Archives for October 2013

Since 1785 the United States has gifted a percentage of the undedicated federal lands to the states to help fund education.

In Utah we have about 3.5 Million acres of land that is managed by the School and Institutional Trust lands Administration or SITLA.

Since the creation of SITLA in 1994, the permanent trust for public education has grown from $50 M to $1.6 B and paid out $37.8 million dollars to the beneficiaries in the 2013 fiscal year.

SITLA manages the land for maximum benefit to its beneficiaries by leasing land for; natural resource extraction, renewable energy projects, and commercial development. Some lands are traded and sold from the portfolio depending on the benefit those deals will provide. The end goal is to make money for children in public education.

To learn more about trust lands please go to: http://www.schoollandtrust.org/ or http://trustlands.utah.gov/home/index.html

7:59 – Timeline of events leading up to a solution

11:47 – UTAH appropriated the money to keep the parks open

15:04 – What is the impact of the government controlling so much land?

16:17 Public Land Policy needs to be addressed

21:04 – Importance of Transfer of Public Lands

The Government shutdown is over but what lessons were learned when some government services were closed for 16 days. For communities that depend on tourism the shutdown was devastating. In fact the impact was so disruptive that 9 Utah counties declared states of emergency and the State of Utah loaned the federal government the money to reopen many of the closed parks and monuments in the state.

While a number of Utahans feel picked on by the closure the bigger question to come out of the whole ordeal was; if the federal government can effectively shutdown the economy of a town, city, or county; what else can they shut down or stop.

This leads us to a discussion about the push for Utah and other states with vast amounts of federal lands within their boundaries to have that land transferred to the states for management. While the National Parks are not part of the proposed transfer of public lands, the latest effects of the government shutdown have brought to light the problems of having so much federal control of lands within a state.

To find out more about Utah’s Public Lands Transfer Bill or HB148 please go here:
http://le.utah.gov/~2012/bills/hbillenr/hb0148.pdf

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The County Sheriff is charged with maintaining public safety. This includes when people get lost or hurt. The counties in Utah have a huge asset within their communities in the volunteer search and rescue teams.

Our program takes a look into the time and training required to keep search and rescue volunteers ready for the call. Later in the show we take a look at how often these teams are actually called upon. The number will probably surprise you.

Who owns the roads that run across public lands? That is a question that has often been a contentious issue in Utah. These rights of way are referred to as RS2477.

In 1866 the mining act was passed and there was a section of the law that granted ownership of roads across public lands to the counties. These roads were access to mining, timber, and grazing in most cases.

In 1976 the passage of the federal lands policy management act repealed rs2477 except for existing roads. In order for the state or a county to prove that an existing road is an RS2477 right of way they must show 10 years of consecutive use by the public prior to 1976.

Many of these road claims have to go through litigation in order to be resolved. However, in Juab County an agreement was reached among a number of stakeholders recognizing Juab County’s RS2477 rights to three roads.