A Tiny Land Deal With Large Implications

[ad_1] by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors December 29, 2025

The invoice was launched by Utah Sens. Mike Lee (R) and John Curtis (R).

On Dec. 15, the Senate Committee on Vitality and Pure Assets scheduled 15 payments for markup, the ultimate stage for making amendments earlier than voting on advancing a invoice to the total Senate. Included in that slate is a modest-sounding proposal launched final Might known as the Brian Head City Land Conveyance Act.

The invoice, launched by Utah Sens. Mike Lee (R) and John Curtis (R), would switch roughly 24 acres of the Dixie Nationwide Forest to a small Utah city with an formidable plan for development. “Brian Head is poised to grow to be the following nice Western ski city,” Sen. Curtis stated in a information launch final spring. “This invoice offers native officers the instruments they want—free from federal crimson tape—to fulfill their neighborhood’s rising wants.”

On paper, the invoice is slim (it weighs in at simply 274 phrases), technical, and native—the form of housekeeping laws which may usually transfer quietly by means of Congress. Supporters describe the proposal as pragmatic. Brian Head (inhabitants: 151), they argue, wants land to assist primary municipal providers because it grows. Land transfers aren’t that unusual, both. The Bureau of Land Administration disposes of some thousand to tens of 1000's of acres yearly. This parcel is way smaller than that, remoted, and of restricted federal administration worth. From this angle, continued federal possession of the land surrounding Brian Head is inefficient, and native management is just widespread sense.

However in response to Re:Public, whereas the quantity of land in query could also be small, the implications of this invoice attain properly past the boundaries of a small Utah city. Most notably, the invoice directs the U.S. Forest Service to convey the land to Brian Head without charge. That represents a radical departure from typical federal land transfers, which usually require cost, a land trade of equal worth, or, on the very least, an administrative course of that features environmental evaluation and public enter. None of these guardrails are in place with this invoice. By legislating the switch outright, Lee and Curtis are successfully short-circuiting debate and denying compensation to American taxpayers.

A extra regular land switch would additionally require the parcel for use by the city for a selected function, utilizing what’s often known as a “reversionary clause” to implement the mandate. If the land isn’t used for the precise function outlined within the switch settlement—a city water remedy facility, say, or a car parking zone—the reversionary clause would guarantee possession of the land reverts again to the federal authorities.

However there’s no reversionary clause in play right here. The Brian Head invoice doesn’t even demand that the city use the gifted land for a public works challenge. Somewhat, it states that the land is “for use by the City for a public works facility or another makes use of decided to be crucial by the City.” As critics level out, with out requiring a selected use, the city of Brian Head, which is within the midst of an enormous enlargement plan for its namesake ski resort, might simply as quickly flip round and promote the land to personal builders because it might use the land for a public want.

That may sound paranoid, however on this case, the broader political context warrants the priority. Sen. Mike Lee, the invoice’s sponsor, has been overtly hostile towards federally managed public lands all through his profession. He was additionally the writer of the large sell-off proposal that made public lands a part of the nationwide dialog final summer season. Lee, Curtis, and different Utah lawmakers have lengthy pushed to scale back federal land possession, arguing that native or state management would enhance administration and financial alternative. Whereas the Brian Head invoice doesn't explicitly advance statewide land-transfer efforts, it aligns with a philosophy that views federal land possession as negotiable relatively than foundational.

“It's only 20 acres, however that is actually concerning the precedent,” says Anneka Williams, coverage director for the Winter Wildlands Alliance, a conservation group that opposes the invoice. “The place is the compensation for the land giveaway for American taxpayers? This appears like a continuation of Mike Lee’s bigger anti-public lands agenda.”

Certainly, that is precisely how precedent will get set—not with huge sell-offs, however with small, seemingly affordable exceptions that slowly redefine what’s acceptable. As soon as transferred, the Brian Head land would not be topic to federal environmental protections or public entry necessities. Nationwide forests are managed beneath a multiple-use mandate that balances growth, conservation, recreation, and watershed safety. Eradicating parcels from that system—particularly with out compensation—raises questions on whether or not the federal property is being incrementally diminished by means of legislative carve-outs.

Historical past additionally means that small land offers can have cumulative results. Over time, dozens of minor conveyances can reshape landscapes, fragment habitat, and cut back public entry. If Congress can provide away nationwide forest land to at least one city totally free, what stops related requests from multiplying—significantly in fast-growing Western communities the place growth strain on public lands is already intense?

For now, the Brian Head invoice stays a distinct segment subject, largely unnoticed outdoors public-lands circles. Nevertheless it’s additionally a check case: a measure of how keen Congress is to calm down the norms governing public land disposal, and the way a lot scrutiny such selections will face.