Novel approach: Why is Utah advertising its public lands lawsuit across the country?

Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah has launched a national public information campaign promoting its landmark public lands lawsuit filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in the hopes that it will increase the likelihood that the court will take up the case.

The ads have been placed with national news outlets like the Dispatch and the Wall Street Journal, as well as the influential legal podcast Advisory Opinions.

The ads say that the federal government controls nearly 70% of Utah's land, 34% of which has no congressionally defined purpose, with the catchphrase, "let Utah manage Utah land," while linking to the state's new "Stand with Utah" website.

The decision to run the ads was based on the recommendation of the state's attorneys, to raise awareness of Utah's case among those who might influence whether it moves forward, according to Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper.

"We want to be successful. We want the Supreme Court to hear this argument. And so they recommended that we do a little bit of public outreach to talk about that," Schultz told the Deseret News. "So they did feel like that was important to make sure that, one, we could be successful with educating, I think, some of the clerks at the Supreme Court, and to maybe help our chance that they'll take this lawsuit up."

The effort to influence public opinion outside of Utah is being directed by the state Attorney General's Office and is relatively small — costing a "couple hundred thousand" dollars — compared to the amount being spent on a public education campaign for Utah voters, which will total "several million dollars," Schultz said.

The Attorney General's Office said in a statement that there is a lack of education about public lands across the country. The federal government controls more than two-thirds of the land in Utah, while it controls less than 1% in states like Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island, according to the statement, and less than 3% in Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

"It is important to share our state's perspective with the people who have lived primarily on the East Coast, many of them likely have little to no awareness of key facts that may seem clear to Utahns," the statement said.

Utah's landmark lawsuit

On Aug. 20, after decades of preparation, the Beehive State filed a landmark lawsuit directly with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking resolution to the longstanding question of whether the federal government has constitutional authority to maintain 18.5 million acres of unappropriated public lands in Utah against the state's wishes.

The country's highest court has yet to take up the case. But if it were to rule in Utah's favor, the control of a significant portion of public lands would shift to state capitals like Phoenix, Boise and Salt Lake City.

Serious discussions about how to reclaim Utah's control over public lands have found their way into the state Legislature more and more frequently over the last 10 to 15 years, with lawmakers establishing a special public lands litigation account for a $14 million lawsuit in 2016, and creating a new state land management department to take over leasing on public lands from federal agencies.

The lawsuit will not impact the 18.8 million acres of federal and tribal lands that include military installations, national parks, national monuments, national forests and national wilderness areas.

Educating Utahns on federal overreach

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, in a monthly PBS press conference on Thursday, said the focus of the ad campaign is to educate Utahns about why the state is filing a lawsuit against the federal government.

"Those funds are funds that were appropriated by the legislature for that very purpose," Cox said. "I think it's very important that the people of Utah know what we're doing and why we're trying to do it, and understand the purpose behind this push to make sure that public lands remain public."

Cox insisted the lawsuit is not an effort to privatize public lands. Rather, it is an effort to keep these lands accessible to the public and manage them better than federal agencies can, he said.

I think it's very important that the people of Utah know what we're doing and why we're trying to do it, and understand the purpose behind this push to make sure that public lands remain public.

–Gov. Spencer Cox

The federal agencies managing Utah land, like the Bureau of Land Management, have become much more active in restricting access to public lands during the current presidential administration. Utah leaders, including 3rd District Congressman John Curtis, have strongly opposed a new BLM rule that would allow the agency to lease land previously used for grazing or recreation to be used for conservation.

Just over the last year, the BLM has closed over 500 miles of roads, with travel management plans in the works that would close thousands more, according to Redge Johnson, director of the governor's Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office.

"That's unacceptable because our citizens have been recreating out there and using these public lands, and been good stewards of these public lands, for well over a century," Johnson said. "This is a new effort to close more roads in these current travel management plans. And the state of Utah is trying to articulate to our citizens, how many of these roads do we want closed?"

Read more at the Deseret News.