Law Commons^™

Chapter 2: Western Public Land Law And The Evolving Management Landscape, John C. Ruple

Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources, and the Environment publications

Our nation’s history, and the history of the lands that we inhabit, are inextricably intertwined. Ranchers, miners, loggers, and intrepid homesteaders of the Old West embodies manifest destiny era ideals that set our nation on a trajectory which continues to shape the choices we make today. Laws enacted to speed westward expansion and resolve land ownership indelibly marked the Western landscape, where the vast majority of our public lands are found today.

The US government acquired the Western frontier with federal blood and treasure, and then enacted laws conveying much of that landscape to states, railroads, and the indomitable men …

When Winning Means Losing: Why A State Takeover Of Public Lands May Leave States Without The Minerals They Covet, Robert B. Keiter, John C. Ruple

Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources, and the Environment publications

This White Paper, the third in a series assessing state efforts to take over federal public lands, addresses state claims to the minerals underlying those lands. Using Utah as an example, we argue here that even if states overcome extremely long odds to convince a court that the federal government is obligated to dispose of more public land, and that such a disposal obligation necessitates giving the public domain to the states, well established legal principles would prevent grants of most mineral lands to the states. Moreover, any mineral rights that states did obtain would be realized only after years …

The Future Of Federal-State Land Exchanges, John C. Ruple, Robert B. Keiter

Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources, and the Environment publications

Today, the land ownership map of the West in many places resembles a crazy quilt, without reason or coherent pattern. Often no single owner (states, private entities, or the Federal government) owns enough contiguous land to allow effective management of land holdings, and fragmented ownership patterns generate a plethora of disputes over access and similar problems.

While this paper focuses on examples from Utah, the challenges posed by a fragmented landscape and conflicting management objectives are much broader. Across the 11 contiguous Western states, state trust lands account for twice the acreage of National Parks and trust lands are often …