Friday, October 31

8:00am – 11:30am                       “An Inside Look at Donation Land Claims”

 

                                                     Ron Scherler, BLM retired and CFedS Chairperson

 

This session will examine how the administrative process established by the Surveyor General for the filing, survey and patenting of Donation Land Claims can affect how we survey the claim boundaries today. The discussion will include: 1) The process claimants were required to follow to perfect their claim and receive a patent. 2)The practical effect of filing the Notification. 3)Where the case files can be found. 4)How metes-and-bounds descriptions were amended to aliquot part descriptions.5) The Surveyor General’s role in resolving disputes. 6) How Claims were placed on the rectangular plat and how that has created uncertain rights along section and aliquot part lines.

 

11:30am – 12:30pm Lunch provided as part of the registration fee.

 

12:30pm – 4:00pm “A BLM Cadastral Survey Protest”

 

Stan French, BLM Chief Cadastral Surveyor of Idaho

 

A case study of legal principles, evidence, local surveys and 2009 Manual verbiage and interpretation.

This is a case study of a 2011 survey protest in Idaho that involved BLM’s rejection of certain corner points determined by local surveys in an area of high value private property that adjoined federal lands. It demonstrates the challenges the land surveyor may face when evaluating evidence of prior local surveys for their ability to serve as proof of the location of the federal estate.  The fundamental arguments in the protest, which involved interpretation of verbiage in the 2009 Manual, included:  1) the local surveyor as original surveyor, 2) “positive evidence of intentional departure from legal principles”, and 3) repose as applied to public domain lands.  The presentation will include an overview of federal case law that define legal principles for the survey of the remaining federal lands, bonafide rights & good faith location, and unwritten rights as applied to federal lands. 

 

This course will be  worth 6 Professional Development Hours (PDH)

 

Registration Information

Register at https://alumni.oit.edu/OIT/BLMWorkshop

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