A long-anticipated land exchange between the
state and federal governments lurched a little closer toward the finish
line Monday with the release of a draft Environmental Assessment
of a proposed deal that would give the Bureau of Land Management nearly
46,000 of state acres with conservation and recreational values. In exchange, the state School and Institutional
Trust Lands Administration, or SITLA, would gain 35,516 acres of
federal lands with oil and gas and other kinds of profitable potential.
Most of the lands the feds are giving up is in Uintah County, while most
of the state holdings are in Grand County. At statehood, Utah was granted four sections of
land per township, resulting in a checkerboard pattern of ownership
that does not lend itself to efficient management. SITLA, whose mission
is to maximize revenue off its lands, holds sections land-locked within
wilderness study areas and other BLM tracts with special designations
that complicate development. The deal, authorized by the 2009 Utah Recreational Land Exchange Act,
is designed to enable the state to consolidate its scattered holdings.
It loses popular recreation destinations like Corona Arch near Moab, but
gains land with valuable resources...more
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