<P> The fifth largest federal landowner is the U.S. Department of Defense, which owns, leases, or possessed 26.1 million worldwide, of which 11.4 million acres are located in the United States . DOD land is mostly military bases and reservations . The largest single DOD - owned tract is the 2.3 - million - acre White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico . </P> <P> Together, the BLM, FWS, NPS, Forest Service, and DOD manage 97% of federal land . Federal agencies that control smaller amounts of land include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, the United States Postal Service, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the U.S. Department of Energy . </P> <P> Federal land is concentrated in Alaska and the Western United States . Nationwide, the federal government owns 27.4% of all land area . There are significant variations regionally; the federal government owns 61.3% of the land area in Alaska, 46.4% of the land area in the 11 contiguous Western states; and 4.2% of the land area of other stares . The state with the highest percentage of land held by the federal government is Nevada (79.6%); the states with the lowest percentage of land held by the federal government are Connecticut and Iowa (0.3%). </P> <P> From 1990 to 2015, federal acreage declined by about 3.9% due to a decline in land held by DOD and BLM . </P>

Government ownership of property and resources in the united states is