Appendix B

Bear Springs Compound and the McQuinn Strip

The Bear Springs Compound south of the highway is on the McQuinn Strip. According to the Act of September 21, 1972, title to the Federal lands and all improvements on those lands known as McQuinn Strip were declared to be in the United States in trust for the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs (CTWS) and for the exclusive use and benefit of CTWS. The Secretary of Interior, through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is responsible for administering such lands. In addition, the Forest Service has the right to use, without charge, the improvements and the land upon which such improvements are located for as long as they are needed. During such use the Forest Service is obligated to maintain the improvements.

This has several implications in planning for future use of the Bear Springs Compound. The buildings and improvements are currently owned by the BIA, not the Forest Service. While we can use the buildings as long as we need them, we have no authority to rent out BIA buildings. Since we do not own the buildings, there is no property transfer needed when we declare they are no longer needed, nor any requirement to do a cultural resource analysis. Our right of use is similar to a special use which conveys no interest in the property.

When we are ready to vacate the site, we need to discuss our plans with BIA and CTWS and prepare a letter to BIA relinquishing the site. This letter should be reviewed by OGC. It is also recommended we document a hazardous materials review for our own protection. If we are relinquishing only a portion of the site, we will need to clearly identify which buildings, improvements and land we are keeping. This complicates the process as we will need to establish agreements for such things as utilities and roads which will be used by both parties. We also need to keep in mind that once we relinquish any part of the site, we no longer have any right of use under the Act and we no longer have any control over what happens at the site in terms of maintenance, appearance, uses, etc.

Another option to consider would be to relinquish the site and rent back the buildings we need from BIA. Our use in this case would be as a lessee with no rights under the Act. However, if we decide to keep the entire site we can't rent out any of the buildings since they are not our buildings.

Chuck Marsh recommends removing buildings from our property list after they have been turned over to BIA. This would be consistent with our policy of including leased buildings on our property list, although in this case we do not have a lease holder interest.