---
kind: "section"
citation: "16 U.S.C. § 583a"
title: "16"
title_heading: "Conservation"
number: "583a"
heading: "Cooperative agreements with private owners; privileges of private owners; recordation of agreements"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/16/583a"
units:
  - "Chapter 3 — Forests; Forest Service; Reforestation; Management"
  - "Subchapter IV — Sustained-Yield Forest Management"
---

# §583a. Cooperative agreements with private owners; privileges of private owners; recordation of agreements


The [Secretary](/usc/16/580p.md?p=3) of Agriculture, with respect to forest land under his jurisdiction, and the [Secretary](/usc/16/580p.md?p=3) of the Interior, with respect to forest land under his jurisdiction, are severally authorized, for the purposes specified in [section 583 of this title](/usc/16/583.md), to enter into cooperative agreements with private [owners](/usc/16/429b–3.md?p=4) of forest land within a cooperative sustained-yield [unit](/usc/16/430f–7.md?p=4), established pursuant to said section, providing for the coordinated management of such private forest land and of federally owned or administered [forest lands](/usc/16/544.md?p=f) within the sustained-yield [unit](/usc/16/430f–7.md?p=4) involved. Each cooperative agreement may give the cooperating private landowner the privilege of purchasing without competitive bidding at prices not less than their appraised value, subject to periodic readjustments of stumpage rates and to such other conditions and requirements as the [Secretary](/usc/16/580p.md?p=3) may prescribe, timber and other forest products from federally owned or administered forest land within the [unit](/usc/16/430f–7.md?p=4), in accordance with the provisions of sustained-yield [management plans](/usc/16/544.md?p=k) formulated or approved by the [Secretary](/usc/16/580p.md?p=3) for the [unit](/usc/16/430f–7.md?p=4); shall limit the time, rate, and method of cutting or otherwise harvesting timber and other forest products from the land of the cooperating private landowner, due consideration being given to the character and condition of the timber, to the relation of the proposed cutting to the sustained-yield plan for the [unit](/usc/16/430f–7.md?p=4), and to the productive capacity of the land; shall prescribe the terms and conditions, but not the price, upon which the cooperating private landowner may sell to any [person](/usc/16/450rr–1.md?p=b) timber and other forest products from his land, compliance by the purchaser with such conditions to be required by the contract of sale; shall contain such provisions as the [Secretary](/usc/16/580p.md?p=3) deems necessary to protect the reasonable interest of other [owners](/usc/16/429b–3.md?p=4) of forest land within the [unit](/usc/16/430f–7.md?p=4); and shall contain such other provisions as the [Secretary](/usc/16/580p.md?p=3) believes necessary to carry out the purposes of this subchapter.

Each cooperative agreement shall be placed on record in the county or [counties](/usc/16/544.md?p=d) in which the lands of the cooperating private landowner covered thereby are located, and the costs incident to such recordation may be paid out of any funds available for the protection or management of federally owned or administered forest land within the [unit](/usc/16/430f–7.md?p=4). When thus recorded, the agreement shall be binding upon the heirs, successors, and assigns of the [owner](/usc/16/429b–3.md?p=4) of such land, and upon purchasers of timber or other forest products from such land, throughout the life of such cooperative agreement.


## Source credit

(Mar. 29, 1944, ch. 146, § 2, 58 Stat. 132.)