This bill addresses the jurisdictional management of public lands.
This bill:
Oppose
Sustainable Future
AI-generated summary, not yet reviewed by Better Utah staff. Please consult the bill text.
This bill originally focused narrowly on requiring the Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office to map large tracts of public land and identify forest health problems. A substitute version significantly broadened the bill to add sweeping new legal assertions about state authority over federal land in Utah. The revised bill declares that Utah has never ceded legal control over roughly 35 million acres — about 96% of federally controlled land in the state — where the federal government holds what the bill calls a "proprietary interest" (meaning it owns the land like an ordinary landowner but lacks specific constitutional authority to govern it), and it directs state agencies to presume that all federal land in Utah falls into this category unless the federal government proves otherwise, extending state claims of authority over matters like zoning, land use, health and safety, and enforcement of state law on that land. Separately, the bill still requires the office, by 2028, to digitally map contiguous "landscape-scale lands" of 250,000 acres or more, marking public access points, high-value mineral areas, and forested "landscape public nuisance areas" — locations the Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands may flag based on factors such as tree density, disease, and fire risk — with annual updates and mineral-development recommendations reported to the Legislature's Federalism Commission and its Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Interim Committee.
Introduction
Feb 11
House Rules
House Committee
Feb 23
House Floor Vote
Feb 26
Senate Rules
Feb 27
Senate Committee
Mar 2
Senate 2nd Reading
Mar 2
Senate 3rd Reading
Mar 5
Governor Signed
Mar 25
IntroductionFeb 11
House Rules
House CommitteeFeb 23
House Floor VoteFeb 26
Senate RulesFeb 27
Senate CommitteeMar 2
Senate 2nd ReadingMar 2
Senate 3rd ReadingMar 5
Governor SignedMar 25
This bill addresses the jurisdictional management of public lands.
This bill:
AI-generated summary, not yet reviewed by Better Utah staff. Please consult the bill text.
This bill originally focused narrowly on requiring the Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office to map large tracts of public land and identify forest health problems. A substitute version significantly broadened the bill to add sweeping new legal assertions about state authority over federal land in Utah. The revised bill declares that Utah has never ceded legal control over roughly 35 million acres — about 96% of federally controlled land in the state — where the federal government holds what the bill calls a "proprietary interest" (meaning it owns the land like an ordinary landowner but lacks specific constitutional authority to govern it), and it directs state agencies to presume that all federal land in Utah falls into this category unless the federal government proves otherwise, extending state claims of authority over matters like zoning, land use, health and safety, and enforcement of state law on that land. Separately, the bill still requires the office, by 2028, to digitally map contiguous "landscape-scale lands" of 250,000 acres or more, marking public access points, high-value mineral areas, and forested "landscape public nuisance areas" — locations the Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands may flag based on factors such as tree density, disease, and fire risk — with annual updates and mineral-development recommendations reported to the Legislature's Federalism Commission and its Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Interim Committee.
Oppose
Sustainable Future
Motion: Favorable Recommendation
Motion: Favorable Recommendation
Governor Signed
Lieutenant Governor's office for filing
House/ to Governor
Executive Branch - Governor
House/ received enrolled bill from Printing
Clerk of the House
House/ enrolled bill to Printing
Clerk of the House
Enrolled Bill Returned to House or Senate
Clerk of the House
Last updated Aug 29, 2026, 5:26 PM