Scouts Seek Help From Congress for Land Swap : Parks: Rep. Christopher Cox pushes legislation that would correct mistakes made in a boundary survey conducted in 1880. Trade involves Lost Valley land.

It used to be that trading land or anything else would require only two willing participants and a handshake.

But for the Orange County Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the federal government, it will take an act of Congress to push through a trade involving the Scouts’ Lost Valley Scout Reservation and another piece of land in the Cleveland National Forest.

Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) testified Thursday before the House Subcommittee on National Parks in an effort to speed the land exchange, which would correct mistakes made in a boundary survey conducted in 1880.

Cox called for swift action on the proposed exchange, saying the measure is needed for the growing number of Scouts in Southern California.

“I can’t stress enough the special urgency of this legislation,” Cox told the House subcommittee. “[This] may not be the most significant piece of legislation that this Congress will consider, but it will have an immediate, tangible and positive impact on the lives of the thousands of Boy Scouts who spend their summers at the Lost Valley reservation.”

The Scout reservation--which is in San Diego County but is the principal campsite for the more than 10,000 Scouts in the Orange County Council of the Boy Scouts of America--was purchased by the council in 1958, based on a land survey conducted in 1880.

In 1987, however, the U.S. Forest Service found the 1880 survey to be inaccurate and discovered that a large part of the Boy Scout reservation is located on federal land.

In an effort to show good faith, officials from the Scout council and the Forest Service created the Lost Valley Scout Reservation Boundary Resolution Group in 1989.

The Scout reservation, on about 43 acres of the Cleveland National Forest, includes the reservation’s dining hall and other buildings. The Scout leaders want to make improvements to the dining hall and construct dormitories on the land to accommodate a growing number of Scouts.

To do that, they must take possession of the entire parcel of land.

After a number of negotiating sessions, the Scout leaders offered the Forest Service 94 acres of property, which the council owns in the southeastern section of the national forest, adjacent to the park’s border. The exchange would expand the park by giving the Park Service more than twice the land the Scouts would receive in return.

But Scout officials have run into problems securing permits, because the land where the improvements would be built is on federal property. Mike Harrison, chairman of the boundary resolution group, said the Forest Service has been extremely cooperative in the settlement negotiations. He is hopeful Congress will act quickly on the proposal.

“The land exchange has gotten a little more critical for us because of the growing number of Scouts we have every year,” Harrison said. “But we’re delighted Congressman Cox has cut a little red tape for us and gotten us where we need to be.”

A Cox staffer said he expects the swap to be approved by Congress this fall.