Utah lawmakers approved a rare move — handing off state lands to the federal government, instead of demanding the opposite.
After more than a decade of legal fights, the Legislature approved an eleventh-hour deal Friday night agreeing to sell 22,311 acres of the Great Salt Lake’s lakebed to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in exchange for more than $60 million.
The refuge is owned and managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Established by Congress in 1928, it lies in the northeast corner of the Great Salt Lake. But state officials began butting heads with the federal government in 2000, when they determined the refuge had included lands below the lake’s ordinary high water line.
“It’s a win-win,” House Majority Leader Casey Snider, R-Paradise, told reporters Friday afternoon. “We’re incredibly grateful for the national attention that this system has on it.”
The lawmaker praised President Donald Trump and his administration for seeing the deal through. The president posted to social media and made public statements late last month that he was committed to making the Great Salt Lake “great again.”
Read Leia Larsen's full story at sltrib.com.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.