Electronic Green Journal

This article explores land exchanges as an integral part of federal natural resources policy. The purpose of this essay is to present a broad historical and political overview of the policies regarding federal land exchanges. A second important purpose of this essay is to review the acts of official malfeasance that have surrounded federal land exchanges since the beginning. We argue that land exchanges must be understood in the broader context of the expansionist character of the U.S. as a developing nation and the later attempts to conserve natural resources; and, the policies supporting that expansion must be seen through the catalyst of constitutional and statutory law. Land exchanges policy is the product of history and its economic dynamics.