S.B. 53 Public Land Management Advisory Board Amendments: transcript

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, we have a, uh, public land management advisory board that takes place if we, um, if 250,000 acres of public land is returned to us. Um, I actually was on a trip to Terrace, uh, Utah, which is an old railroad ghost town. Um, and right there, I think, in Senator Sandall district. Um, and, and it's on, um, federal BLM land. Um, and I was out there with Dr. Chris Merritt who's in the room, and we started talking about, um, you know, who are the stewards of this land and, and what would happen if we got this particular, I mean, I don't think it's a part of the law, the lawsuit, but, so we started talking about it and he said, oh, well, we have this advisory board. And I said, oh, great, because then you will be able to continue to work on. He said, well, you know what, I'm not on that committee. So we began to talk about are there people that should be on this committee? Should we, uh, get the, get some lands back? And I reached out to, uh, reg Johnson here. And, um, uh, he suggested, uh, both, uh, Shippo and, um, lan, if it's okay, Mr. Chair, I'd like to turn some time over to Mr. Johnson.

Thank you, Senator. Um, chairs, committee members. It's great to be here with you today. My name is Raj Johnson, director of Utah's Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office. Um, appreciate the senator bringing this to our attention. And we work extensively with, uh, Shippo right now. Um, Chris Merrit has actually been, uh, the chair of our resource development coordinating council for the past year. Uh, our archeologist on staff works with his, works with Chris and his staff a a lot. Uh, they've been great to work with, and this does make sense. Um, you know, whenever we do have archeological, uh, resources or paleontological resources, we respect those. Uh, we want to treat them how they need to be treated. Um, but, you know, Chris's team also has helped us identify, you know, how we solve some of the issues when we run up, uh, against some of these issues. And they, so they've been really proactive, um, and they've just been phenomenal to work with. So very supportive there. And, um, for the director of SIT LI think that also makes a lot of sense. You know, a lot of these mineral plays, uh, TLA may have a, a parcel in the middle of a play, but the, the play includes a lot of the federal estate. So if we were to get some of these lands back, it makes sense, uh, for them to be at the table as well. So, uh, fully supportive of this. And we work with both agencies already extensively, and they're, they're great to work with. So we're supportive of Senator Quan's, bill.

Does. Mr. Chair.

Yeah, the only thing that would've impressed me more if you'd have done in in French. In in French, you've done your Presentation In French. Let me start over.

Uh, yes. Thank you. Yeah, my motion to be, to pass out favorably SB 53.

I'll Waive. Thank you. Okay.

Um, so this is a bill that came about because I went on a trip to Terrace, as many of you know, that I often like to go out there. It's an old railroad ghost town. And I happen to, there's, there's a, another story that I'll tell another day, but it has to do with a flat tire and, um, some, uh, uh, dish soap. But, uh, turned out that I got into a car with our, um, state historic preservation officer and was talking about our, um, our, our public lands. Um, and I, I asked him about, uh, who takes care of our, our public lands, uh, if should we get some of the, uh, state, uh, sorry, some of the federal land back, uh, from the lawsuit that's going on right now. And he said, there is a public land management advisory board that takes place, as many of you already know, if we get 250,000 acres back. Um, and I said, oh, that's great because then you'll be part of that advisory board and, you know, can help take care of our lands. And he said, actually, I'm not. So I had a conversation with Reg, uh Johnson and, um, worked out this bill that, uh, we're adding the state Historic Preservation Officer, um, and the, uh, tla, uh, director of tla, uh, to the Public Land Management Advisory Board. And that concludes my presentation. Thank you for the presentation.

Thank you. Uh, we'll sponsor yield through Questions. Senator Kwan, will you yield? Yes.

Thank you. Senator Harper.

Um, the addition of these two, uh, positions, what value and benefit to the add to this that is not already on the existing committee? Senator Kwan? Thank you, Mr.

President for the question. Uh, the State historic Preservation officer, uh, and, and the office does much of the cultural, um, anthropological work as well as, uh, the, um, uh, the work of the, there is a word here of the person who, uh, not an architect, but anyways, uh, they do, uh, most of the work in the state. And so what that would do with the state historic preservation officers to ensure that the, uh, exploration and the digs of these sites, uh, should they come to be our, uh, in, in line with our, uh, state, um, uh, guidelines. Uh, the ctla uh, administration, the director of ctla, uh, Mr. Johnson had recommended because of many of these lands, uh, are adjacent to, or, um, that used to be part of TLA lands. And so he thought that that would be a good addition as well. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President. I waive summation and move that, uh, SB 53, be read for a third time.