Santini-Burton Modernization Act

National Forest Land in the Lake Tahoe Basin National Forest System lands in the Lake Tahoe Basin encompass more than 156,000 acres and contain portions of the El Dorado and Tahoe National Forests in California and the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada. Lake Tahoe has been the focus of federal land acquisition efforts for decades. In the late 1800s, like other resource-rich areas in the West, land claims by private companies and speculators left a checkerboard pattern of public and private land ownership across the Tahoe Basin. The perennial stewardship of the Indigenous Washoe people was replaced by logging, ranching, commercial fishing, and lakefront resorts. When the movement took hold to set aside national parks like Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon, Lake Tahoe was passed over. The extent of private inholdings and environmental damage were thought to be too great.

Evolution of Public Land Acquisition in the Lake Tahoe Basin The first public lands in the Lake Tahoe Basin were established in 1899 as the Lake Tahoe Forest Reserve and totaled 37,000 acres with no lakefront property. Public acquisitions progressed slowly until the 1960s when large tracts were acquired through land exchanges. Purchases through the “Land and Water Conservation Fund” became a significant factor in the 1970s. Today, land acquisitions continue through various donations, purchases, and exchange authorities. Approximately 18 percent of the 72-mile shoreline is federally owned, and approximately 78 percent of the area around Lake Tahoe is public land managed by the USFS. In April of 1973, the portions of National Forest Lands from the Eldorado, Tahoe, and Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forests within the Tahoe Basin were consolidated into the new Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, which today manages the area with special focus on erosion control management, watershed restoration, fire management, forest management, and recreation management. The Santini-Burton Act Congress passed the Santini-Burton Act (S-B Act; P.L. 96-586), on December 23, 1980. In passing the Act, Congress declared that the environmental quality of the Lake Tahoe Basin was being jeopardized by overdevelopment of sensitive lands and that the unique character of the Lake Tahoe Basin is of national significance, deserving further protection. The passage marked a major commitment and emphasis by the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit to focus on protecting and restoring the environmental quality of Lake Tahoe. Specific provisions in the Act directed the USFS to:

• Acquire environmentally sensitive land.
• Restore watersheds on acquired National Forest Systems lands.
• Administer erosion control grants to units of local government.

The Santini-Burton Act authorized the sale of about 7,000 acres of BLM lands within Clark County in Southern Nevada to allow more orderly development of the communities there. The legislation further authorized the USFS to acquire, by purchase and donation, sensitive lands in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Properties eligible for purchase under the Act are wetlands, stream environment zones, or steep and fragile lands. It took about 1.5 years to complete the planning phases, with the first acquisition recorded in October 1982. Erosion Control Grants Another provision originally included in the Santini-Burton Act authorized a sum equal to 15 percent of the acquisition dollars to be put toward erosion control grants to local governments. Allocations to the five local jurisdictions were proportionate to the acres acquired under the Act. More than $16 million has been appropriated for these grants, funding in whole or in part more than 80 water quality improvement projects. The ability to fund erosion control grants was lost with SNPLMA’s changes to Santini-Burton.

Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act of 1998 (SNPLMA; P.L. 105-263) To further direct and facilitate public land disposal in the Las Vegas Valley to accommodate a growing population and accompanying economic development needs, Congress passed SNPLMA in 1998, which authorized the sale of approximately 50,000 acres of federal land within a specific area in Clark County, Nevada and created a special account into which 85 percent of the revenue generated by land sales or exchanges is deposited for the use of conservation and environmental mitigation projects, primarily in Clark County. The legislation further directed that if any such lands are within the SNPLMA disposal boundary that were first established by the Santini-Burton Act, the proceeds shall be used by the Secretary of Agriculture to “acquire environmentally sensitive land in the Lake Tahoe Basin pursuant to Section 3 of the Santini-Burton Act” and not for other purposes authorized in Santini-Burton. The USFS’s understanding of SNPLMA is that the law does not authorize the use of any SNPLMA funds for the other purposes in Santini-Burton (i.e., grants to localities in Section 2(g)(1) and land management by the USFS referenced in Section 2(h)) other than for land acquisition. SNPLMA funding is also available to be expended by the USDA Secretary for the following purposes in the Lake Tahoe Basin:

• Development and implementation of multijurisdictional hazardous fuels reduction and wildfire prevention plans for the Lake Tahoe Basin, and
• Environmental restoration projects in accordance with the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act.

However, federal agencies have interpreted that the use of SNPLMA funds does not encompass the purposes described in Santini-Burton, namely, water pollution control, soil erosion mitigation, and management of acquired lands. Prior to the modification of Santini-Burton by SNPLMA, the USFS acquired more than 3,500 subdivision parcels totaling 13,000 acres. Following SNPLMA becoming law in 1998, 24 parcels totaling 3,208 acres have been acquired for $77.3 million using the Santini-Burton/SNPLMA funding set-aside.

Santini-Burton Modernization Act Tahoe Partners introduced the Santini-Burton Modernization Act in 2026 in large part to restore the USFS’s ability to manage lands in the Lake Tahoe Basin, a provision of the original Act that was inadvertently removed in subsequent amendments to SNPLMA. The bill would also recognize the Washoe Tribe of California and Nevada as a partner agency and eligible entity to receive and manage certain lands, on equal footing with state and local entities.