommittees which made significant recommendations regarding state funding for park and open space maintenance and acquisition. The subcommittee also developed numerous proposals to provide benefits for and to promote private land preservation;
• Representing major environmental groups, for example, in successfully challenging management of National Wildlife Refuge system, and in successful action to force the State of Florida and regional water management district to halt nutrient contamination of the Everglades;
• Representing and providing counsel to river conservation organizations with respect to expansion and protection of the Wild and Scenic Rivers system, including litigation forcing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to study potential wild and scenic rivers in its land management planning in Alaska;
• Pursuing administrative appeals of more than fifty forest plans to force the U.S. Forest Service to evaluate wild and scenic rivers in its planning;
• Successfully challenging DOI approval of construction of jetties within Cape Hatteras National Seashore;