CATALOGING SUBSURFACE OWNERSHIP IN THE DANIEL BOONE NATIONAL FOREST

In the United States, property can be divided into surface and subsurface estates, which may be sold independently. Subsurface owners reserve the right to remove minerals beneath the land. When land is conveyed to the United States, the vendor can reserve the rights to various minerals in perpetuity or for a period after which the subsurface ownership reverts to the United States. Mineral rights may also be outstanding to a third party, whether that be a previous landowner who reserved subsurface rights during property conveyance or a mining company with a lease for extraction operations, or subject to a royalty interest wherein the party is paid based on the material and amount extracted. Therefore, the title vested in the United States is subject to reservations of mineral rights, which are described in the deed. When the subsurface is separated from the surface estate, the legal terminology used in the conveyance is essential to understanding the mineral rights exchanged. It is crucial to understand the mineral rights on federal lands so that subsequent mineral leases and operations are in accordance with the language in the conveyance.

In the Daniel Boone National Forest, original paper deeds are stored in file folders for the hundreds of land tracts in the forest. Furthermore, the existing ArcGIS map layer of private mineral ownership in the Daniel Boone is outdated and teeming with inconsistent errors. Therefore, information regarding subsurface ownership in the forest cannot be easily and accurately referenced. Following the work completed in many Region 9 forests throughout the Eastern United States, we systematically record subsurface ownership information from the tract folders to a central digital location, including when the land was conveyed to the United States, whether the subsurface is privately or federally owned, and which minerals are privately owned if any. Coal, oil, and gas are the most economically important minerals in the Daniel Boone and therefore the most prevalent in mineral encumbrances, though other minerals are included. During this process, we also inventory tract folder contents in preparation for digitization over the coming months. Here we present our findings from the cataloging process along with an updated map of private subsurface ownership in the Daniel Boone National Forest.