What does it mean if there is a Land and Mineral case on non-federal land ?
Lands and Mineral use records may occurs on lands where the surface is nonfederal but the subsurface minerals are owned by the federal government. This is called split estate lands. The split estate lands are not shown on the Surface Management Agency layer. This is especially true for leaseable minerals such as Oil and Gas and coal. It could also be that the Surface Management Agency layer is incorrect. The Land and Mineral case information should take precedence over the surface management agencies boundaries.
