H.J.R. 39 Enrolled

1

STATE JURISDICTION OF FEDERALLY MANAGED LANDS
2 JOINT RESOLUTION
3 2011 GENERAL SESSION
4 STATE OF UTAH
5 Chief Sponsor: Roger E. Barrus
6 Senate Sponsor: Ralph Okerlund
7 Cosponsors:
8 Johnny Anderson
9 Jim Bird
10 Derek E. Brown
11 David G. Butterfield
12 LaVar Christensen
13 David Clark
14 Fred C. Cox
15 Bradley M. Daw
16 Brad L. Dee
17 Jack R. Draxler
18 Susan Duckworth
19 James A. Dunnigan
20 Rebecca P. Edwards
21 Steve Eliason
22 Julie Fisher
23 Gage Froerer
24 Brad J. Galvez
25 Francis D. Gibson
26 Richard A. GreenwoodKeith Grover
Stephen G. Handy
Wayne A. Harper
Neal B. Hendrickson
Christopher N. Herrod
Gregory H. Hughes
Eric K. Hutchings
Don L. Ipson
Ken Ivory
Todd E. Kiser
Bradley G. Last
John G. Mathis
Kay L. McIff
Ronda Rudd Menlove
Michael T. Morley
Merlynn T. Newbold
Jim Nielson
Michael E. Noel
Curtis Oda
Patrick PainterLee B. Perry
Jeremy A. Peterson
Val L. Peterson
Dixon M. Pitcher
Kraig Powell
Paul Ray
Douglas Sagers
Stephen E. Sandstrom
Dean Sanpei
Kenneth W. Sumsion
Evan J. Vickers
Christine F. Watkins
R. Curt Webb
Mark A. Wheatley
Ryan D. Wilcox
Larry B. Wiley
Brad R. Wilson
Carl Wimmer
Bill Wright 27
28 LONG TITLE

29 General Description:
30 This joint resolution of the Legislature urges Congress to relinquish all right and title of
31 public lands in the state of Utah that are currently managed by the Bureau of Land
32 Management and transfer title and jurisdiction to the state of Utah.
33 Highlighted Provisions:
34 This resolution:
35 . calls on the United States, through their agent, Congress, to relinquish to the state of
36 Utah all right and title in those lands which were committed to the purposes of the
37 state by terms of its enabling act compact with them and which now reside within
38 the state as public or federal lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management
39 which were reserved by Congress after the date of Utah statehood.
40 Special Clauses:
41 None
42
43 Be it resolved by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
44 WHEREAS, under the United States Constitution, the American states reorganized to
45 form a more perfect union, yielding up certain portions of their sovereign powers to the elected
46 officers of the government of their union, yet retaining the residuum of sovereignty for the
47 purpose of independent internal self-governance;
48 WHEREAS, the aims of the Constitutional Convention provided that state governments
49 would clearly retain all the rights of sovereignty and independence which they before had and
50 which were not exclusively delegated to the United States Congress;
51 WHEREAS, among the rights of sovereignty held most jealously by the states was the
52 right of sovereignty over the land within their respective borders;
53 WHEREAS, in due time, the American states came to own vast tracts of land as federal
54 territories;
55 WHEREAS, by compact between the original states, territorial lands were divided into
56 "suitable extents of territory" and upon attaining a certain population, were to be admitted into

57 the union upon "an equal footing" as members possessing "the same rights of sovereignty,
58 freedom and independence" as the original states;
59 WHEREAS, the federal trust respecting public lands was established eight years before
60 the Constitution by the Continental Congress and by the states which accepted the terms of the
61 trust;
62 WHEREAS, the federal trust respecting public lands was subsequently codified within
63 the text of at least five clauses of the Constitution and is the foundation upon which the
64 Constitution and the American union of states were erected for the benefit of every state
65 without prejudice;
66 WHEREAS, the federal trust respecting public lands obligates the United States,
67 through their agent, Congress, to extinguish both their governmental jurisdiction and their title
68 on the public lands that are held in trust by the United States for the states in which they are
69 located;
70 WHEREAS, for as long as the United States retains title in and jurisdiction over federal
71 public lands in the state of Utah, the state is denied the same complete and independent
72 sovereignty and jurisdiction that was expressly retained by the original states, and its citizens
73 are denied the political right to establish or administer their own republican self-governance as
74 is their right under the Equal Footing Clause;
75 WHEREAS, Utah, by terms of its enabling act compact, disclaimed all right and title in
76 the public lands within its borders;
77 WHEREAS, "right and title" are elements of proprietorship, and "right and title" are
78 neither sovereignty nor jurisdiction;
79 WHEREAS, Utah is entitled, under the Equal Footing Doctrine, to the same rights of
80 sovereignty, freedom, and independence as the original states;
81 WHEREAS, Section 3 of Utah's Enabling Act, with respect to disposition of public
82 lands, reads: "And said Convention shall provide by ordinance irrevocable with the consent of
83 the United States and the people of said State . . . that until the title (to the unappropriated
84 public lands) have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain

85 subject to the disposition of the United States";
86 WHEREAS, by these words the United States may only shelter public lands from the
87 obligation of disposal by the consent of the state of Utah;
88 WHEREAS, with the passage of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act
89 (FLPMA) of 1976, the United States shifted from a policy of disposal of public lands and
90 extinguishment of the Federal title to one of retention of public lands and their management in
91 perpetuity through the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM);
92 WHEREAS, the BLM now claims jurisdiction of over 22,600,000 acres of public land
93 in Utah, which is nearly twice as much land as the 11,512,000 acres of land in private
94 ownership;
95 WHEREAS, the BLM was directed to manage the public lands for multiple use and
96 sustained yield and to afford Utah and other Western States a share of the revenues from the
97 production of the natural resources on public lands, including revenues from timbering, oil and
98 gas production, and mining;
99 WHEREAS, the state and federal partnership of public lands management has been
100 eroded by an oppressive and over-reaching federal management agenda that has adversely
101 impacted the sovereignty and the economies of the state of Utah and local governments;
102 WHEREAS, Sections 6, 7, 8, and 12 of Utah's Enabling Act provided for land grants to
103 fund critical public functions such as primary and secondary education, public buildings, and
104 water development;
105 WHEREAS, federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court, have
106 recognized this land grant as the establishment of a trust, even a "solemn contract" between the
107 United States and the state of Utah, with the United States in the role as settlor of the trust and
108 the state of Utah in the role of trustee;
109 WHEREAS, as settlor of the trust, the United States has an obligation to pursue actions
110 and policies that support the trustee in its efforts to fulfill the purposes of the trust;
111 WHEREAS, federal land-management actions, even when applied exclusively to the
112 federal lands, directly impact the ability of the state of Utah to manage its trust lands in

113 accordance with the mandate of the Utah Enabling Act and to meet its obligation to the
114 beneficiaries of the trust;
115 WHEREAS, the United States Department of the Interior has arbitrarily and illegally
116 affected private contracts by cancelling duly awarded oil and gas leases at the time of public
117 auction, the validity of which were subsequently upheld by a federal court of competent
118 jurisdiction;
119 WHEREAS, in October of 2008, the BLM completed six of its fundamental documents
120 for the allocation of resource use and conservation on BLM lands, called Resource
121 Management Plans, after up to eight years of study, public participation, and the expenditure of
122 millions of dollars;
123 WHEREAS, the BLM evaluated the allocation of all multiple-use activities in these
124 plans, including the primary multiple-uses of grazing, timber, minerals, recreation, and
125 conservation, and made definitive allocation decisions at the conclusion of the process;
126 WHEREAS, the BLM's failure to act affirmatively on these definitive allocation
127 decisions has created uncertainty in the future of public land use in Utah and has caused capital
128 to flee the state;
129 WHEREAS, during the process of finalizing the six Resource Management Plans, the
130 BLM refused to consider state and local government acknowledgments of R.S. 2477
131 rights-of-way, or other evidence of the existence of R.S. 2477 rights-of-way, which led to the
132 closure of many R.S. 2477 rights-of-way in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument;
133 WHEREAS, the Congress of the United States recently passed the Omnibus Public
134 Land Management Act of 2009, which included the designation of lands as wilderness and
135 national conservation areas in Washington County, Utah, and released all other lands to the
136 general multiple-use mandate of the BLM;
137 WHEREAS, the United States Department of the Interior has arbitrarily created a new
138 category of lands, denominated "Wild Lands," and has superimposed these mandatory
139 protective management provisions upon BLM operations and planning decisions in violation of
140 the provisions of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the provisions of the

141 Administrative Procedures Act, and Presidential Executive Order 13563 concerning openness
142 in policymaking;
143 WHEREAS, the new Wild Lands provisions threaten to reopen the issue of wilderness
144 in Washington County, in violation of the resolution of the issue through Congressional action;
145 WHEREAS, the creation of a new Wild Lands category, and the immediate effect of its
146 mandatory restrictive provisions, has arbitrarily undermined the effectiveness of the six
147 recently completed Resource Management Plans of the BLM in eastern and southern Utah, is
148 contrary to the multiple-use mandate outlined by FLPMA and other federal law, and threatens
149 to derail efforts underway locally to seek certainty in land use allocation decisions through
150 Congressional actions, such as that recently completed in Washington County;
151 WHEREAS, other proposals to make use of the important natural resources of the state,
152 such as phosphate and beneficial range improvement proposals, are now under threat from
153 these ill-conceived Wild Lands provisions;
154 WHEREAS, the United States Department of the Interior has failed to enunciate a valid
155 source of statutory or constitutional authority for the imposition of the restrictive Wild Lands
156 provisions;
157 WHEREAS, the cumulative effect of the Wild Lands provisions, the illegal decision to
158 withdraw validly granted oil and gas leases, the duplicative Master Leasing Plan process, and
159 the United States Department of Interior's disdain for the use of public review processes, has
160 lead to the demise of a robust and viable oil and gas leasing program in Utah, which negates an
161 important revenue source to the state, and eventually jobs for the citizens of Utah;
162 WHEREAS, the BLM has demonstrated a chronic inability to handle the proliferation
163 of wild horses and burros on the public lands, to the detriment of the rangeland resource;
164 WHEREAS, the United States Department of Agriculture has repeatedly tried to
165 impose severe restrictive management provisions on lands defined as inventoried roadless
166 areas, in violation of Congressional authorities, as reviewed by a federal court of competent
167 jurisdiction;
168 WHEREAS, the United States Army Corps of Engineers is proposing to extend its

169 jurisdiction to regulate the waters of the United States to areas traditionally dry, except during
170 severe weather events, in violation of the common definition of jurisdictional waters;
171 WHEREAS, in 1996, the President of the United States abused the intent of the
172 Antiquities Act by the creation of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument without
173 any consultation with state and local authorities or citizens;
174 WHEREAS, the BLM's Resource Management Plan for the Kanab Field Office
175 eliminated the filming of movies and filming for commercial purposes within the Grand
176 Staircase-Escalante National Monument, thereby eliminating a source of economic opportunity
177 for Kane County through the loss of use of its iconic "Little Hollywood" film site and other
178 locations;
179 WHEREAS, bureaucrats within the United States Department of the Interior are
180 assembling information to prepare for further designations without consultation;
181 WHEREAS, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service is making decisions
182 concerning various species on BLM lands under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act
183 without serious consideration of state wildlife management activities and protections designed
184 to prevent the need for a listing, or recognizing the ability to delist a species, thereby affecting
185 the economic vitality of the state and local regions;
186 WHEREAS, the BLM has not authorized all necessary rangeland improvement projects
187 involving the removal of pinyon-juniper and other climax vegetation, thereby reducing the
188 biological diversity of the range, reducing riparian viability and water quality, and reducing the
189 availability of forage for both livestock and wildlife;
190 WHEREAS, differences of opinion about the appropriate use of the public lands has
191 created a massive logjam in the advancement of any proposal for use of the public lands,
192 whether for energy production, recreation, conservation, timber production, or similar uses;
193 WHEREAS, the states have been instrumental in convening groups of stakeholders to
194 consider protection for and responsible use of federal lands;
195 WHEREAS, efforts in Washington County, Utah, the Owyhee region of Idaho, and the
196 Front Range region in Montana have involved many various stakeholders, including ranchers,

197 energy officials, environmental groups, and state and local government officials in an effort to
198 achieve agreement on proposals for wilderness and other congressionally established
199 conservation units, lands available for local privatization of lands, and areas available for
200 traditional multiple-use;
201 WHEREAS, these efforts led to congressional approval of a jointly prepared proposal
202 in Washington County, Utah, and to other proposals currently pending before Congress;
203 WHEREAS, the state is willing to sponsor, evaluate, and advance these locally driven
204 efforts in a more efficient manner than the federal government, to the benefit of all users,
205 including recreation, conservation, and the responsible development of energy, grazing, timber,
206 and other economic industries;
207 WHEREAS, citizens of the state of Utah have a love of the land and have demonstrated
208 responsible stewardship of lands within state jurisdiction;
209 WHEREAS, the state of Utah has a proven regulatory structure to manage public lands
210 for multiple use and sustained yield;
211 WHEREAS, federal land management policies are eroding the fundamental pillars of
212 sovereignty, freedom, and independence upon which all states and the state of Utah are
213 founded under the Equal Footing clause;
214 WHEREAS, by means provided under the Constitution, damaged states may assert their
215 rightful claim to the public lands within their borders and restore the constitutional design for
216 the benefit of present and future generations; and
217 WHEREAS, Utah fully reserves and asserts all sovereign and constitutional claims to
218 its public lands:
219 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Legislature of the state of Utah calls
220 on the United States, through their agent, Congress, to relinquish to the state of Utah all right,
221 title, and jurisdiction in those lands that were committed to the purposes of this state by terms
222 of its enabling act compact with them and that now reside within the state as public lands
223 managed by the Bureau of Land Management that were reserved by Congress after the date of
224 Utah statehood.

225 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be sent to the Secretary of
226 the United States Department of Interior, to the United States Director of the Federal Bureau of
227 Land Management, to the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
228 United States House of Representatives, and to the members of Utah's Congressional
229 Delegation.