Rep. Norm Thurston — Voting Record

Bill

Number

H.B. 496 (2024GS)

Sponsor

Rep. Albrecht, C.

Final action

Governor Signed 3/12/2024

Outcome

Became law — signed by Gov. Spencer J. Cox

Summary

What it does

• This bill:
• defines terms;
• requires the Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office to recognize and promote principles of multiple use and sustained yield on federal public lands within the state; and
• prohibits natural asset companies from purchasing or leasing state public lands.

Every vote on this bill

Bill text

This document includes House Committee Amendments incorporated into the bill on Fri, Feb 16, 2024 at 11:13 AM by housengrossing.
PUBLIC LAND USE AMENDMENTS
GENERAL SESSION
STATE OF UTAH
Chief Sponsor: Carl R. Albrecht
Senate Sponsor: 
 Heidi Balderree
LONG TITLE
General Description:
This bill changes provisions relating to public land use in the state.
Highlighted Provisions:
This bill:
▸ defines terms;
▸ requires the Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office to recognize and promote
principles of multiple use and sustained yield on federal public lands within the
state; and
▸ prohibits natural asset companies from purchasing or leasing state public lands.
Money Appropriated in this Bill:
None
Other Special Clauses:
None
Utah Code Sections Affected:
AMENDS:
63L-11-302
, as enacted by Laws of Utah 2021, Chapter 382
63L-13-101
, as enacted by Laws of Utah 2023, Chapter 61
ENACTS:
63L-13-203
, Utah Code Annotated 1953
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
Section 1. Section 
63L-11-302
 is amended to read:
63L-11-302.
Principles to be recognized and promoted.
The office shall recognize and promote the following principles when preparing any
policies, plans, programs, processes, or desired outcomes relating to federal lands and natural
resources on federal lands under Section 
63L-11-301
:
(1) (a) the citizens of the state are best served by applying multiple-use and
sustained-yield principles in public land use planning and management; and
(b) multiple-use and sustained-yield management means that federal agencies should
develop and implement management plans and make other resource-use decisions that:
(i) achieve and maintain in perpetuity a high-level annual or regular periodic output of
mineral and various renewable resources from public lands;
(ii) support valid existing transportation, mineral, and grazing privileges at the highest
reasonably sustainable levels;
(iii) support the specific plans, programs, processes, and policies of state agencies and
local governments;
(iv) are designed to produce and provide the desired vegetation for the watersheds,
timber, food, fiber, livestock forage, wildlife forage, and minerals that are necessary to meet
present needs and future economic growth and community expansion without permanent
impairment of the productivity of the land;
(v) meet the recreational needs and the personal and business-related transportation
needs of the citizens of the state by providing access throughout the state;
(vi) meet the recreational needs of the citizens of the state;
(vii) meet the needs of wildlife;
(viii) provide for the preservation of cultural resources, both historical and
archaeological;
(ix) meet the needs of economic development;
(x) meet the needs of community development; and
(xi) provide for the protection of water rights;
(2) managing public lands for wilderness characteristics circumvents the statutory
wilderness process and is inconsistent with the multiple-use and sustained-yield management
standard that applies to all Bureau of Land Management and United States. Forest Service
lands that are not wilderness areas or wilderness study areas;
(3) all waters of the state are:
(a) owned exclusively by the state in trust for the state's citizens;
(b) are subject to appropriation for beneficial use; and
(c) are essential to the future prosperity of the state and the quality of life within the
state;
(4) the state has the right to develop and use the state's entitlement to interstate rivers;
(5) all water rights desired by the federal government must be obtained through the
state water appropriation system;
(6) land management and resource-use decisions which affect federal lands should give
priority to and support the purposes of the compact between the state and the United States
related to school and institutional trust lands;
(7) development of the solid, fluid, and gaseous mineral resources of the state is an
important part of the economy of the state, and of local regions within the state;
(8) the state should foster and support industries that take advantage of the state's
outstanding opportunities for outdoor recreation;
(9) wildlife constitutes an important resource and provides recreational and economic
opportunities for the state's citizens;
(10) proper stewardship of the land and natural resources is necessary to ensure the
health of the watersheds, timber, forage, and wildlife resources to provide for a continuous
supply of resources for the people of the state and the people of the local communities who
depend on these resources for a sustainable economy;
(11) forests, rangelands, timber, and other vegetative resources:
(a) provide forage for livestock;
(b) provide forage and habitat for wildlife;
(c) provide resources for the state's timber and logging industries;
(d) contribute to the state's economic stability and growth; and
(e) are important for a wide variety of recreational pursuits;
(12) management programs and initiatives that improve watersheds and forests and
increase forage for the mutual benefit of wildlife species and livestock, logging, and other
agricultural industries by utilizing proven techniques and tools are vital to the state's economy
and the quality of life in the state; and
(13) (a) land management plans, programs, and initiatives should provide that the
amount of domestic livestock forage, expressed in animal unit months, for permitted, active
use as well as the wildlife forage included in that amount, be no less than the maximum
number of animal unit months sustainable by range conditions in grazing allotments and
districts, based on an on-the-ground and scientific analysis;
(b) the state opposes the relinquishment or retirement of grazing animal unit months in
favor of conservation, wildlife, and other uses;
(c) the state supports the multiple-use, sustained-yield framework required by federal
law for management of public lands and opposes federal prioritization of conservation as a use
equal to other productive uses of public lands;
[
(c)
] 
(d)
 (i) the state favors the best management practices that are jointly sponsored by
cattlemen, sportsmen, and wildlife management groups such as chaining, logging, seeding,
burning, and other direct soil and vegetation prescriptions that are demonstrated to restore
forest and rangeland health, increase forage, and improve watersheds in grazing districts and
allotments for the benefit of domestic livestock and wildlife;
(ii) when practices described in Subsection [
(13)(c)(i)
] 
(13)(d)(i)
 increase a grazing
allotment's forage beyond the total permitted forage use that was allocated to that allotment in
the last federal land use plan or allotment management plan still in existence as of January 1,
2005, a reasonable and fair portion of the increase in forage beyond the previously allocated
total permitted use should be allocated to wildlife as recommended by a joint, evenly balanced
committee of livestock and wildlife representatives that is appointed and constituted by the
governor for that purpose; and
(iii) the state favors quickly and effectively adjusting wildlife population goals and
population census numbers in response to variations in the amount of available forage caused
by drought or other climatic adjustments, and state agencies responsible for managing wildlife
population goals and population census numbers will, when making those adjustments, give
due regard to both the needs of the livestock industry and the need to prevent the decline of
species to a point of listing under the terms of the Endangered Species Act;
[
(d)
] 
(e)
 the state opposes the transfer of grazing animal unit months to wildlife for
supposed reasons of rangeland health;
[
(e)
] 
(f)
 reductions in domestic livestock animal unit months must be temporary and
scientifically based upon rangeland conditions;
[
(f)
] 
(g)
 policies, plans, programs, initiatives, resource management plans, and forest
plans may not allow the placement of grazing animal unit months in a suspended use category
unless there is a rational and scientific determination that the condition of the rangeland
allotment or district in question will not sustain the animal unit months sought to be placed in
suspended use;
[
(g)
] 
(h)
 any grazing animal unit months that are placed in a suspended use category
should be returned to active use when range conditions improve;
[
(h)
] 
(i)
 policies, plans, programs, and initiatives related to vegetation management
should recognize and uphold the preference for domestic grazing over alternate forage uses in
established grazing districts while upholding management practices that optimize and expand
forage for grazing and wildlife in conjunction with state wildlife management plans and
programs in order to provide maximum available forage for all uses; and
[
(i)
] 
(j)
 in established grazing districts, animal unit months that have been reduced due
to rangeland health concerns should be restored to livestock when rangeland conditions
improve, and should not be converted to wildlife use.
Section 2. Section 
63L-13-101
 is amended to read:
63L-13-101.
Definitions.
As used in this chapter:
(1) (a) "Conservation lease" means a lease on a parcel of public land that:
(i) restricts the use of the parcel for the sole or primary purpose of preserving or
protecting the land or the land's natural resources;
(ii) prohibits the extraction of the land's natural resources; or
(iii) is managed according to an agreement that contradicts the principles of multiple
use and sustained yield, including the multiple-use, sustained-yield principles in the Federal
Land Policy and Management Act, 43 U.S.C. 1732, and the National Forest Management Act,
U.S.C. 1604.
(b) "Conservation lease" includes a lease that is
Ĥ→ [
substantially
] 
 wholly or partially
150a 
←Ĥ
similar to a lease
described in Subsection (1)(a).
(c) "Conservation lease" does not include a conservation easement, as that term is
defined in Section 
57-18-2
.
(2) (a) "Ecosystem services" mean the natural and biological processes on a parcel of
land that benefit human well-being and quality of life.
(b) "Ecosystem services" include the:
(i) conversion of carbon dioxide to oxygen in plants through photosynthesis;
(ii) purification of in-stream surface water or groundwater by naturally-occurring
microorganisms, soil or bedrock percolation, or chemical detoxification; and
(iii) noncommercial recreational benefit of natural lands.
[
(1)
] 
(3)
 "Interest in land" means any right, title, lien, claim, interest, or estate with
respect to land.
[
(2)
] 
(4)
 (a) "Land" means all real property within the state.
(b) "Land" includes:
(i) agricultural land, as defined in Section 
4-46-102
;
(ii) land owned or controlled by a political subdivision;
(iii) land owned or controlled by a school district;
(iv) non-federal land, as defined in Section 
9-9-402
;
(v) private land;
(vi) public land;
(vii) state land, as defined in Subsection 
9-9-402
(14)(a);
(viii) waters of the state, as defined in Subsection 
19-5-102
(23)(a); and
(ix) subsurface land.
(c) "Land" does not include real property that is owned, controlled, or held in trust by
the federal government.
(5) (a) "Natural asset company" means a company that has the meaning given under the
notice of the Securities and Exchange Commission titled Notice of Filing of Proposed Rule
Change To Amend the NYSE Listed Company Manual To Adopt Listing Standards for Natural
Asset Companies, 88 Fed. Reg. 68811, published October 4, 2023.
(b) "Natural asset company" includes a company that is substantially similar to a
company described in Subsection (5)(a).
[
(3)
] 
(6)
 "Restricted foreign entity" means:
(a) a company that the United States Secretary of Defense is required to identify and
report as a military company under Section 1260H of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, Pub. L. No. 116-283;
(b) an affiliate, subsidiary, or holding company of a company described in Subsection
[
(3)(a)
] 
(6)(a)
;
(c) a country with a commercial or defense industrial base of which a company
described in Subsection [
(3)(a)
] 
(6)(a)
 or (b) is a part;
(d) a state, province, region, prefecture, subdivision, or municipality of a country
described in Subsection [
(3)(c)
] 
(6)(c)
; and
(e) an agency, bureau, committee, or department of a country described in Subsection
[
(3)(c)
] 
(6)(c)
.
Section 3. Section 
63L-13-203
 is enacted to read:
 63L-13-203.
Natural asset companies prohibited.
(1) A natural asset company may not purchase or lease state public lands.
(2) On public lands within the state, a natural asset company may not:
(a) own or manage a conservation lease; or
(b) purchase or lease ecosystem services.
Section 4. 
Effective date.
This bill takes effect on May 1, 2024.