How Public Land Changes Hands in Utah

• The Defense Department's buffer program (REPI; the Army's version is called ACUB) pays willing landowners near bases not to develop, so homes don't crowd up against live-fire training areas.
• In 2020, about 400 acres of the Smith family's farmland next to Camp Williams were protected. It was the third easement between the family and The Conservation Fund, together totaling more than 600 acres. Funders included the National Guard Bureau, the Defense Department's REPI program, USDA's farmland easement program and the State of Utah.
• The Defense Department's Utah fact sheet lists about $51.5 million in combined funding and 2,443 acres protected at Camp Williams and Hill Air Force Base through fiscal 2021.

Twenty acres in the Wildflower development, next to Camp Williams' field artillery firing points, had been planned for 57 homes. The land is becoming a Saratoga Springs cemetery instead, and the purchase was paid in full by the Army's buffer program.

flowchart TD
  A[Army ACUB buffer program] -->|federal funds| B[Herriman City, holder of the ACUB agreement]
  B -->|secures 20 acres| C[Saratoga Springs cemetery]
  D[Developer DAI, Wildflower development] -->|value of 57 planned homes| E[Other areas of the same development]
      

The other hand: The city's release says the developer, DAI, moved "the value of the density from this 20-acre parcel to other areas within the development." The buffer is real, and Saratoga Springs residents didn't pay for the land. The open question is which parts of Wildflower absorbed that density, and when the city approved it.

• When President Clinton created Grand Staircase-Escalante in 1996, about 176,000 acres of school trust land were inside it.
• Gov. Mike Leavitt and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt negotiated a trade that Congress approved in 1998. Utah gave up trust land inside the monument, Indian reservations, national parks and forests, and received federal land elsewhere, coal tracts and $50 million.
• President Clinton called it the largest land exchange in the history of the lower 48 states.

The other hand: The land Utah received includes the Drunkard's Wash natural-gas field and land that now hosts the ACES Delta energy project, the Wasatch Regional Landfill and solar farms. The trade made the school trust much richer.

• About 130,000 acres of trust land sat inside Bears Ears. The state, the federal government and the five tribes of the Bears Ears Commission agreed on a trade of about 162,500 state acres for about 167,500 federal acres.
• The Legislature approved it in 2023, and bills advanced in both chambers of Congress.
• In February 2024, Gov. Spencer Cox withdrew. H.J.R. 26 formally rejected the trade, passing the House 56-13 and the Senate 20-6. State leaders cited the federal management plan and "lack of coordination with the state."

The other hand: State leaders said they'd reopen talks when the federal government was ready. In July 2026, most of the monument was removed by proclamation instead (see section 4), and much of the trust land that would have been traded is now outside the monument.

• Required by the 2019 Dingell Act, which created new wilderness and recreation areas in Emery County.
• The BLM received about 116,042 acres of isolated state land. Utah received 47 water rights; about 83,000 acres including the minerals underneath; about 4,000 surface-only acres; and about 5,000 acres of minerals only, across 18 counties.
• The BLM says Utah's new land holds about 32 million tons of recoverable coal, 2.5 million barrels of oil and 25,800 million cubic feet of natural gas, and can be used for housing, recreation, grazing and critical minerals.
• Signed by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Gov. Cox, Sen. John Curtis, the acting BLM director and Trust Lands Director Michelle McConkie.

The other hand: Who ends up leasing, buying or developing that land is decided by the Trust Lands board, and its decisions are public.

• Under Public Law 118-181, the BLM moved 618 acres of isolated parcels to the state: 329 acres to Antelope Island State Park and 289 to Wasatch Mountain State Park.
• The BLM said the change allows "more consistent management" by Utah State Parks.

• On July 13, 2026, President Trump signed proclamations cutting Bears Ears to about 121,100 acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante to about 181,500 acres, more than a 90% reduction for each. Gov. Cox, Sens. Lee and Curtis, and House Speaker Mike Schultz stood behind him at the signing.
• The White House said the objects worth protecting stay inside the smaller boundaries and the rest returns to "traditional multiple-use activities." The Bears Ears proclamation names "critical minerals such as silver, copper, molybdenum, lead, uranium, vanadium, and zinc."
• The proclamation states that the Bears Ears Commission, the five tribes' formal role in managing the monument, "is hereby disbanded and terminated," while federal agencies "shall continue to consult with Tribal Nations in accordance with other applicable authorities."
• The removed land opened to new mining claims on Sept. 11. San Juan County recorder data shows 16 claims filed that day.
• On Sept. 2, conservation groups, tribal organizations and businesses asked a federal court to reopen their 2017 lawsuits. Separately, in June 2026 a federal appeals court revived Utah's own lawsuit against the 2021 restoration.

The other hand: Filing a mining claim is a first step, not permission to dig. Permits can take years. But claims are public records, so anyone can watch who files and where.

• Leasing means the government keeps the land but sells the right to drill it.
• The BLM's preliminary parcel list for the March 24, 2027 sale (file "UT_03-24-2027_Q1_Preliminary_Parcel_List") has 54 parcels covering 58,600.68 acres. Every parcel carries a 12.5% royalty rate.
• Comments are taken online through BLM ePlanning until 11:59 p.m. Mountain time on Oct. 19, 2026. Comments sent any other way won't be accepted. Project number: DOI-BLM-UT-0000-2026-0009-EA.

What the list shows: None of the parcels are in San Juan, Kane or Garfield counties. More than half the acreage is in one part of Emery County and traces to a small group of nominations. Ten parcels are "split estate," where someone else owns the surface and the federal government owns the minerals underneath.

The other hand: The list gives nomination numbers, not who nominated the parcels. The project's maps show where each parcel is and what's nearby.