16 USC § 472 - Laws affecting national forest lands

---
identifier: "/us/usc/t16/s472"
source: "usc"
legal_status: "official_prima_facie"
title: "16 USC § 472 - Laws affecting national forest lands"
title_number: 16
title_name: "CONSERVATION"
section_number: "472"
section_name: "Laws affecting national forest lands"
chapter_number: 2
chapter_name: "NATIONAL FORESTS"
subchapter_number: "I"
subchapter_name: "ESTABLISHMENT AND ADMINISTRATION"
positive_law: false
currency: "119-84"
last_updated: "2026-04-17"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
source_credit: "(Feb. 1, 1905, ch. 288, § 1, 33 Stat. 628.)"
---


# 1 Laws affecting national forest lands

See References in Text note below.

[^1]

The Secretary of the Department of Agriculture shall execute or cause to be executed all laws affecting public lands reserved under the provisions of section 471  of this title, or sections supplemental to and amendatory thereof, after such lands have been so reserved, excepting such laws as affect the surveying, prospecting, locating, appropriating, entering, relinquishing, reconveying, certifying, or patenting of any of such lands.

---

**Source Credit**: (Feb. 1, 1905, ch. 288, § 1, 33 Stat. 628.)

## Editorial Notes

### References in Text

, referred to in text, was in the original a reference to section 24 of , , and was repealed by , , .

### Codification

Words “subject to the provisions for national forests established under subdivision (b) of ,” which had been inserted by the original codifiers of the 1926 ed. of the Code, have been omitted because of the repeal of  by .