The Utah Department of Natural Resources will host a meeting tonight on one of the oddest bills ever to come before the Legislature: a motion to withdraw permission the state gave 78 years ago that allowed the federal government to use state land in and around Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.

Public input sessions are scheduled to start at 7 p.m.:

• Tonight, in the Department of Natural Resources offices, 1594 W. North Temple.

• Thursday, visitors center, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.

The sprawling refuge, located near Brigham City, is home to many species of waterfowl and animals. State officials are not faulting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its management of the land and insist they are not taking the step as a way to grab water from the Bear River, which supports the refuge, and divert it to Salt Lake City.

Instead, the reason is more peculiar. Not only do Utah officials want to be paid for the use of state land, but they were alarmed when they recently discovered the legislative grants of 1927 and 1929 gave the federal government the right to control thousands of acres of state land that is not even part of the wetland.

The grant stretches into Brigham City, in the foothills of the Wellsville Mountain range above the refuge, said DNR director Mike Styler. "It was way more than just the wetlands," he said.

State officials want to repeal that law regardless of any payment for use of state land at the refuge, he said.

Neither the federal nor state government was aware of the old law until negotiations fell apart on federal payment around 2001 or 2002, according to Styler.

At that time, after years of discussions, the Interior Department tentatively agreed to pay $15 million for state land at the refuge.

But when Interior Department director Gale A. Norton discovered the money would come out of her department's budget and not a congressional appropriation, she backed out of the deal, Styler said.

Last year during ongoing discussions, the Interior Department informed state officials that in 1927 and 1929, the Utah Legislature had passed statutes saying the federal government could use the land for the refuge.

"All of the negotiations came to a screeching halt," Styler said.

He and Darin Bird of the DNR traveled to Washington, D.C., to inform Interior Department officials the state had made an error in the 1929 law and that Utah would seek to repeal it.

Since then, federal officials have reopened the dialog about paying for state land used by the refuge, he said.

"They have offered to pay for an appraisal for the ground," Styler said.

Meanwhile, the bill to repeal the earlier laws — HB192, sponsored by Rep. Ben Ferry, R-Corinne — awaits a vote in the House.

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