Land Withdrawal - Types of Withdrawals

• Administrative withdrawals are made by the President, the Secretary of the Interior, or other authorized officer of the Executive branch of the Federal government. Examples include Executive Orders, Presidential Proclamations, Secretarial Orders, Public Land Orders, Departmental Orders, U.S. Geological Survey Orders, BLM Orders, etc. Currently, only the public land order signed by the Secretary or Assistant Secretary of the Interior is used for administrative withdrawals. However, the President still has authority to make emergency withdrawals.
• Presidential Proclamations withdrawals are made by the President pursuant to the authority under the Section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 U.S.C. 431). The President may use the authority to designate historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest. Examples include Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and Hanford Reach National Monument.
• Congressional withdrawals are legislative actions by Congress in the form of public laws (Acts of Congress). Examples are Wilderness designations, National Parks, Wild and Scenic River designations, etc.
• FPA or FERC withdrawals are established under the authority of the Federal Power Act of June 10, 1920. Such withdrawals are automatically created upon filing an application for hydroelectric power development with the FERC, formerly the FPC. NOTE: Do not confuse FERC power project withdrawals with power site reserves, power site classifications, waterpower designations, and reservoir site reserves, which are all Administrative withdrawals.