REAL Protection Act

Resurveys Entitle Adjacent Landowners to Protection Act or the REAL Protection Act

This bill directs the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, or the Forest Service, as appropriate, to notify all property owners with land abutting or adjacent to federal land being resurveyed of the pending resurvey. A resurvey is an official rerunning and remarking intended to supersede the records of the original survey.

The appropriate agency shall notify affected landowners within 30 days of completion of the resurvey if it extends the boundaries of federal land.

If a resurvey results in private land being reclassified as federal land, the affected landowners shall be given the right of first refusal to purchase the land for fair market value minus the value of any significant improvements made to such lands, or be reimbursed for the fair market value of any such improvements. Affected landowners may not be charged with willful trespass onto the land unless they used such lands with the knowledge that they should be classified as federal land.