SALT LAKE CITY — In a unique real-estate transaction, the Utah School Institutional Trust Lands Administration has sold more than 50,000 acres of land in southeastern Utah's Book Cliffs area to be maintained as open space for wildlife and the public.
On Thursday, SITLA's board voted to approve the roughly $30 million transaction for the land in Grand County. The buyer? Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources.
The deal was arranged on Utah's Capitol Hill, where House Majority Leader Casey Snider, R-Paradise, pushed through a law change that allowed the transaction to take place.
"Public land policy is all about contention. Zero sum. You’re side loses, my side wins, vice-versa," he said in an interview with FOX 13 News. "We have taken the heat out of it. Utah gets a rap for not being a place that cares about conservation or public lands, all those things. We just put up millions of dollars to make sure land is open and protected."
SITLA manages lands to make money for public schools. But this section of the Book Cliffs, which is roadless, hasn't made much money for the agency. It only makes about $124,000 a year off of it now. Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources was willing to spend $30 million to preserve it as a wildlife management area.
"We have no plans for development," DWR deputy director Mike Canning told FOX 13 News after the sale closed. "We’re going to keep it as a natural area and keep it open to the public."
Grand County leaders gave their "strong support" to the real-estate transaction.
"Transferring surface stewardship to UDWR will keep habitat intact, protect wildlife migration corridors, and preserve remote, non-motorized hunting and fishing opportunities with low-impact public access- all while allowing the Trust to realize immediate financial benefit," Commission Chair Melodie McCandless wrote in a letter.
During a May meeting, a large amount of public comment was in support of the sale to DWR.
"I know of no other single piece of property is held with more esteem and mystique as the roadless part of the Book Cliffs. It is absolutely critical and vital to continue to maintain the opportunity for the general public to access this, so I can't thank you enough for at least considering selling it to the Division Wildlife Resources," said Troy Justinson, who supported the sale.
Guy Webster, an outfitter who lives in Green River, also supported keeping the area publicly accessible and not selling to any private developer.
"My children were raised on the back of a mule ride in the Book Cliffs," he told SITLA's board. "The education, the experience that they have been given, that is education you can't get in a classroom."
But some expressed concerns about how the transaction was funded. Margaret Bird, the founder of the nonprofit group Advocates for School Trust Lands told SITLA's board at its May meeting that it "reeks of special favors for special entities." She argued SITLA may not be getting the full appraised value of the land and it's not a public auction.
"This deal, it is basically the state selling land to the state, and that is not acceptable under any form of fiduciary duty," Bird said.
An advocate for trust land beneficiaries signed off on the real-estate purchase on Thursday. Bryan Harris, SITLA's board chair, told reporters afterward that he was happy with the sale. He disputed that they weren't getting a good value, noting it underwent three appraisals and had no private takers.
"It's a beautiful piece of property that’s been around and cherished by a lot of people in that part of the state," he said. "But it’s not creating any economic value for the beneficiaries which is public schools."
While SITLA maintians mineral rights on the property, DWR said it would not build roads into the area. The division is also contemplating more purchases in the future of SITLA land for preservation.
