II 
Calendar No. 705
107TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4968
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
OCTOBER 2, 2002
Received 
OCTOBER 11 (legislative day, OCTOBER 10), 2002
Read the first time 
OCTOBER 15, 2002
Read the second time and placed on the calendar 
AN ACT 
To provide for the exchange of certain lands in Utah.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
HR 4968 PCS 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal-Utah State 
Trust Lands Consolidation Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) The San Rafael Swell in Utah is a 900-
square mile, wild and beautiful region west of the 
Green River. The San Rafael Swell is dominated by 
the jagged, uplifted San Rafael Reef, which has 
nearly two dozen major canyons and many side 
draws and box canyons. The San Rafael Swell tow-
ers above the desert like a wilderness castle, ringed 
by 1,000-foot ramparts of Navajo sandstone. Its 
highlands have been fractured by uplift and scooped 
hollow by erosion over countless millennia, leaving a 
tremendous basin punctuated by mesas, buttes, and 
canyons and traversed by sediment-laden desert 
streams. 
(2) The San Rafael Swell region was one of the 
country’s last frontiers and possesses important nat-
ural, historical, and cultural resources, including ex-
ceptional backcountry recreation opportunities, pro-
ductive habitat for Desert Bighorn Sheep, important 
historical sites, including sections of the Old Spanish 
Trail and the Outlaw Trail, significant paleontolog-
ical resources, and multiple wilderness study areas
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created pursuant to section 603 of the Federal 
Lands Policy and Management Act of 1976, or oth-
erwise identified by local government and conserva-
tion interests as having significant conservation val-
ues. The beautiful rural landscapes, historic and cul-
tural landscapes, and spectacular scenic vistas of the 
San Rafael Swell region contain significant undevel-
oped recreational opportunities for people through-
out the United States. 
(3) The State of Utah owns approximately 
102,871 acres of land located in the San Rafael 
Swell region and administered by the Utah School 
and Institutional Trust Lands Administration. 
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 sys-
tem and other public institutions. The lands are 
largely scattered in checkerboard fashion amidst the 
Federal lands comprising the remainder of the San 
Rafael Swell area. 
(4) Development of surface and mineral re-
sources on State trust lands within the San Rafael 
Swell area, or the sale of such lands into private 
ownership, could be incompatible with management
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of such lands for nonimpairment of their wilderness 
characteristics pursuant to section 603(c) of the 
Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, 
with future congressional designation of the lands as 
wilderness, or with future designation of such lands 
as a national monument, national heritage area, or 
other conservation designation. 
(5) The State of Utah also owns 3,533 acres of 
land within or directly adjacent to the Manti-La Sal 
National Forest in Grand and Emery Counties, 
Utah, and 6,411 acres of land within the Red Cliffs 
Desert Reserve, a conservation reserve established in 
1995 by the United States and Washington County, 
Utah, to implement a multiple-species habitat con-
servation plan approved by the Fish and Wildlife 
Service under section 10(a) of the Endangered Spe-
cies Act of 1973. The Reserve contains the highest 
density of critical habitat for the Mojave desert tor-
toise, a threatened species, in the United States. 
These State trust lands are also administered by the 
Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Adminis-
tration, but the use of such lands by the State is 
limited because of the conservation designations of 
surrounding Federal lands.
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(6) The United States owns lands and interests 
in lands elsewhere in Utah that can be transferred 
to the State of Utah in exchange for the San Rafael 
Swell inholdings, the Manti-La Sal forest lands, and 
the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve lands without jeopard-
izing Federal management objectives or needs.
(7) The large presence of State trust land 
inholdings in the San Rafael Swell region, the 
Manti-La Sal National Forest, and the Red Cliffs 
Desert Reserve makes land and resource manage-
ment in these areas difficult, costly, and controver-
sial for both the State of Utah and the United 
States. 
(8) 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 Con-
gress and consent by the Utah legislature, would 
save much time and delay in meeting the legitimate 
expectations of the State school and institutional 
trusts, in simplifying management of Federal lands, 
and in avoiding the significant time and expense as-
sociated with administrative land exchanges. 
(9) The State of Utah and the United States 
have reached an agreement under which the State
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would exchange certain State trust lands within the 
San Rafael Swell region, the Manti-La Sal National 
Forest, and the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve for var-
ious Federal lands outside of those areas but in the 
same region of Utah. 
(10) The parties agreed at the outset of nego-
tiations to avoid identifying Federal assets for con-
veyance to the State where any of the following was 
known to exist or likely to be an issue as a result 
of foreseeable future uses of the lands: 
(A) Wilderness study areas. 
(B) Areas proposed for wilderness designa-
tion in pending Federal legislation. 
(C) Significant endangered species habitat. 
(D) Significant archaeological resources. 
(E) Areas of critical environmental con-
cern. 
(F) Other lands known to raise significant 
environmental concerns of any kind. 
(11) Because the State trust lands to be ac-
quired by the Federal Government include properties 
within some of the most spectacular wild areas in 
the western United States, and because a mission of 
the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Ad-
ministration is to produce economic benefits for
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Utah’s public schools and other beneficiary institu-
tions, the exchange of lands called for in this agree-
ment will resolve longstanding environmental con-
flicts with respect to existing and proposed wilder-
ness 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. 
(12) Under this agreement, 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, have been 
examined by licensed independent real estate con-
sultants and, taken as a whole, have been found to 
be 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.
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SEC. 3. RATIFICATION OF THE AGREED EXCHANGE BE-
TWEEN THE STATE OF UTAH AND THE 
UNITED STATES. 
(a) AGREEMENT.—The State of Utah, the Depart-
ment of the Interior, and the Department of Agriculture 
have agreed to exchange certain Federal lands in the State 
of Utah for lands of approximately equal value managed 
by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Admin-
istration in the San Rafael Swell area of Utah, the Manti-
La Sal National Forest, and the Red Cliffs Desert Re-
serve. 
(b) RATIFICATION.—All terms, conditions, proce-
dures, covenants, reservations, and other provisions set 
forth in the document entitled ‘‘Agreement for Exchange 
of Lands 2002 Federal-Utah State Trust Lands Consoli-
dation’’, dated June 18, 2002 (in this Act referred to as 
‘‘the Agreement’’), are hereby incorporated in this Act, are 
ratified 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, 3, and 4 of the Agreement shall be completed not later 
than 70 days after enactment of this Act. 
(b) MAPS AND LEGAL DESCRIPTIONS.—
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(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 
legal descriptions referred to in the Agreement shall 
be on file and available for public inspection in the 
offices of the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary 
of Agriculture, the Intermountain Regional Office of 
the Forest Service, 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. 
(c) CERTAIN COAL LANDS.— 
(1) IDENTIFICATION.—The Secretary of the In-
terior shall prepare legal descriptions for the ap-
proximately 4,000 acres of Federal lands that State 
of Utah and the Secretary have identified within sec-
tions 1 through 17 of township 22 south, range 6 
east, and within township 22 south, range 7 east, 
Salt Lake Base and Meridian, Utah. 
(2) RESTRICTION
ON
CONVEYANCE.—Convey-
ance of the lands identified in paragraph (1) shall 
reserve to the United States the coal estate and the 
right to develop the coal estate.
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(3) FUTURE DISPOSITION.—Reservation of the 
coal estate pursuant to paragraph (2) shall not re-
strict future disposition of the coal estate pursuant 
to applicable law. 
(d) SPECIES IDENTIFICATION.—Prior to any convey-
ances under this Act, the Secretary of the Interior shall 
identify Federal lands subject to the Agreement which 
contain wildlife species, or habitat of wildlife species, listed 
as a threatened species or an endangered species under 
the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et 
seq.) or that is a candidate for such a listing. 
(e) INDEPENDENT MINERAL ASSESSMENT.—Prior to 
any conveyances under this Act, the Secretary of the Inte-
rior and the State of Utah shall select an independent 
qualified mineral appraiser, or other qualified expert 
agreeable to both parties, who shall determine whether the 
terms of the Agreement related to the UA/UB parcel, 
identified in section 3(d) of the Agreement, are fair and 
equitable to both parties. If there is a contrary determina-
tion, the Secretary and the State shall adjust the exchange 
or terms of the Agreement so that the terms are fair and 
equitable to both parties. 
(f) EXCEPTIONS TO CONVEYANCES.—
(1) LEGAL DESCRIPTIONS.—The Secretary of 
the Interior shall prepare legal descriptions, using
HR 4968 PCS 
the smallest possible aliquot parts, for lands within 
sections 4, 5, 8, and 9, township 22 south, range 7 
east, and within section 12, township 22 south, 
range 6 east, Salt Lake Base and Meridian, and 
which are identified on the map entitled ‘‘Emery 
County Lands’’, dated September 27, 2002. 
(2) LANDS
NOT
AUTHORIZED
TO
BE
CON-
VEYED.—The lands identified in paragraph (1) shall 
not be conveyed pursuant to subsection (a). In addi-
tion, lands within section 17, township 22 south, 
range 7 east, and within section 33, township 21 
south, range 7 east, Salt Lake Base and Meridian, 
shall not be conveyed pursuant to subsection (a). 
(3) LANDS NOT AUTHORIZED TO BE ACCEPT-
ED.—The Secretary of the Interior shall not accept 
conveyance of section 36, township 24 south, range 
6 east; section 32, township 24 south, range 14 east; 
and section 2, township 26 south, range 8 east, Salt 
Lake Base and Meridian, Utah, pursuant to sub-
section (a). 
SEC. 5. PLANT AND WILDLIFE SPECIES. 
For the lands identified under section 4(d), and the 
lands identified in Exhibit E to the Agreement, the Sec-
retary of the Interior and the State of Utah shall enter 
into an agreement which provides a process for the State
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to consult or take other appropriate action to avoid, offset, 
or mitigate adverse effects to any species or habitat identi-
fied. 
SEC. 6. MINERAL DEVELOPMENT. 
All payments received by the United States pursuant 
to section 13(c) of the Agreement shall be subject to shar-
ing with the State of Utah in the same manner the United 
States shares bonus bids, rentals, and royalties with the 
State of Utah under section 35 of the Mineral Leasing 
Act (30 U.S.C. 191). 
SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION. 
There are authorized to be appropriated such sums 
as are necessary to carry out this Act, including such sums 
as may be desired to reduce the balance of the interest 
and principal amounts owed by the United States to the 
Trust Lands Administration pursuant to sections 4 and 
5 of the Agreement.
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SEC. 8. COSTS. 
The United States and the State of Utah shall each 
bear its own respective costs incurred in the implementa-
tion of this Act.
Passed the House of Representatives October 1, 
2002. 
Attest: 
JEFF TRANDAHL, 
Clerk.
Calendar No. 705
107TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4968
AN ACT 
To provide for the exchange of certain lands in 
Utah. 
OCTOBER 15, 2002
Read the second time and placed on the calendar