The bill directs the Secretary of Agriculture (acting through the Forest Service) to convey specified parcels of National Forest System land to Navajo County and Apache County, Arizona, if each county requests the conveyance within a statutory deadline. The parcels are small (roughly 2.5 acres and 8–2.56 acres respectively), must be used as cemeteries, and revert to federal ownership if used otherwise.
Conveyances are by quitclaim deed, made without consideration, subject to valid existing rights, and exclude application of section 120(h) of CERCLA. Counties must pay all transaction costs (surveys, environmental analyses).
The bill creates a narrow, administrable path for local cemetery expansions while shifting due-diligence and cost burdens to the counties and preserving a federal reversion remedy for misuse.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill requires the Forest Service to transfer identified parcels within the Apache‑Sitgreaves National Forest to Navajo County (if requested within 180 days) and Apache County (if requested within 365 days). Transfers are quitclaim, without payment, and conditioned on cemetery use and payment of conveyance costs by the counties.
Who It Affects
Directly affected parties are Navajo County and Apache County governments, the U.S. Forest Service, and local residents who use or will use the cemeteries. Indirectly affected actors include surveyors, environmental consultants, and any parties with existing rights on the parcels.
Why It Matters
It creates a compact statutory template for small, local-purpose transfers out of National Forest lands that prioritizes local service needs over federal retention. The bill reallocates due-diligence and transactional costs to counties and narrows certain federal environmental-notice requirements, changing customary risk and administrative allocations in small land transfers.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The Act sets out two separate conveyances from the Apache‑Sitgreaves National Forest. For Navajo County the statute identifies two adjacent parcels labeled on a specified map (‘‘Pinedale Cemetery Expansion’’ dated May 23, 2022) and ties the conveyance to a county request filed within 180 days of enactment.
For Apache County the statute references an exhibit map (‘‘Exhibit, Alpine Cemetery Townsite,’’ dated October 2019) and allows 365 days for the county to seek conveyance. In both cases the exact acreage and legal description are finalized only after a survey acceptable to the Secretary.
Both conveyances are governed by a common set of mechanics: the United States conveys its interest by quitclaim deed and requires the receiving county to cover all costs associated with surveying and any environmental or resource analyses federal law requires. The bills explicitly make the transfers without monetary consideration and permit the Secretary to correct minor map errors; they also allow the Secretary to impose additional terms and conditions necessary to protect U.S. interests.The statute conditions the transfers on mandatory cemetery use.
If a county puts conveyed land to uses inconsistent with cemetery purposes, title automatically reverts to the United States. The bill also states the conveyances are ‘‘not subject to section 120(h) of CERCLA,’’ meaning the specific procedural CERCLA notice and disclosure provision tied to many federal land transfers does not apply here.
That carve-out, together with the quitclaim form of deed, creates a conveyance that is administratively straightforward but conveys property in an ‘‘as‑is’’ posture where the counties assume much of the transactional and post‑transfer risk.Operationally, this framework expedites small, local transfers while leaving several implementation tasks to be handled administratively: completing surveys, determining any valid existing rights that survive the transfer, specifying the Secretary’s additional protective conditions, and documenting map availability for public inspection. The combination of deadlines, cost allocation, and reversion language gives counties a clear path to acquire land for local cemetery expansion while preserving a federal backstop if cemetery use is abandoned or misused.
The Five Things You Need to Know
Navajo County must submit a written request within 180 days of enactment; Apache County has 365 days to request its conveyance.
The Navajo County conveyance covers two parcels totaling about 5 acres (two ~2.5‑acre tracts); Apache County’s conveyance covers two parcels totaling about 10.62 acres (2.56 and 8.06 acres).
The United States conveys title by quitclaim deed and requires no payment from the counties; transfers remain subject to valid existing rights.
Each county must pay all conveyance costs, including any surveys and environmental analyses required by federal law.
The conveyed land must be used as a cemetery; non‑cemetery use triggers an automatic reversion of title to the United States.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Short title
This brief opening clause names the statute the ‘‘Apache County and Navajo County Conveyance Act of 2025.’
Navajo County: parcels, map, and deadline
Section 2 identifies the Navajo County parcels by reference to a map titled ‘‘Pinedale Cemetery Expansion’’ (May 23, 2022) and describes two tracts—an existing cemetery and a proposed expansion—each roughly 2.5 acres. The statute requires the county to submit a written request within 180 days; absent that request the conveyance does not occur. The Secretary may correct minor mapping errors and must have a public copy of the map on file. The provision also requires a survey acceptable to the Secretary to fix the exact acreage and legal description before final conveyance.
Form of transfer, costs, cemetery requirement, and reversion
These subsections set the operative terms: transfers are by quitclaim deed and made without monetary consideration; they remain subject to existing rights (easements or other third‑party interests). Counties bear all transactional costs, including surveys and any environmental/resource studies federal law requires. The statute mandates cemetery use and creates an automatic reversion mechanism if use departs from that purpose. Importantly, Congress excluded application of CERCLA section 120(h) to these transfers, which removes a common statutory notice-and-disclosure procedure tied to contamination on federal properties being transferred.
Apache County: larger parcel, separate deadline
Section 3 mirrors Section 2 but applies to Apache County and different mapped tracts (‘‘Exhibit, Alpine Cemetery Townsite,’’ dated October 2019). The two parcels total approximately 10.62 acres (about 2.56 acres for the existing Alpine Cemetery and about 8.06 acres for the proposed townsite tract). Apache County has 365 days from enactment to request conveyance. The same requirements for survey, quitclaim deed, county payment of costs, cemetery use, reversion, and CERCLA 120(h) exclusion apply.
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Who Benefits
- Navajo County government — obtains legally dedicated cemetery land close to the community, enabling local burial services and municipal control over cemetery management without negotiating a complex administrative land-use waiver.
- Apache County government — receives a larger parcel that can serve expanded townsite and cemetery needs, reducing pressure on private land and local governments to secure burial space.
- Local families and funeral service providers — gain proximate, county‑operated cemetery capacity, which can reduce travel time and logistical burdens for interments in rural areas.
- U.S. Forest Service — offloads management responsibility and long‑term maintenance obligations for small, localized parcels that do not further national-forest purposes, simplifying its land‑management portfolio.
Who Bears the Cost
- Navajo County and Apache County governments — must pay all conveyance costs, including potentially expensive environmental analyses, surveys, and any mitigation the Forest Service requires as a precondition to transfer.
- Local taxpayers — bear ongoing maintenance costs for the transferred cemeteries and any unanticipated environmental remediation expenses not covered by federal programs because the statutory CERCLA 120(h) process does not apply.
- Potential third‑party interest holders (e.g., holders of valid existing easements) — may see their interests continue intact post‑transfer but could face negotiation or enforcement costs if boundaries or uses change after conveyance.
- Forest Service and federal agencies — lose discretionary control over these parcels and may face administrative costs enforcing reversion if counties violate the cemetery-use condition.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is between meeting a discrete local public‑service need (more cemetery capacity under county control) and preserving federal stewardship and environmental protections for National Forest lands: the bill solves access and administrative hurdles for counties but shifts cost, risk, and long‑term stewardship onto local governments while narrowing federal disclosure procedures and providing title in an ‘‘as‑is’’ quitclaim form.
The bill accelerates small parcel conveyances for a specific local purpose but shifts the most consequential responsibilities to counties. By excluding CERCLA section 120(h), Congress removed a procedural step that often requires a formal contamination notice before federal land changes hands.
That expedites transfers but leaves ambiguity about contamination disclosures and cleanup expectations—conveyance by quitclaim and the ‘‘as‑is’’ posture mean counties may inherit latent environmental liabilities. The statute requires counties to pay for environmental analysis, but it does not create a federal indemnity or remediation fund, nor does it state whether any discovered contamination would be remediated before transfer.
The reversion clause enforces the cemetery requirement but raises practical monitoring and enforcement questions: who documents a violation, how long does the Secretary have to exercise reversion, and what burdens of proof apply? The Secretary’s discretion to impose ‘‘other terms and conditions’’ gives the agency tools to require protective measures, but it also creates potential variability across transfers and room for delay.
Finally, the maps referenced are dated (2019 and 2022) and the statute permits minor corrections; in tight‑boundary, community contexts, post‑survey adjustments to acreage or lines can produce local disputes or change what the county expected to receive.
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