Utah Lawmakers Hint at “War” in Federal Land Dispute

It’s worth noting that Utah is not seeking possession of all federally owned lands within its borders. Unappropriated land, by definition, does not include lands owned by the federal government for courthouses, post offices, military bases, and so on. Unappropriated lands are also separate from national parks, national forests, and similarly protected wilderness areas. Taken altogether, the lands in question amount to just under half of the federal total for Utah. The state disavowed the rest.

“Unappropriated” can be misleading in other ways. As Utah noted in its lawsuit, those vast tracts do not simply sit idle. “Those 18.5 million acres are administered by the federal Bureau of Land Management … which earns significant revenue by leasing those lands to private parties for activities such as oil and gas production, grazing, and commercial filmmaking, and by selling timber and other valuable natural resources that the federal government retains for its own exploitation,” the state observed. If anything, Utah wants the revenue and regulatory control over those resources that the federal government currently enjoys.

The federal government’s landholdings in Utah, Nevada, and other Western states are the product of its westward expansion. When Congress admitted Utah to the Union in 1896, it required the state’s constitutional convention to proclaim “that the people inhabiting said proposed state do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof.” Other Western states made similar disavowals when they attained statehood as well. That declaration is what Utah now seeks to renege upon.