Public lands, public debate: Growth & Balance panel

In a state where almost three-fourths of the land is publicly owned, Utah legislators filed a lawsuit in August of last year asking the Supreme Court to declare federal control over unappropriated lands unconstitutional. Since this controversial push from the governor’s office, the idea behind and purpose of public lands has sparked fierce debate over their place in the United States. 

Utah State University’s Growth & Balance panel on Feb. 21 sought to address these questions, with four different speakers weighing in. 

“It’s more of a conversation panel,” said assistant professor of U.S. history at USU Nichelle Frank. “Some topics I’ve addressed  are how settlers have viewed public lands over time and what lessons we can learn from the past when we look at public lands.”

Alongside Frank, the panel featured former Chairman of the Northwestern Band Shoshone Nation Darren Parry, CEO of the Mule Deer Foundation Greg Sheehan and director for the Gateway and Natural Amenity Region Initiative Jordan W. Smith. Frank offers a historical perspective, arguing context can inform people’s decisions regarding these lands today. 

“I hope people see the different perspectives represented on the panel,” Frank said. “We have people who have worked for the Bureau of Land Management, Darren Parry representing the indigenous perspective, and we have somebody who’s been more involved with the nonprofit side of things.” 

Public lands are defined as land managed by federal agencies, such as the BLM. This land includes national parks, monuments and wildlife reserves.

“In 1848, we had the General Land Office, who split up and sold land and designated the rest as public lands,” Frank said. “So, then what do you do with those public lands? That started to become a bigger and bigger question in the late 1800s.” 

In the wake of the First Industrial Revolution and on the cusp of the second, development such as mining, grazing and ranching began taking place at a rapid pace on public lands. The formation of national parks happened around this time period, with Yosemite recognized as the first in 1864.

“The Yosemite Grant was a reservation of land set aside just for us to enjoy not to graze on,” Frank said. “That brings us to this debate in the 1900s and the 20th century — questions about what you do with these public lands.” 

Activities like mining, grazing, oil extraction and more have all occurred on public lands and continue to happen to this day. Nearly 25% of public lands are utilized for livestock grazing, 30% for oil and gas production and 1.3 million acres for mining.

“‘Can we do things like mining and grazing on these lands?’ is a big question, and we do,” Frank said. “But what about certain areas that we want to leave untouched?”

Approximately 71% of Utah is deemed public land. About 34% of this land is unappropriated — it’s held by the federal government with no defined purpose or designation. Debate over what to do with this land and who should control it continues to be a hot topic.

“Utah is one of the states with the greatest amount of public lands,” Frank said. “Since the 1900s, states have been dealing with this debate over how much public land is there and can it be turned over to state or private ownership.” 

According to Frank, upholding federal control over public lands is one way to preserve the history of the land. 

“It’s interesting to think about preservation on a large scale because anyone involved in preservation knows what you can preserve is limited, so you have to make choices,” Frank said. “But by preserving something like public lands, we’re keeping those stories and the experience alive.”

A wide variety of entities have a stake in Utah’s land, from state and federal governments to tribal nations and environmental agencies. The panel provided a glimpse into some of these different viewpoints.

“By having all these different perspectives on the panel, you can see why public lands matter,” Frank said. 

Bradley Parry, vice chairman of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, believes leaving public lands under the federal government is best.

“They’re protecting these lands from mining, fracking and all of these different things,” Parry said. “We’re just not confident in the states to have all good intentions for our Mother Earth.”

Loss of public and unappropriated lands such as Labyrinth Canyon and Fisher Towers could cause irreversible damage by opening up these sites to runaway development. 

“If it gets privatized, there will be fences, rules, and it will be monetized,” Parry said. “We really want the public lands to stay public, and if the federal government wants to give a piece out, they really should look at the tribes first.” 

This fight over public lands has reached a tipping point in Utah’s recent lawsuit, which claims the federal government holding public land within Utah is unconstitutional. The BLM currently manages 22.8 million acres of public lands, 18.5 million acres of which are unappropriated. This lawsuit targets these 18.5 million acres, arguing unappropriated lands should be under state control. 

“I hope public lands stay open to all people and stay protected,” Parry said. “We’re not just talking about people, we’re talking about our animals. We start degrading their habitats and we lose those beautiful things. We lose the wild strawberries and chokecherries and all the things people go out and do to enjoy nature.”   

Utah’s lawsuit has implications for over 200 million acres of land across the U.S., and ownership of these lands would not immediately fall to the state. According to the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, these lands would be sold, essentially going to the highest bidder. 

“We call the Earth our mother,” Parry said. “Your mother is your most important person in the world, and you don’t mistreat your mother, but that’s how we’ve been treating the land.”

While Utah’s lawsuit was dismissed by the Supreme Court on Jan. 13, Utah government officials intend to pursue this case in other courts. As recent federal employee cuts have gutted agencies like the BLM and moves to undercut key land legislation continue, discussion over the value of public lands comes to the forefront.

“By preserving public lands, we allow ourselves to have spaces where we can revisit moments of the United States’ history,” Frank said. “Sometimes, it’s a national park like Yosemite and it’s this beautiful landscape, or it’s a monument where it’s these old buildings — it’s all human history.”