2023 Utah Code › Title 63L - Lands › Chapter 11 - Public Lands Planning › Part 3 - Office Duties Related to Federal Land › Section 302 - Principles to be recognized and promoted.

Effective 7/1/2021
63L-11-302.
Principles to be recognized and promoted.
The office shall recognize and promote the following principles when preparing any policies, plans, programs, processes, or desired outcomes relating to federal lands and natural resources on federal lands under Section 63L-11-301:
(1)
(a) the citizens of the state are best served by applying multiple-use and sustained-yield principles in public land use planning and management; and
(b) multiple-use and sustained-yield management means that federal agencies should develop and implement management plans and make other resource-use decisions that:
(i) achieve and maintain in perpetuity a high-level annual or regular periodic output of mineral and various renewable resources from public lands;
(ii) support valid existing transportation, mineral, and grazing privileges at the highest reasonably sustainable levels;
(iii) support the specific plans, programs, processes, and policies of state agencies and local governments;
(iv) are designed to produce and provide the desired vegetation for the watersheds, timber, food, fiber, livestock forage, wildlife forage, and minerals that are necessary to meet present needs and future economic growth and community expansion without permanent impairment of the productivity of the land;
(v) meet the recreational needs and the personal and business-related transportation needs of the citizens of the state by providing access throughout the state;
(vi) meet the recreational needs of the citizens of the state;
(vii) meet the needs of wildlife;
(viii) provide for the preservation of cultural resources, both historical and archaeological;
(ix) meet the needs of economic development;
(x) meet the needs of community development; and
(xi) provide for the protection of water rights;
(2) managing public lands for wilderness characteristics circumvents the statutory wilderness process and is inconsistent with the multiple-use and sustained-yield management standard that applies to all Bureau of Land Management and United States. Forest Service lands that are not wilderness areas or wilderness study areas;
(3) all waters of the state are:
(a) owned exclusively by the state in trust for the state's citizens;
(b) are subject to appropriation for beneficial use; and
(c) are essential to the future prosperity of the state and the quality of life within the state;
(4) the state has the right to develop and use the state's entitlement to interstate rivers;
(5) all water rights desired by the federal government must be obtained through the state water appropriation system;
(6) land management and resource-use decisions which affect federal lands should give priority to and support the purposes of the compact between the state and the United States related to school and institutional trust lands;
(7) development of the solid, fluid, and gaseous mineral resources of the state is an important part of the economy of the state, and of local regions within the state;
(8) the state should foster and support industries that take advantage of the state's outstanding opportunities for outdoor recreation;
(9) wildlife constitutes an important resource and provides recreational and economic opportunities for the state's citizens;
(10) proper stewardship of the land and natural resources is necessary to ensure the health of the watersheds, timber, forage, and wildlife resources to provide for a continuous supply of resources for the people of the state and the people of the local communities who depend on these resources for a sustainable economy;
(11) forests, rangelands, timber, and other vegetative resources:
(a) provide forage for livestock;
(b) provide forage and habitat for wildlife;
(c) provide resources for the state's timber and logging industries;
(d) contribute to the state's economic stability and growth; and
(e) are important for a wide variety of recreational pursuits;
(12) management programs and initiatives that improve watersheds and forests and increase forage for the mutual benefit of wildlife species and livestock, logging, and other agricultural industries by utilizing proven techniques and tools are vital to the state's economy and the quality of life in the state; and
(13)
(a) land management plans, programs, and initiatives should provide that the amount of domestic livestock forage, expressed in animal unit months, for permitted, active use as well as the wildlife forage included in that amount, be no less than the maximum number of animal unit months sustainable by range conditions in grazing allotments and districts, based on an on-the-ground and scientific analysis;
(b) the state opposes the relinquishment or retirement of grazing animal unit months in favor of conservation, wildlife, and other uses;
(c)
(i) the state favors the best management practices that are jointly sponsored by cattlemen, sportsmen, and wildlife management groups such as chaining, logging, seeding, burning, and other direct soil and vegetation prescriptions that are demonstrated to restore forest and rangeland health, increase forage, and improve watersheds in grazing districts and allotments for the benefit of domestic livestock and wildlife;
(ii) when practices described in Subsection (13)(c)(i) increase a grazing allotment's forage beyond the total permitted forage use that was allocated to that allotment in the last federal land use plan or allotment management plan still in existence as of January 1, 2005, a reasonable and fair portion of the increase in forage beyond the previously allocated total permitted use should be allocated to wildlife as recommended by a joint, evenly balanced committee of livestock and wildlife representatives that is appointed and constituted by the governor for that purpose; and
(iii) the state favors quickly and effectively adjusting wildlife population goals and population census numbers in response to variations in the amount of available forage caused by drought or other climatic adjustments, and state agencies responsible for managing wildlife population goals and population census numbers will, when making those adjustments, give due regard to both the needs of the livestock industry and the need to prevent the decline of species to a point of listing under the terms of the Endangered Species Act;
(d) the state opposes the transfer of grazing animal unit months to wildlife for supposed reasons of rangeland health;
(e) reductions in domestic livestock animal unit months must be temporary and scientifically based upon rangeland conditions;
(f) policies, plans, programs, initiatives, resource management plans, and forest plans may not allow the placement of grazing animal unit months in a suspended use category unless there is a rational and scientific determination that the condition of the rangeland allotment or district in question will not sustain the animal unit months sought to be placed in suspended use;
(g) any grazing animal unit months that are placed in a suspended use category should be returned to active use when range conditions improve;
(h) policies, plans, programs, and initiatives related to vegetation management should recognize and uphold the preference for domestic grazing over alternate forage uses in established grazing districts while upholding management practices that optimize and expand forage for grazing and wildlife in conjunction with state wildlife management plans and programs in order to provide maximum available forage for all uses; and
(i) in established grazing districts, animal unit months that have been reduced due to rangeland health concerns should be restored to livestock when rangeland conditions improve, and should not be converted to wildlife use.
Enacted by Chapter 382, 2021 General Session