Editor’s note: This is a synopsis of the Tribune’s new reporting on what led to SITLA’s failed sale of Tabby Mountain in 2019. Read the complete story here.
The Ute Indian Tribe submitted a sealed $47 million bid in 2019 to purchase a 28,500-acre block of state trust lands on Utah’s Tabby Mountain, which exceeded what the state could pay. That bid wound up derailing the state’s plan to acquire the land as a wildlife preserve for public access and hunting.
The tribe’s bid was publicly disclosed for the first time in a whistleblower complaint filed Aug. 30 by Tim Donaldson, the former trust lands officer who oversaw the proposed sale. His complaint filed with the Utah State Auditor’s Office alleged School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) executives rigged the proposed sale to ensure the 28,500-acre block in Duchesne and Wasatch counties would be sold to the Utah Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
DNR responded to the tribe’s bid with a $50 million offer, but SITLA suspended the sales process, and has yet to renew it. While acknowledging some irregularities in the way the block’s appraisal was arranged, SITLA denies the sale was rigged and defended its decision.
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
The big picture: SITLA manages Utah’s 3 million acres of trust lands — ceded by the federal government at the time of statehood in 1896 — to generate revenue for schools and other public beneficiaries. The Legislature established the agency in 1994, giving it near complete independence and a strict mandate to manage trust lands to “optimize” revenue generation. The school trust now exceeds $3.2 billion.
But some lawmakers are concerned this success has come at a steep cost to the public interest if it sells or leases lands the public enjoys for outdoor recreation, especially big game hunting. A high plateau in the Duchesne River’s headwaters, Tabby provides critical habitat for elk and mule deer.
Why it matters: The Tabby fiasco illustrates the tensions that have been growing for years over SITLA’s decisions that elevate making money for the school trust over the public interest in trust lands.
• “You take 40,000 acres that currently has public access and put it into private ownership, regardless of who it is, whether it’s the [Ute] tribe or anybody else, we’re going to get significant backlash that ultimately doesn’t reflect well for SITLA,” said House Majority Leader Mike Schultz. “The public does not understand SITLA’s role. All they see is the fact that 40,000 acres of their property was taken away from them by the state of Utah.”
• Donaldson, who was recently fired from his more recent job as director of Utah’s Land Trust Protection and Advocacy Office, contends SITLA may have crossed an ethical line when it nixed the Tabby sale and wants State Auditor John Dougall to investigate.
• Some legislators said they would support legislation stripping SITLA of its independence if it sells Tabby to private buyers, including a tribe, who would then deny public access.
• Such a move would fundamentally alter the agency’s mission and limit its ability to generate revenue from trust lands, officials say.
