SALT LAKE CITY – After decades of legal analysis, Utah filed a lawsuit on Aug. 20 seeking to end what state officials consider unconstitutional federal control over public land within the state.
“Today, we filed a historic lawsuit asking the U.S. Supreme Court to address whether the federal government can simply hold un-appropriated lands within a state indefinitely,” explained Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes.
“Current federal land policy violates state sovereignty and offends the original and most fundamental notions of federalism,” he added.
State officials say that the federal government controls nearly 70 percent of land in Utah. In comparison, the federal government owns less than one percent of the land in Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island and less than three percent of the land in Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The state is not challenging the federal government’s jurisdiction over national parks, forests and other congressionally designed areas of Utah, which constitute about 18.8 million acres or half the federal land within the state.
However, the lawsuit does target about 18.5 million acres of land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) under the Federal Land Policy Management Act (FLPMA).
“It’s no secret that we live in the most beautiful state in the nation,” according to Gov. Spencer Cox. “But, when the federal government controls two-thirds of Utah, we are extremely limited in what we can do to actively manage and protect our natural resources.”
State officials argue that the BLM has redefined its mission in recent years to adopt a restrictive, museum-style approach to conservation that limits public access, recreation and economic development.
For example, they say that the BLM recently closed more than 300 miles of road and trails in Grand County, over the state’s objections.
The BLM is also proposing closures of thousands of miles on federal land in Utah, in addition to imposing severe restrictions on access, recreation and infrastructure development in the areas of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in southern Utah.
Cox and Reyes emphasize that those controversial plans are contrary to the BLM’s legal obligations to promote multiple use and sustained yields on federal land.
If the lawsuit is successful, Utah officials intend to take step to acquire the state’s BLM lands and actively manage them for public use, including recreation, wildlife habitat, conservation, energy production, livestock grazing and sustainable resource development.
“We are committed to ensuring that Utahns of all ages and abilities have access to public Lands,” Cox added. “The BLM has increasing failed to keep these lands accessible and appears to be pursuing a course of active restriction.
“It is time for all Utahns to stand up for our land,” the governor said.