322 CHAPTER 13 Land Resources
0(^0) 250 kilometers
250 miles
National parks and preserves
National wildlife refuges
National forests, grasslands,
and wilderness
National marine sanctuaries
0 100 miles
0 100 kilometers
0
0 250 kilometers
250 miles
Adapted from the map, “Federal Lands in the Fifty States,” produced by theCartographic Division of the National Geograhic Society (October 1996).
Land Use in the United States
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
significance, and land that provides critical biological
habitat. Most federally owned land is in Alaska and 11
western states (Figure 13.1).
Federal land is managed primarily by four agencies,
three in the U.S. Department of the Interior—the Bureau
of Land Management (BLM), the Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice (FWS), and the National Park Service (NPS)—and
one in the U.S. Department of Agriculture—the U.S.
Forest Service (USFS) (Table 13.1).
Government-owned lands and other rural areas pro-
vide vital ecosystem services that benefit humans living
far from public forests, grasslands, deserts, and wetlands.
These services include wildlife habitat, flood and erosion
- Summarize current land ownership in the
United States.
P
rivate citizens, corporations, and nonprofit
organizations own more than 60 percent of
the land in the United States, and Native
American tribes own more than 2 percent.
State and local governments own another 9 percent. The
federal government owns the rest (nearly 28 percent).
Government-owned land encompasses all types of
ecosystems, from tundra to desert, and includes land
that contains important resources such as minerals and
fossil fuels, land that possesses historical or cultural
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Shown are national parks and preserves; national wildlife refuges; national forests,
grasslands, and wilderness; and national marine sanctuaries in the United States. Note the
preponderance of federal lands in western states and Alaska. Other federal lands, such as
military installations and research facilities, aren’t shown.