Land ownership involves more than boundaries, corners, field notes and plats.  Ownership also includes all of the concepts and issues surrounding land tenure.

Land tenure is the complex set of issues encompassing the conditions related to ownership and occupancy of land.  There are many kinds of land tenure, and numerous rights and issues which relate to the land.  The following summarizes some of the concepts of land tenure.

Land tenure is often thought of as dealing with full owners, part owners, managers, and/or tenants.  In context of the Public Land Survey System, Federal cadastral land tenure is primarily concerned with:

1. Fee – unconditional ownership of land, with power of disposition, extending to heirs and legal representatives.
2. Less than fee – ownership of land, subject to conditions.
3. Rights – access to the use of the land and its resources.
4. Trust – land title held by the government as trustee for a federally recognized Indian tribe or an individual member of a tribe.

Some of the land tenure issues which relate directly to the survey and management of public lands include:

• multiple overlapping uses of land and water resources for both public and private uses
• fees, charges, rentals, leases for use of public lands or the resources on public lands
• acquisition of land from, and disposition to, private parties and non-federal governments
• development and management of resources
• access to, and trespass on, public lands and recreation and multiple use of resources
• above surface, surface, and subsurface rights
• air rights
• overlapping jurisdictions
• fee ownership and less than fee ownership
• Indian Trust
• unwritten property rights, future rights, reversionary rights, revocable rights