SITLA Land Exchange: A Complex Issue, Deferred

Letter received by Gail Dalton Johnson from the Utah Trust lands Administrator, Kim Christy. Should others wish to contact that office, information for doing so is at the bottom.  Thanks, Gayle and Merri Shumway for encouraging them to defer decisions until this plays out more. 

Thanks, Gail, for sharing your comment to the Governor with SITLA.  The following excerpt is what was sent out as part of our news release following today's Board meeting:

"Because of the complexities involved with SITLA’s significant inholdings of 109,000-plus acres within the current designated Bears Ears monument, we have yet to receive and comprehend the information necessary to make an informed decision to perform our fiduciary duties on what is in the best interest of our beneficiaries,” said SITLA Vice Chair Tom Bachtell. “Therefore, I make the motion to defer any board decision on this matter until such time as we believe the facts have been thoroughly studied and the information is complete for in which we can make an informed decision.” The motion passed unanimously.

Best wishes,

Kim S. Christy

Deputy Director

Utah Trust Lands Administration

675 East 500 South, Suite 500

Salt Lake City, UT 84102

Office Phone: (801) 538-5183

Cell Phone: (801) 201-7480

email: kimchristy@utah.gov

‘Family farm’ has spent millions buying acres of state land

Read full article in SLC Tribune. 

My comments to article:

Wow, another open name-calling fest where so many love to sling mud. Maybe someday issues as important as these can be discussed in a more fact based platform, with less diatrite & venom. First some facts from a San Juan County school board member, (or talk to your own school board representative). "Four sections of every township was designated at Utah statehood for the purpose of supporting public schools. The State Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) has the responsibility to manage these lands that are in trust for school children in the state of Utah. The lands that do not have the potential to generate revenue [i.e. National Monuments] are sold off or traded for land that can produce revenue to support public schools. When land is sold the money from the sale is deposited into the Permanent School Fund. Interest and dividends from the fund are distributed to each public school in the state of Utah each year. Community councils that consist of school faculty and parents of students attending the school make the decision of how the SITLA money is spent." Money from SITLA sales is invested, and interest and dividends each year are distributed to schools and institutions throughout Utah. In 2014, investment funds totaled over 40 Million dollars.

So maybe you feel OK about begrudging the poorest county in the State access to funds that would enhance local schools? Perhaps you feel fine about locking up more San Juan County land without multiple use possibility? Maybe you love being the attacker of a county that only has 8% of its 5,077,120 acres privately owned? If so you probably don't understand that the wealth of a country and a county is in its land. We can't run schools, government, infrastructures on air and idealism. We too want the Cedar Mesa ruins better protected, but it doesn't take 1.9 million acres to do that. The BLM is already in charge of that public land has the responsibility of supervising it. One more layer of expensive Federal Government in the form of a monument is not going to solve the problem, it will only compound it, with less tax money available for local use. Maybe you should start a SLC fundraiser for Bluff, Monument Valley, and Montezuma Creek Schools, instead of begrudging sales from SITLA lands.

Comb Ridge Sale: Shame on Who?

Sent to Des News, SJR and Times Independent   10/27/16

     Yes, there should be shame, but not because STATE SCHOOL TRUST LANDS were sold to a private bidder, but because extreme environmentalists don’t want to share any land with anyone except Conservation Land Foundation devotees.  They are using everything in their power and in their banks to force local Native Americans, Anglos, and Hispanics away from a land they chose to live in, here in San Juan County.  These are families with local roots to San Juan, who didn’t migrate to more enticing lands in Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico centuries ago.  

     Unlike the opposition who follows the dictates of the CLF, these locals oppose a National Monument because the CLF does not want free enterprise, access to public lands, grazing rights, or a strong tax base in San Juan County. They don’t care about jobs and improved schools They are against private enterprise and they would be delighted if everyone moved away. 

     Moreover, CLF followers don’t want to share any of the 1.9 million acres they greedily seek in this current “campaign” for National Monuments, which involves not only Utah, but Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, California.  (Hawaii, Maine have already been checked off their bucket list.)

      The State of Utah covers 52,696,960 acres. They have already given up 35,033,603 acres to 13 different national parks/monuments.  That means the Federal government owns/ runs/ manages 66.4% of our state. And they say Utah is greedy?!  The scenario in San Juan County is even worse. Only 8% of San Juan County’s 5,077,120 acres is privately owned.    

    Those with a socialistic mind set don’t seem to grasp the idea that private property rights exist in the proposed Bears Ears monument area.  Some areas in that coveted land do NOT meet the definition of “public lands”, including 43 grazing allotments, 661 water-right infrastructures, 151,000 acres of state trust land, 18,000 acres of private property, and hundreds of miles of roads and infrastructure which are granted a RS2477 right-of-way. 

     This leads us to the most recent whining of the week--Comb Ridge.  The actual Comb Ridge wilderness consists of 17,400 acres; HOWEVER, adjacent to Comb Ridge proper exists SITLA land. SITLA land is not "public land", it is STATE land. Even though local people have long used it for their personal playground, they were trespassing.  

     Two weeks ago 391 acres of SITLA land were sold by the State to the highest bidder.  That land would be .02% of the total Comb Ridge acreage.  And the playground bullies don’t want to share even that pinpoint of land with anyone else.  In the bigger more coveted landscape of 1.9 million acres, 391 acres comprises only .0002 %.  Additional SITLA lands take up another .079 % of the ill-conceived 1.9 million acre monument.  I suppose there will be whining about that too, when legitimate companies who pay taxes and support schools are able to purchase and utilize state lands.  Shame on YOU for not being willing to share.  Is compromise not in your vocabulary?

Janet Wilcox  Blanding, Utah