- Utah and the U.S. Forest Service signed a 20-year forest management agreement.
- The deal enhances collaboration on outdoor recreation, wildlife, grazing, timber sales and other forest decisions.
- State officials say it will speed up decision-making; conservation groups signal concerns about future land decisions.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah and the U.S. Forest Service have reached a consent on a new 20-year cooperative agreement, which state leaders believe will better give them a seat at the table in forest management decisions.
The deal, which Gov. Spencer Cox and Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz signed on Thursday, expands on an existing partnership tied to wildfire management to include additional forest decisions. The agreement establishes the framework for greater collaboration on decisions tied to outdoor recreation, wildlife management, grazing, timber sales, watersheds or other issues across more than 8 million acres of Forest Service land in Utah.
"What it does is it changes our ability to actually get work done with our federal partners," Cox said, before signing the document at a table in the state Capitol. "It combines our collective capacity, our funding and expertise to efficiently manage and select national forest system lands all across our state."
The agreement won't change land ownership or federal environmental land standards, but it should speed up decision processes, said Joel Ferry, director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources. It's similar to a 2019 deal between the two sides that focused on wildfire management, which led to tens of millions of dollars in state and federal investments, but with more elements.
More localized agreements on forest projects are expected in the coming months and years that will put "meat on the bones" of Thursday's announcement, Ferry adds. For example, the state could take over management of campgrounds near Flaming Gorge in northern Utah without impacting Dixie National Forest in southern Utah.
It follows similar measures the U.S. Forest Service reached with Idaho and Montana, but Ferry believes Utah's deal is "beefier" because it includes many facets of how forests are used. It also differs from previous processes, where the Forest Service made decisions on Utah land, with the state only providing a commenting role on any given plan.
"(The new agreement) puts us on the front end, so we're at the table making decisions, not just on the back end evaluating decisions that have already been made," he said. "It's a true partnership."
The deal follows meetings with state and local leaders last year, as well as the "urgency" to handle the nation's wildfire risks and lumber needs that prompted declarations from President Donald Trump, Schultz explained. One of those was a call to expand American timber production by 25%.
On top of expanding timber production, which could reduce its reliance on the Canadian lumber that accounts for about 20% of U.S. consumption, Schultz said it should "accelerate" landscape restoration. Cox believes the two can work hand-in-hand, producing timber needs while treating forest overgrowth to reduce the growing size and intensity of wildfires.
"Timber production can be good as long as you're not clearcutting, as long as you're replanting and doing it responsibly," he said. "(The agreement) will allow us to do more of that together."
Clearcutting, a practice of wiping out sections of forest, is not what local leaders had in mind when they brought the issue to federal leaders, said Garfield Commission Chair Leland Pollock, who was among the group of local leaders that pushed for the agreement. He'd like to see more thinning to remove overgrowth in forests and make them healthier, which could include logging, prescribed fires and restoration projects.
"It is a shared goal, finally, to start cleaning up the forests," he said, after attending Thursday's ceremony.
He doesn't see big sawmills returning to southern and central Utah, but he wants to ensure that his community and the surrounding area don't have to deal with massive fires. A large 2017 Brian Head fire ultimately impacted his water supply for two years afterward, which is an issue he says most people forget when new fires break out.
Conservation groups push back
Multiple conservation groups weren't as enthused, arguing that it will cut public oversight and weaken environmental reviews. Four groups issued a joint statement, saying that they believe it opens the door for "vastly expanded" commercial logging, as well as more for mining, recreation and grazing.
They also likened it to proposals to sell off public lands last year, which ultimately stalled.
"Utah politicians have failed repeatedly to sell off public lands outright, so now they're teaming up with their Trump cronies to push the same disgraceful agenda," said Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity.
It's unclear if the deal will lead to similar agreements with other major federal land-owning agencies in the state. Ferry doubts anything similar could be reached with the National Park Service, but sees "opportunities" with the Bureau of Land Management.
"That's not really contemplated here. That's not on the table at this point," he said.
