Utah's wildlife agency successfully bid more than $1.6 million on a piece of trophy land along a stretch of the Green River on Friday, foreclosing potential development and saving it for public use.

The land below Flaming Gorge Dam in Daggett County was auctioned by another state agency, the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration.

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources got a 364-acre landlocked parcel along a scenic part of the river prized for abundant trout.

The auction was supposed to have pitted the wildlife agency against a Georgia development firm that had sought the parcel for a commercial fishing lodge, but the company was a no-show. It may have been discouraged by the agency's blocking of road access to the land.

The wildlife agency instead bid against agents for a 40-year-old Ogden physician who wanted to preserve the land.

"I expected the developer to show up," said Dr. Jeffery Harrison, an orthopedic surgeon, who spoke by telephone from Mexico where he was vacationing.

Harrison said he had no way of knowing the developer would drop out before the bidding began at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City.

"Anybody else would have thought it was crazy to buy property without established access," he said. "I would have gotten a conservation easement on it."

Harrison's bid wasn't necessary if his goal was to keep the land from developers. The only other bidder was Jim Karpowitz, director of the wildlife division, which wants to preserve the land for deer, elk and bighorn sheep.

"You don't have many areas in the West where a river like that is undeveloped," he said.

Karpowitz countered Harrison's bids in steady increments up to $1,625,000 — $400,000 more than the auction minimum and the land's appraised value.

And Karpowitz had his own surprise. He revealed that Questar Exploration & Production Co., an arm of Questar Corp., and a federal commission, the Utah Reclamation, Mitigation and Conservation Commission, will provide about 75 percent of the money to buy the parcel.

The rest will come from fishing and hunting license revenue.

The Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration was criticized for putting the land up for sale.

It was one of the checkerboard parcels left for Utah at statehood for the benefit of public schools, and trust officials said they were fulfilling their mission to maximize education revenues.

The wildlife division first protested the auction, then gathered money for a bid and warned other potential bidders that it would deny access over its own land to the prized parcel.

A public boat ramp is just 700 feet downstream, but Karpowitz said the U.S. Forest Service regulates boating on that stretch of the Green River and wasn't inclined to allow operators of a fishing lodge to use it to transport guests.

"Thank goodness for Questar and the Mitigation Commission," Karpowitz said. "This is a classic win-win for the state of Utah and school children — about $1.6 million — and everyone gets to enjoy that piece of land forever."

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On the Net:

Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration: www.utahtrustlands.com/

Utah Division of Wildlife Resources: wildlife.utah.gov/

Flaming Gorge National Recreation area: www.utah.com/nationalsites/flaming_gorge.htm