Grand Canyon Trust is pleased to announce that the Utah Recreational Land Exchange Act (HR 2069) passed the House on September 27th. This legislation will protect nearly 50,000 acres of sensitive wildlands in eastern Utah and along the Colorado River corridor. This victorious vote was the result of 3 years of intensive effort by Laura Kamala and Bill Hedden working with Utah State Trust Lands Administration to promote the bill and 2 years of steady work in the House Resources Committee to refine and rewrite the legislation. The Trust is now working towards a positive vote in the Senate and President Bush's signature in order to implement the bill before the end of the year.

Please contact your Senator and ask him/her to support S2788.

To view a Salt Lake Tribune story regarding the bill's passage click here.  (Word doc)

Below is a copy of a press release from Congressman Jim Matheson (D-Utah) praising the collaborative effort.

Matheson Praises Collaboration on Land Swap Bill

Washington D.C.-Congressman Jim Matheson said House passage of a bipartisan land exchange between the Utah school trust land administration and the Bureau of Land Management is a "sign of substantial progress" after a past controversial land exchange proposal held up the process.  Matheson is a cosponsor of the bill.

The Utah Recreational Land Exchange Act of 2005 (HR 2069) authorizes the exchange of more than 40,000 acres of school trust lands for roughly the same number of acres of BLM land. The parcels of state trust land are scattered-in checkerboard fashion-amid the federal land, complicating each agency's management requirements.

"A lot of people representing diverse interests came together and worked hard to resolve some tough issues, including how the valuation of the land should be determined," said Matheson.  "The result-I believe-is a proposal that is both fair to the taxpayer, beneficial to Utah school children, and a better configuration for land managers to protect habitat, watershed and recreational values."

Matheson said the BLM will receive parcels of state school trust land in Grand and San Juan Counties that include portions of Westwater Canyon, the nationally-recognized Kokopelli and Slickrock trails, multiple wilderness study areas and proposed wilderness areas and some of the largest natural rock arches in the U.S.  He said that the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) will receive BLM lands in Uintah County with known oil and natural gas reserves that will produce significant revenue for Utah schools.

"The Utah Recreational Land Exchange Act protects more than 40,000 acres of critical wild lands along the Colorado River while increasing revenues for Utah's schoolchildren.  It is the kind of bipartisan legislation that makes sense for everybody," said Bill Hedden, Director of the Grand Canyon Trust.

"We would particularly like to thank Congressman Matheson for his efforts in obtaining House approval of the exchange legislation. He and his staff have worked consistently over the last two years to develop compromise legislation that could be enacted by Congress.  This bill is a great example of what bipartisan cooperation can make possible -both protection of the environment and funding for public schools," said Kevin Carter, Director of SITLA.

Matheson said under the terms of the bill, the lands to be exchanged will be conveyed on an equal value basis. SITLA will continue to share mineral lease revenue produced from federal land.  The measure also creates a special fund through which additional state lands with high conservation values could be purchased by the Department of Interior in the future.

"This bill demonstrates that involving diverse stakeholders in an inclusive open process results in progress. My preference is that we adopt this approach with future land exchanges as well," said Matheson.