- SITLA, the state's School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, approved the sale of about 50,000 acres of Book Cliffs land to the Division of Wildlife Resources for roughly $30 million, with funding allocated by the Utah Legislature in 2025.
- The deal would move the land from SITLA’s revenue-focused management to DWR ownership, making public recreation access a permanent priority.
- Supporters say the sale balances conservation, public access and financial returns by generating more long-term funding for public school trusts.
Utah’s School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, or SITLA, voted to sell about 50,000 acres of the Book Cliffs roadless area, just north of Green River, to another government agency for about $30 million on Thursday morning.
The Legislature allocated $50 million to the Division of Wildlife Resources for the potential sale in 2025.
SITLA manages 7.8 million acres of trust land in the state to generate income largely for public schools. Since the group’s inception in 1994, SITLA has been tasked with managing, developing or selling its land to maximize benefits for their beneficiaries.
Rep. Casey Snider, R-Paradise, described the sale as the best way SITLA could maximize revenues and continue public access to the land.
“This allows them to get the full surface value of their estate, put it in their long term investment account, which will yield significantly more year over year returns than just having it as a standard only in getting their grazing fees,” he told the Deseret News. “They get the full value of the land, they maximize the return, and at the same time, we ensure that in perpetuity, the public will be able to use these areas.”
Before the vote, SITLA board of trustees Chair Byran Harris invited the public to comment, though no one spoke.
“Because of this deal, we’re proving that conservation and development and financial return and preservation can all exist.”
— Utah Rep. Casey Snider, R-Paradise
Public recreation on SITLA lands is not guaranteed, since the agency’s primary goal is revenue generation. Switching ownership to DWR makes public recreation access a primary, permanent objective.
The Book Cliffs stretch 250 miles from Helper, Utah, to Grand Junction, Colorado, renowned as the world’s longest continuous cliffs. Much of the area is only accessible by horseback, and the region draws in more than 6,000 hunters annually.
“I think (the sale) is a big deal. It’s awesome,” Snider said. “This is a historic moment for conservation and development.”
He said the sale should be an example for how Utah should lead land policy.
“Utah has this reputation for disposal or that we don’t like public lands,” Snider said. “This real example disputes that narrative. At the same time, you see us bringing very disparate interests together to solve what has been historically a very tricky problem to solve. And right now, because of this deal, we’re proving that conservation and development and financial return and preservation can all exist.”
He continued, “I wish at the macro level, on land policy, we could have more discussions like this. ... We can work together on on issues and from perspectives that don’t have to be in alignment. And I think this process proves that. So in an ideal world, we would replicate some form of this on federal parcels rather than this whipsaw approach that we generally see.”
Upon the vote, Michelle McConkie, the executive director of SITLA, said in a statement that the sale will “maximize long-term returns” for trust beneficiaries.
“Our analysis shows that selling this property at fair market value and investing the proceeds in the Permanent State School Fund will generate substantially greater returns for Utah schools than continued ownership,” she said.
