Pub. L. 93-251, tit. I, sec. 99

Sec. 99. The Cache River Basin Project Feature Mississippi River and Tributaries Project, Arkansas, authorized by the Flood Control Act approved May 17, 1950, is hereby modified to provide for acquisition by fee or easements, of not more than seventy thousand acres of land for fish and wildlife management, recreation, and environmental purposes, of which not less than thirty thousand acres shall be available for public use in accordance with the recommendations of the Chief of Engineers in House Document Numbered 92–366. The total Federal expenditure for this acquisition shall not exceed $7,000,000 and local interests shall contribute 50 per centum of any cost in excess of $6,000,000. No action may be initiated for any taking of prospective mitigation lands until an offer has first been made to the landowner thereof to take only an environmental easement. Easement-taking offers shall allow the landowner the choice of either keeping access subject to private control or allowing public access. Easements for environmental purposes on lands not cleared at the time of taking shall prevent clearing of the land for commercial agricultural purposes or any other purpose inconsistent with wildlife habitat but shall allow any landowners to manage the lands to provide a perpetual, regularly harvested hardwood forest, which may be harvested hi such a manner as to provide food and habitat for a variety of wildlife. Selection of areas and designation of use shall be within the discretion of the Chief of Engineers. Section 401 of the Act of June 15, 1935 (16 U.S.C. 715s), pertaining to the distribution of revenues, is hereby extended and made applicable to those lands acquired hereunder by the Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers, for mitigation purposes upon their transfer to the Department of the Interior, or any other governmental agency. No less than 20 per centum of the funds appropriated each fiscal year for the Cache River project shall be appropriated to implement mitigation until the full mitigation amount has been appropriated.