Check whether a plan of operations or a notice is required before disturbing public land
Key facts
- Human involvement
- YellowClose supervision
- How AI is used
- From the proposed activity, list the land, whether it is described as public land, the equipment, the acres of new surface disturbance if the papers state them, and the tons of presumed ore to be removed for testing if the papers state them. Do not decide that the activity is casual use and do not lodge a plan or a notice.
- What the lawyer must review
- On public land, operations greater than casual use need a plan of operations approved by the Bureau before they begin, except where a notice under 43 C.F.R. § 3809.21 is enough (43 C.F.R. § 3809.11(a)). Bulk sampling that removes 1,000 tons or more of presumed ore needs a plan (§ 3809.11(b)). Casual use ordinarily causes no or negligible disturbance. It generally includes hand tools and does not include mechanized earth-moving equipment, truck-mounted drilling equipment, chemicals, or explosives (§ 3809.5). A notice must be complete 15 calendar days before exploration that disturbs 5 acres or less of public land on which reclamation has not been completed (§ 3809.21(a)). A project must not be split into notices to avoid a plan (§ 3809.21(b)). Paragraph (c) of § 3809.11 names special-status areas. Those areas were not copied from the opened text, so you open that paragraph. You decide which filing is required and you approve it before it is lodged.
- Written for / version
- United States versionUS
Who does what
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Assistance | Consider narrowly defined preparation support after confirming the tool’s capability and permitted scope. |
| Lawyer | Set the scope, supervise the work closely, verify every part relied on, resolve omissions and exceptions, and approve the exact output. |
Checklist
- Check the current court or regulator requirements, prescribed form and attachments for the intended document and filing.
- Confirm the output against the client’s instructions and the complete relevant source material, including omissions or contradictions.
- Resolve exceptions and record the responsible lawyer’s approval of the exact output and intended use.