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Advocacy group sues Utah to keep 18.5 million acres of land in federal hands

Land near St. George overlooked by the Bureau of Land Management on Oct. 7, 2024. Utah has filed a lawsuit against the federal government in an attempt to gain control of 18.5 million acres of land. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance is trying to stop them.
David Condos
/
KUER
Land near St. George overlooked by the Bureau of Land Management on Oct. 7, 2024. Utah has filed a lawsuit against the federal government in an attempt to gain control of 18.5 million acres of land. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance is trying to stop them.

A Utah environmental group is pushing back against the state's lawsuit seeking to take control of 18.5 million acres of public land managed by the federal government.

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, or SUWA, says the state’s lawsuit and its attempts to remove federal oversight violates the Utah constitution. So, the environmental advocacy group is filing its own suit against the Gov. Spencer Cox and the Utah Attorney General’s Office.

“We're going to enforce the commitment that Utah made when it entered the union – that it would forever disclaim its interest in these lands,” said SUWA legal director Steve Bloch, on Dec. 18.

“These places are too special to simply allow Utah to sell them off, to see them sold off for the highest bidder.”

Utah filed the landmark lawsuit in August and petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case that would shift management of 18.5 million acres of “unappropriated” public land from the Bureau of Land Management to the state. “Unappropriated” land, which dates back to the Utah Enabling Act of 1894, is basically federal land that does not have a designated purpose. The lawsuit does not touch “appropriated” land, such as national parks, wilderness and recreation areas, and military and tribal lands.

Essentially, Bloch argues the state agreed to give up millions of acres of land to the federal government in return for becoming a state. But now, he said, the state is trying to go back on its word.

Article III of the Utah constitution reads: “the people inhabiting this State do affirm and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries hereof.”

“That was a commitment that Utah, the citizens of Utah, made at statehood, and our lawsuit is seeking to enforce that,” Bloch added.

The state has long battled the federal government on the topic, arguing that it shouldn’t own and manage roughly 70% of Utah land and that the current situation limits access to lands that should be enjoyed by the public. Additionally, the state purports Utah would manage the land in question better than the federal government.

Earlier this month, the Biden Administration asked the high court to reject Utah’s plea to hear the case, stating the lawsuit lacks merit.

Bloch believes if Utah were to gain control of the acres in question, the state wouldn’t manage them. Rather, Utah would privatize the lands and the public would be barred from using them for recreational activities.

“I think the public lands in this state are something that Utahns [and] Americans love and [they] cherish their ability to access and enjoy these places,” he said. “What Utah has embarked on really seeks to upend that fundamental fabric of the American West.”

While the Supreme Court hasn’t made a decision on whether it will hear the case, it isn’t stopping Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance from challenging the state. Bloch told KUER that the ultimate goal of their lawsuit is to block the state from pursuing its lawsuit.

Incoming Utah Attorney General Derek Brown declined KUER’s request for comment on the countersuit. But during an October debate ahead of the general election, Brown voiced his support of Utah’s ongoing legal battle.

“It is critical that as a state, we have the ability to control it [public lands] and not individuals who are unaccountable, 1,800 miles away,” Brown said of Washington D.C.

Bloch said “if lightning strikes” and the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case, his organization will “move ahead with all speed to get a resolution and try to stop the state from being able to pursue this case.”

Saige is a politics reporter and co-host of KUER's State Street politics podcast
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