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The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is meeting today to review a slate of 15 bills, including the Brian Head Town Land Conveyance Act, a piece of legislation introduced by Utah Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis that would transfer roughly 24 acres of the Dixie National Forest to a small Utah town. While there is nothing inherently wrong with a targeted 24-acre land transfer, Lee, Curtis, and other Utah lawmakers have made previous attempts to sell off national public lands, including Lee's unsuccessful bid to include a selloff proposal in a must-pass budget legislation package last summer.
The devil is in the legislative details, or lack thereof; Lee and Curtis' bill lacks necessary guardrails, like a "revision clause" that stipulates the land must be used for municipal purposes or it will be returned to the U.S. Forest Service. As such, there's nothing that would prevent the town of Brian Head from turning around and selling the parcel to a private developer, resulting in a giveaway that rips off taxpayers (the bill also directs the U.S. Forest Service to convey the land to Brian Head at no cost). Additionally, once transferred, the land would not be subject to environmental reviews or public access requirements.
As Christopher Keyes writes for RE:PUBLIC, a nonprofit newsroom solely devoted to covering public lands, “If Congress can give away national forest land to one town for free, what stops similar requests from multiplying—particularly in fast-growing Western communities where development pressure on public lands is already intense?”
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The Colorado River does not respond to press releases or historical entitlements, it responds to snowpack, soil moisture and temperature.”
