Document Type

Report

Publisher

Utah State University

Publication Date

5-2026

First Page

1

Last Page

4

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Abstract

In August 2024 the Utah Attorney General’s Office filed a Bill of Complaint challenging the federal government’s ownership of 18.5 million acres of unappropriated land within the state’s borders (1). The state intends the lawsuit to pave the way for eventual transfer of the land to state ownership (2). The Legislature allocated roughly $20 million to the lawsuit as well as a marketing campaign to increase public support for efforts to transfer public lands out of federal ownership. Of that, over $500,000 was spent on attorney’s fees related to the case and over $2.6 million was allocated to a marketing campaign titled “Stand for Your Land” in Utah and Washington, D.C. (3). Ultimately, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case. In response, the Governor, Speaker of the House, and Senate President stated they would continue to pursue efforts to give the state greater control over federal lands (4). While Utah’s officials advocate for transfer of federal lands to the state and support Utah taking legal action to pursue the issue, what is the stance of Utah’s residents? We sought to address these questions in the 2024-25 Utah People and Environment Poll, a representative statewide survey.

Comments

Funding for the 2024/25 UPEP was provided by the USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHaSS), the USU Mountain West Center for Regional Studies, Made by Fell, USU Institute for Land, Water, & Air, and the USU Center for Intersectional Gender Studies and Research.

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