Lands policy office sought

When dealing with the federal government on the perennially volatile issues of land policy, Utah needs to speak with one voice, Gayle McKeachnie, the governor's rural affairs coordinator, said Monday, and that voice should be a new one: a state public lands policy office.

Topics like wilderness, roads and wild and scenic rivers — all environmental hot buttons — would be a focus of the office, McKeachnie told the Deseret Morning News after proposing the idea to the Legislature's Joint Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee. But he insisted, "I do not have an agenda so we can clobber these people or help these people."

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. broached the subject earlier this month in a meeting with journalists but gave few details.

McKeachnie said Monday that Sen. Tom Hatch, R-Panguitch, is drafting a bill to establish the office.

Several state departments cover the same issues and sometimes their officers give conflicting statements on them, he said.

When he was lieutenant governor, McKeachnie added, "I made a great effort, without much success, to get all those people to start talking with each other."

The office would have a manager who would be answerable to the governor and lieutenant governor. Several organizations would provide personnel and funding.

McKeachnie said the office would deal with road issues and wilderness — "all the resources management plans that the BLM is doing, the Forest Service roadless issues, wild and scenic rivers — those are the ones that come to my mind right now."

One way to set up the office would be for the Legislature to authorize the governor to create the organization quickly. A second would be for the Legislature to spell out the office in detail now, he said. But he did not like that route because, McKeachnie said, "That probably takes more time."

An advisory committee should be set up to help the proposed public lands policy office, he said, adding that legislators could be represented on the advisory board.

Lately, he added, the state's Resource Development Coordinating Committee has not been working well in large part because the committee is no longer part of the governor's office.

"While they're still going through the motions, it doesn't work like it did when somebody in the governor's office demanded that we all get together and plan," he said.

"This is a good step in the right direction," said Rep. Michael E. Noel, R-Kanab. "But to start this process, I would like to see a pretty detailed vision statement of what we are looking for on public lands and how they interface with our state."