Having squandered much of their state’s birthright, lawmakers in Utah are trying once more to take away the treasure of our public land.

In 1894 Utah was granted statehood by the United States and given title to 7.5 million acres of land for the support of their public schools and universities. In exchange for this federal land, the statehood act called for Utah to renounce any future claim on remaining federal lands.

Today’s property ownership pattern in the state still shows evidence of this land grant, with four sections (square miles) of land in every township either owned or once owned by the state. Since statehood, Utah has sold off about half of this land (4 million acres) to private interests, placing the revenue in a permanent school fund now worth more than $3 billion.

To this day the state is still holding semi-annual land auctions to feed this school fund, gradually eroding away the base of state trust land.

Adding to their school funding dilemma, the state has instituted a series of seven income tax cuts since 1996. As a result, by some measures the state now ranks among the lowest in the nation in per student education funding.

So some state lawmakers have once again turned their eye to federal lands, now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to declare it unconstitutional for the federal government to hold unappropriated federal land in the state. In effect, they are asking the court to help turn over another 18.5 million acres of BLM land to the state; our federal land that the state would very likely convert to private ranches, subdivisions and hunting preserves.

As a public land user and advocate, this is chilling. Since the case is based on constitutional grounds, a court decision affirming Utah’s case would presumably apply to similar BLM lands in all states, to the tune of some 245 million acres nationwide including 12.5 million acres in Oregon. Twelve states have filed briefs with the Supreme Court in support of Utah’s action (Oregon and Washington have not).

Make no mistake about it, this court challenge is just the latest ploy by the Utah lawmakers to privatize our public lands. The states could not begin to cover the costs of managing fires, landlines, roads, grazing, fences and recreation on this type of land base, so the next step would be large scale land sales of the most valuable and/or accessible pieces. A tragic loss of public land for recreation and wildlife habitat.

Let’s remember the key differences between federal, state and private ownership of these lands. By law, most federal lands are dedicated to multiple use, while state ownership emphasizes maximum revenue generation. Without oil and gas or mining monies, the BLM-turned-state lands can produce the most revenue by being sold to the highest bidder. Say goodbye to open space.

Federal lands are generally open to the public for recreation, free of “No Trespassing” signs. Some state-owned lands are open to recreation and others are not, depending on how the land is being used. Access to private lands, of course, is generally reserved for the landowners and those they allow on their lands. Say goodbye to public access and healthy unfragmented wildlife habitat.

It has taken the state of Utah 130 years to sell off half of the land granted to it in statehood. Selling these lands is the quickest way to generate revenue, and the state’s plan to continue to do so is obvious, without regard to public access, open spaces or management of our natural resources.

So to the Utah lawmakers I say, keep your hands off our public land. I’m not fooled by your school-funding crisis which is a smoke screen for your privatization motive. Your school disaster is self-inflicted; you need to solve this problem without selling millions of acres of our federal land legacy to the highest bidder.