public land

noun

Definition of public land

: land owned by a government specifically : that part of the U.S. public domain subject to sale or disposal under the homestead laws

Examples of public land in a Sentence

the management of public lands The government will auction off 20 parcels of public land.

Recent Examples on the Web

After the war, the military relinquished the land to the Department of the Interior, and today the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages the approximately 1.4 million acres of public land including what is now known as the Valley of the Names. — Jennifer Nalewicki, Smithsonian, "This Desert Is Covered in Rock Graffiti," 22 Aug. 2019 Michigan is adding 1,000 acres of prime forest — including a 1.5-mile stretch along the Au Sable River — to its public lands, the state Department of Natural Resources announced this week. — Detroit Free Press Staff, Detroit Free Press, "Michigan adds 1,000-acre forest near Au Sable to public lands," 8 Aug. 2019 Plus, the purchase of a fishing license puts money directly back into CPW, helping to maintain and protect our public lands. — Patricia Cameron, The Know, "10 of the best spots to fish in Colorado," 22 June 2019 Federal agents have dismantled at least six other outlaw marijuana farms on public lands in Northern California recently. — Zoë Schlanger, Quartz, "Illegal marijuana growers are poisoning national forests with banned pesticides," 23 Aug. 2019 The agency has not yet received any requests to hold an event on public land in Rachel, Bush says. — Rachel E. Greenspan, Time, "'I’ll Do Anything in My Power to Prevent This.' How a Small Nevada Town Is Bracing Itself for 'Alienstock,' the Area 51 Music Festival," 16 Aug. 2019 Several Democratic candidates have proposed ending fracking on public lands; only a few (Jay Inslee, Bernie Sanders, and Tom Steyer) have explicitly proposed pursuing a national ban. — David Roberts, Vox, "Fracking may be a bigger climate problem than we thought," 16 Aug. 2019 Shed-crazed outdoorsmen reacted by piling onto public lands in Nevada, where regulations weren’t yet in place. — Mike Koshmrl, National Geographic, "What it takes to catch antler thieves," 19 July 2019 The action, which expands the administration’s rewrite of U.S. environmental laws, is the latest that targets protections, including for water, air and public lands. — Ellen Knickmeyer, Twin Cities, "US government weakens application of Endangered Species Act," 12 Aug. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'public land.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.