DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
Office of Valuation Services (OVS)
IRWA Federal Agency Update
March 26, 2014
Office of Valuation Services (OVS)
Mission: The mission of the Office of Valuation Services (OVS) is to provide independent
real property valuation services in an efficient, timely, and fiscally responsible manner in
accordance with the highest professional and ethical standards.
Service focus: OVS works with bureau and office clients to ensure that acquisitions,
dispositions and leases involving real property and mineral estates occur at market value
in accordance with industry valuation standards and legal and regulatory requirements.
Clients for OVS include the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Bureau of
Reclamation (BOR), the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Park
Service (NPS). In addition, the OVS Office of Minerals Evaluation (OVS-OME) supports
these clients and the Office of the Special Trustee for Indian Affairs (OST) and the
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
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OVS ORGANIZATION CHART
Office of Valuation
Services: Director
Valuation Services: Deputy Director & Chief Appraiser
Oversight & Operations
Quality
Assurance
Office of Minerals
Evaluation
BLM Client
Service Team
NPS Client
Service Team
FWS Client
Service Team
BOR Client
Service Team
Bureau of
Land
Management
National
Park Service
Fish &
Wildlife
Service
Bureau of
Reclamation
Other Client Agencies: OST/OAS, BIA, etc.
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Business
Administration
Contracting
Office
Business
Operations
ROW ISSUES
• National Park Service:
• Communications Towers
• Some linear rights of way (corridors)
• Attempting to catalog current ROWs
• Bureau of Land Management
• Largest and most significant projects
• Defer to Lucas Lucero
• Fish & Wildlife Service
• Some linear, some communications, but less than BLM, NPS
• Bureau of Reclamation
• Many access ROWs, some linear, some communications towers.
• Other Bureau clients:
• BIA has a significant number, handled through OST/Office of
Appraisal Services.
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ROW ISSUES
• Working with BLM, NPS to develop LT plan for ROW
valuation.
• Establish definition.
• Developing database of ROW information.
• Prioritize and value ROWs directly and with rent schedules.
•
Calls for periodic updates to the schedules (linear and communications)
• Implement Guidance and Training.
• Current status: Still under development, completion
expected in FY 15.
OVS Contacts: Timothy Hansen (timothy_hansen@ios.doi.gov)
and Tanya Henderson (tanya_henderson@ios.doi.gov).
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Land Buy Back Program for Tribal Nations
• Massive undertaking – perhaps largest scale valuation
ever attempted at Interior - $1.9 billion to spend.
• Significant acreage with fractional ownership interest.
•
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~ 94,000 tracts in 150 reservations/tribal areas in twenty states
~ 245,000 individuals
~ 3 million interests
> 10 million acres, with land interest transferring to the Tribe.
• And Ten Years to complete the program.
• Offers based on FMV of land as if held in single
ownership, improvements not considered.
• Interests include surface, subsurface (mineral) and
combined estates.
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Land Buy Back Program for Tribal Nations
• The valuation challenge:
• Identification of the parcels
•
BLM mapping parcels
• Determination of mineral economic potential and timber
•
•
Office of Minerals Evaluation
BIA Forestry Division
• Appraisals (reflecting minerals, timber) on ~94,000 tracts
•
Office of the Special Trustee’s Office of Appraisal Services.
• Values of tracts to BBP, offers based on proportionate share.
• Impossible to do with site specific appraisals.
• Cost, time prohibitive.
• Decision: use mass appraisal techniques where
possible.
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Land Buy Back Program for Tribal Nations
• The valuation plan:
• Appraisal component reviewed by The Appraisal Foundation
• Most fractionated reservations considered for Mass Appraisal
•
Major challenge – obtaining adequate data in non-disclosure states
• Site specific and project appraisals in certain circumstances
• Where commercial influence is high
• For reservations with fewer tracts.
• Current Status:
• Mass appraisals completed on two reservations, underway on
three.
• Site-specific appraisals done on two reservations, two in
process
• Goal to have values for ten+ reservations by end of 2014
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Questions and Comments
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