The Surveyor and the Next Edition of the Manual of Surveying Instructions Presented by: John Lee, Chief Cadastral Surveyor BLM Wyoming State Office, Cheyenne, WY Bob Dahl, Cadastral Surveyor BLM Lands and Realty Group, Washington, D.C. Wyoming Engineering Society 85th Annual Convention Gillette, WY – February 4, 2005

What is the Manual of Surveying Instructions? Why is the Manual relevant to the PLS in Wyoming? Agenda

What is impetus for the next edition? Scope of the project – Technical project nested in a web of administration What is the process? How are we going about it? Where are we to date? Agenda

President’s Management Agenda Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Cadastral Survey Next Edition Manual Scope of the Project

Bureau of Land Management

What is the Manual of Instructions for the Survey of the Public Lands of the United States? (Manual) Whom/What is affected?

Why is the Manual Relevant to the PLS in Wyoming?

WYOMING STATUTES (i) The county surveyor or registered land surveyor; (ii) after determination it is a lost corner, shall proceed in accordance with the Manual and Restoration Pamphlet § Establishment of lost corners. (a) Whenever a monument location is in dispute

§ Sec.1(b)(viii) PLS shall conduct a survey, involving public land corners or section retracement or breakdown, in accordance with the Manual and Restoration Pamphlet WYOMING ADMINISTRATIVE RULES

§ Sec. 6(a) PLS must follow the Manual and Restoration Pamphlet for any PLSS corner established, reestablished, monumented, remonumented, restored, rehabilitated, perpetuated or used as control in any survey WYOMING ADMINISTRATIVE RULES

§ Sec. 3(c)(iv) The system of marking PLSS monuments shall follow the Manual WYOMING ADMINISTRATIVE RULES

SUPREME COURT OF WYOMING Porter v. State, 16 Wyo. 131; 92 P. 385 (1907) After quoting predecessor to W.S. § , stated this procedure to ascertain a boundary location was a statutory right

UNITED STATES CODE Title 43 Public Lands § 2 The Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate (BLM) shall perform all executive duties appertaining to the surveying and sale of the public lands of the United States

UNITED STATES CODE Title 25 Indians § 176 Whenever it becomes necessary to survey any Indian lands, the same shall be surveyed under the direction and control of the BLM And as nearly as may be in conformity to the rules and regulations under which other public lands are surveyed

It is settled law that the United States may survey what it owns and thereby establish and reestablish boundaries, but what the government does in this regard is for its own information and cannot affect the rights of owners on the other side of an existing boundary. United States v. State Investment Co., 264 U.S. 206, 212 (1924), citing Lane v. Darlington, 249 U.S. 331, 333 (1919). United States Supreme Court

MANUAL The Manual of Surveying Instructions describes how cadastral surveys of the public lands are made in conformance to statutory law and its judicial interpretation. (1973 Manual § 1-1.) It is within the province of the Director to determine what are public lands, what lands have been surveyed, what are to be surveyed, what have been disposed of, what remains to be disposed of, and what are reserved. (1973 Manual § 1-11.)

By fundamental law, upon the issuance of a patent for land by the Federal government; it is just as if the survey plat and field notes, and the laws, regulations and rules governing how to survey the land described in the patent, are stapled to the face of the patent. The survey rules are spelled out in the manuals, circulars and instructions issued by the GLO and later by the BLM.

Is there still a need for the Manual?

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