Public land is a major benefit for recreation. People use it to hunt, fish, hike, camp, and ride motorcycles and dirt bikes, among other things. Utah is suing the federal government to seize control of over 18.5 million acres of federally protected public land.
The Utah Land Will Likely Be Developed or Used for Oil Production
This land is used by the public for various recreational activities. Right now, its use is unclassified, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t used. Also, not every square acre of land in the state needs to be “used” for something. There’s nothing wrong with having plenty of public land for people to do recreational activities.
The state claims it wants to take control of the land for reasons like affordable housing and better local management, but this feels much like a facade to allow Utah officials to sell the land to the highest bidder, likely oil and gas companies and developers.
If this lawsuit succeeds, it could set a precedent for other states to seize federal public lands, which would be a massive loss for public access and conservation. It’s also worth noting that the lawsuit is eating up an estimated $14 million in taxpayer dollars. So, essentially the state is using taxpayer money to take public land away from taxpayers.
For more coverage of this issue, I highly recommend you check out Jonathon Klein’s article at RideApart and Wes Siler’s article at Outside.
