I
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4579
To provide for the exchange of certain lands within the State of Utah.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 6, 2000
Mr. HANSEN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Resources
A BILL
To provide for the exchange of certain lands within the
State of Utah.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Utah West Desert
Land Exchange Act of 2000’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following:
(1) The State of Utah owns approximately
95,095.19 acres of land, as well as approximately
11,187.60 acres of mineral interests, located in the
West Desert region of Utah and contained wholly or
partially within certain wilderness study areas cre-
ated pursuant to section 603 of the Federal Lands
Policy and Management Act of 1976, or proposed by
the Bureau of Land Management for wilderness
study area status pursuant to section 202 of that
Act. These lands were granted by the Congress to
the State of Utah pursuant to the Utah Enabling
Act of 1894 (chapter 138; 23 Stat. 107), to be held
in trust for the benefit of the State’s public school
system and other public institutions. The lands are
largely scattered in checkerboard fashion amidst the
Federal lands comprising the remainder of such ex-
isting and proposed wilderness study areas.
(2) Many of the State trust lands within exist-
ing and proposed wilderness study areas in the West
Desert region may contain significant economic
quantities of mineral resources, including gold, sil-
ver, copper, nickel, lead, phosphates, oil, natural gas,
and other energy and metalliferous minerals, and
may also have substantial market value for rec-
reational and agricultural uses. Certain of these
lands, like the Federal lands comprising the remain-
der of the existing and proposed wilderness study
areas, have substantial noneconomic scientific, his-
toric, scenic, recreational, and natural resources.
(3) Development of surface and mineral re-
sources on State trust lands within existing or pro-
posed wilderness study areas, or the sale of such
lands into private ownership, could be incompatible
with management of such lands for nonimpairment
of their wilderness characteristics pursuant to sec-
tion 603(c) of the Federal Land Policy and Manage-
ment Act of 1976 or with future congressional des-
ignation of the lands as wilderness.
(4) The United States owns lands and interests
in lands outside of existing and proposed wilderness
study areas that can be transferred to the State of
Utah in exchange for the West Desert wilderness
inholdings without jeopardizing Federal management
objectives or needs.
(5) The large presence of State trust land
inholdings in existing and proposed wilderness study
areas in the West Desert region makes land and re-
source management in these areas difficult, costly,
and controversial for both the State of Utah and the
United States.
(6) It is in the public interest to reach agree-
ment on exchange of such inholdings, on terms fair
to both the State of Utah and the United States.
Such an agreement, subject to ratification by the
Congress, would save much time and delay in meet-
ing the legitimate expectations of the State school
and institutional trusts, in simplifying management
of Federal lands, and in avoiding the significant
time and expense associated with administrative land
exchanges.
(7) The State of Utah and the United States
have reached an agreement under which the State
would exchange all its State trust lands within speci-
fied wilderness study areas and areas identified as
having wilderness characteristics in the West Desert
region for various Federal lands and interests in
lands outside of those areas but in the same region
of Utah. The agreement also provides for the State
to convey to the United States approximately 483
acres of land in Washington County, Utah, that has
been designated as critical habitat for the Desert
Tortoise, a threatened species, for inclusion in the
Red Cliffs Desert Reserve.
(8) Because the inholdings to be acquired by
the Federal Government include properties within
some of the most spectacular wild areas in the west-
ern United States, and because a mission of the
Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Adminis-
tration is to produce economic benefits for Utah’s
public schools and other beneficiary institutions, the
exchange of lands called for in this agreement will
resolve longstanding environmental conflicts with re-
spect to the existing and proposed wilderness study
areas, place important natural lands into public
ownership, and further the interests of the State
trust lands, the school children of Utah, and these
conservation resources.
(9) Under this agreement taken as a whole, the
State interests to be conveyed to the United States
by the State of Utah, and the Federal interests to
be conveyed to the State of Utah by the United
States, are approximately equal in value.
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to enact
into law and direct prompt implementation of this agree-
ment, and thereby to further the public interest by consoli-
dating State and Federal lands into manageable units
while facilitating the protection of lands with significant
scientific, cultural, and natural resources.
SEC. 3. RATIFICATION OF THE AGREED EXCHANGE BE-
TWEEN THE STATE OF UTAH AND THE DE-
PARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR.
(a) AGREEMENT.—The State of Utah and the De-
partment of the Interior have agreed to exchange certain
Federal lands and mineral interests in the State of Utah
for lands and mineral interests of approximately equal
value managed by the Utah School and Institutional Trust
Lands Administration wholly or partially within certain
existing and proposed wilderness study areas in the West
Desert region of Utah.
(b) RATIFICATION.—All terms, conditions, proce-
dures, covenants, reservations, and other provisions set
forth in the document entitled ‘‘Agreement for Exchange
of Lands—West Desert State-Federal Land Consolida-
tion’’, dated May 30, 2000 (in this Act referred to as ‘‘the
Agreement’’), are hereby incorporated in this Act, are rati-
fied and confirmed, and set forth the obligations of the
United States, the State of Utah, and the Utah School
and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, as a matter
of Federal law.
SEC. 4. CONVEYANCES.
(a) CONVEYANCES.—All conveyances under sections
2 and 3 of the Agreement shall be completed within 70
days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
(b) MAPS AND LEGAL DESCRIPTIONS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The maps and legal descrip-
tions referred to in the Agreement depict the lands
subject to the conveyances under the Agreement.
(2) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The maps and de-
scriptions referred to in the Agreement shall be on
file and available for public inspection in the offices
of the Secretary of the Interior and the Utah State
Director of the Bureau of Land Management.
(3) CONFLICT.—In case of any conflict between
the maps and the legal descriptions in the Agree-
ment, the legal descriptions shall control.
SEC. 5. COSTS.
The United States and the State of Utah shall each
bear its own respective costs incurred in the implementa-
tion of this Act.
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