Half of all federal land in Utah is being illegally held by the federal government, which should dispose of it, the state argued in a Supreme Court original jurisdiction complaint filed Tuesday.

If the court takes the case and Utah wins, the legal action has the potential to completely upend the US’s system of public lands, jeopardizing the 245 million acres of land under the control of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management.

Each of the 11 Western states and Alaska have vast amounts of federal land within their borders. Nevada has the most, with 80% of its land under federal ownership. Utah, which is 69% federally-owned, is the only state to ask the Supreme Court to force that land out of federal hands.

“The BLM has increasingly failed to keep these lands accessible and appears to be pursuing a course of active closure and restriction,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) said in a statement.

Utah, which in 2012 passed a state law demanding the federal government give its BLM land to the state, claims that 18.5 million acres of “unappropriated” federal land is being illegally held by the US, and it must be disposed of. The federal government ignored the law.

Perpetual federal retention of unappropriated public lands in Utah is unconstitutional and is depriving the state of collecting taxes on that land, the ability to exercise eminent domain there, the right to develop it, and exercise policing powers, the state claims in its complaint.

“Nothing in the Constitution authorizes the United States to hold vast unreserved swathes of Utah’s territory in perpetuity, over Utah’s express objection, without even so much as a pretense of using those lands in the service of any enumerated power,” the state claims.

About 37.4 million acres of land in Utah is federally-owned, and of that, roughly half is “unappropriated,” or land the US is “simply holding, without reserving it for any designated purpose or is using it to execute any of its enumerated powers,” Utah said in its filing.

Utah said it’s challenging only unappropriated BLM land, not any federal land reserved by Congress or the president as national parks, conservation areas, military reservations, or for other uses.

Article Published by Bobby Magill, Reporter for Bloomberg Law August 20, 2024

Read the Lawsuit Here No.-___-Bill-of-Complaint-and-Brief-in-Support

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The challenge we’ve always faced with Travel Management is that we’re always playing catch up with only 30 days for most comment periods, by the time we get the word out and ask people to go out and write comments, we’re playing catch up and don’t have time to run trails or provide great comments to persuade BLM or Forest Service to Keep them Open.

UPLA launched Trail Saver, a new tool for you to prepare notes after each ride you go on, anywhere in Utah. There’s nothing more effective than putting your thoughts in writing right after your ride when everything is fresh in your mind, and your photos and gpx tracks are easily available. If you spend just 5-10 minutes writing a brief report, it will really help us collect better data. Once you submit the form, it will email you a formatted copy of your comments for that trail along with some helpful hints that will make it easy to submit your comments when they are needed. We all think of something else right after we hit submit, Trail Saver allows you to edit or add to your comments, and will immediately send you a revised report. UPLA, BlueRibbon, and local clubs working that area may also be copied on the comments so that they can also assist.

You don’t have to worry about confusing dates either, once the comment period opens for that Travel Management Plan, Trail Saver will email you a reminder with all of your comments, photos, tracks, ratings, etc, along with more tips and instructions on how to submit them to BLM and or Forest Service. For the system to work effectively, you will need the BLM or Forest Service Route numbers, so I recommend you take a pic of those signs as you go by them and include those when submitting your form.

TrailSaver reports should be thought of as your notes about what makes keeping the route open important, views, dispersed campsites, challenging or easy, significant vistas, connections to other important routes can all be important. Make an effort to write short notes on every trail you go on, and let Trail Saver keep track of them. When it’s time to submit comments to BLM, TrailSaver will email you your report along with all your photos and other attachments to make it easy to submit great comments. Unfortunately, 90% of all comments submitted to BLM are not considered because they don’t meet BLM “substantive comment” standards. To learn what makes your comments make a stronger impact, watch our series of short videos on Youtube, or click on this helpful BLM link

Order and display TrailSaver stickers on your rigs so you can explain the program to others you run into. You can order stickers for yourself, group, or club at www.TrailSaver.com

Comments are now open for Henry Mountains and Fremont Gorge, which you should submit to BLM. Other areas coming soon will be Trail Canyon and Pausaugant in Kanab and Dino North in Vernal, so we especially need reports on these, but please submit reports everywhere you go in

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All comments are valuable, but those that meet the “substantive comment criteria” are better.

Browse This Guide on Crafting Better Comments

Substantive Comment Guidance

This page is dedicated to providing updated information on the Henry Mountains and Fremont Gorge Travel Management Plan. We will post new resources as they become available, with the most recent posts appearing at the top of this page after the static resource links at the top of the page.

The EA is now open for the Henry Mountains and Fremont Gorge. Comments are due no later than October 26, 2024.

Here Is the Draft EA  for the Henry Mountains and Fremont Gorge

You can browse the Interactive Map at the following link. The map can be selected based on the various alternatives in the layers tab at the top. When you click on a route, it will display the route status by alternative and with this version you can also view the BLM Route Report
 Interactive Map of the Henry Mountains

Here is a link to all the Route Reports for the Henry Mountains

Here’s some tips on making your comments more effective BLM Guide on Crafting Substantive (Better) Comments
Click Here to Submit Your Comments to BLM– Be Patient, you must wait 10-15 seconds for the    Link in the Left Column, then click on that.
IMPORTANT: Once you submit your comments, it will take you to a Receipt Page that shows your comments. Click on the Download PDF of your comments and email copies to landuse@utahpla.com AND brc@sharetrails.org

If you have information that you would like added, please email us at landuse@utahpla.com

UPLA Articles

UPLA Article On Writing Substantive Comments 03/10/2024

UPLA Article with Links to All Utah Travel Management Planning Information

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Judge Clark Waddoups, Senior Judge with the Utah Federal District Court, has been presiding over the consolidated Bellwether RS2477 case filed by Kane County and the State of Utah against the United States and SUWA for many years. In August, Judge Waddoups made a couple of very important rulings that show he has a clear predisposition to substantiate the rights of Utah and Kane County in preserving rights for access on RS2477 claims, of which there are almost 12,000 roads. To illustrate the importance of this it should be remembered that 120 miles of the routes closed in Moab are on existing RS2477 claims.

The first ruling was really aimed straight at SUWA, who is acting as a Intervenor Defendant with the United States. Judge Waddoups expressed that he believed the United States was interesting in settling the long running, complex, and expensive case and that SUWA was dragging it on and unwilling to settle. He was openly frustrated with SUWA’s endless motions taking up the court’s time, and he repeated and clarified his prior ruling that barred SUWA from further motions unless they are approved in advance by the court.

The second Decision in the same case was in response to a motion from BLM that would have dismissed all 12,000 RS2477 claims.

Judge Waddoups approved the dismissal of a single road claim, but denied the request for dismissal of the remaining claims. Further, his 80 page Order was a memorandum of his reasoning for his decision, and went into great detail about his thinking on RS2477 Claims, and why they should be honored without the adjudication of each claim as was contained in prior orders. The decision is very interesting reading, and it seems clear that Judge Waddoups is going to flip the tables on RS2477 road claims, putting BLM on the defense to refute claims rather than requiring the State to gain approval on each claim.

Judge Waddoups made a couple other important distinctions in his ruling:

• Cited the recent Corner Post Supreme Court case to refute many of the statute of limitations motions to dismiss, another win for public land users
• Introduced many theories about why the 2017 BLM SUWA Settlement Agreement may be on shaky ground. This is the reason we are in the process of revisiting 17 Utah Travel Management Plans.

The case is still ongoing, but it appears Judge Waddoups wants to see it close soon, but he’s shown us a peek behind the curtain. This ruling is so monumental that the information I’ve been hearing is that BLM is reconsidering their current TMP/RMP processes in Utah. Once the case is is closed and the decision published, it can be cited in many other land use claims.

Here’s the ruling in its entirety with highlighting of some of the key findings.

The OHV community has recently been debating what types of modifications/repairs can be done on Sand Mountain. I went directly to the Sand Mountain District Field Manager to get a clear understanding of what’s allowed, and how to gain approval on other repairs.

It should be noted that different rules may apply for other BLM lands, but this is a good guide for Sand Mountain. For questions, or to report individuals or exceptions, please contact the Recreation Planner at BLM (this position is vacant until October, in the meantime, contact Bob Wells, Assistant Field Manager, rwells@blm.gov

What can you do?

• Move rocks by hand, including stacking them. No winches
• Trim bushes by hand shears
• Shovel sand by hand
• Pick up trash

What You Cannot Do Without Approval by BLM

• Use any mechanized devices such as drills, jackhammers, or earth moving equipment
• Post signs or banners, permanent or temporary
• Use nonnative materials that are not found on the mountain naturally

How to request approval for other work

• Write a description of what you want to do including:
  • GPS location
  • Photos depicting current condition
  • Description of materials or equipment being used
  • Why you are requesting to do the repair
  • Who will be responsible for the repair
  • When do you plan to start/complete?
• Email the Sand Mountain BLM Recreation Planner or Bob Wells rwells@blm.gov with your documentation to request approval