This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
It controls 3.4 million acres of Utah land, has amassed some $700 million and is a major power broker from one end of the state to the other.
Although its name carries the kind of bureaucratic freight that makes people's eyes glaze over, its actions often raise hackles.
The Utah School & Institutional Trust Lands Administration is the state's gorilla. SITLA is backed up by statutory might that allows the agency to rule with an iron hand - when it wants to.
White-hot topics like the trust-lands agency's desire to auction off 365 scenic acres near Little Hole, the blue-ribbon trout fishery on the Green River, have wildlife enthusiasts biting their lips. Developers want to build an upscale lodge and cabins on the land.
And recently, the agency turned up its nose at a $40 million offer from the state Department of Natural Resources for 28,000 acres on Tabby Mountain on the south slope of the Uinta Mountains. It's a favorite for hunters, but trust-lands officials say they can get a better offer in the future, most likely from the private sector.
The state Division of Wildlife Resources is willing to buy, and preserve, the Little Hole land, and the director of the state Department of Natural Resources is willing to pay above-market prices to keep Tabby Mountain undeveloped.
Says DNR's director, Mike Styler: "The governor would like to keep it open. So would the Duchesne [and] Wasatch county commissions. We're afraid it will be sold off to an oil company that would close it off."
But SITLA's leadership is unmoved. Officials say their priority is not to be environmental stewards, but to maximize profits - no matter what - for the benefit of Utah's schoolchildren.
These philosophical disputes, along with other flash points, such as SITLA's Washington County developments and big bonuses for trust-lands officials, are shining a bright, if narrow, beam on the "quasi" state agency, which in the past decade has made more than a half-billion dollars for schools.
"How could you claim this is not a tremendous success story?" asked Republican state Rep. Mel Brown, who is often credited as being the "architect" of the modern-day trust-lands administration.
$2 billion and beyond?
On July 1, 1994, the Legislature transformed the then-poorly performing agency. At that time, about 4 million of the original 7.4 million acres of trust land had been sold off, and Utah didn't have much to show for it, Brown said.
For 100 years, these lands were managed less aggressively. "But who paid the price? The school system," he said.
Brown spearheaded legislation that removed trust lands from the then-Division of State Lands and Forestry. It reinvented SITLA on a private-sector model that emphasized profit and rewarded employees for productivity.
Although hikers, campers and hunters have trod these lands for generations - just like they have on federal Bureau of Land Management tracts, parks and forests - Brown contended that the agency's remaining 3.4 million acres are not public lands.
"It's difficult when tradition has established access and use," he said. "But read the enabling act. They are, plain and simple, not public lands."
The land was deeded to Utah by the federal government in 1896 to be held in trust for schoolchildren. The trustee of that land - SITLA - would then funnel money earned from mining, oil and gas leases, as well as grazing permits, into the state's permanent school fund.
Trust-lands executives estimate that by 2010, the permanent school fund will be worth $1 billion - and Brown believes that in future years, that endowment could be pushed to $2 billion and beyond. That cash would represent a storehouse of capital that could not be touched. Only the interest generated would go to schools - $140 million a year from a $2 billion endowment.
To reach those billion-dollar plateaus, the agency has kept down its annual payouts to public education but still retains an annual grant program that delivered $11.5 million - 0.5 percent of the total education budget - to specific school programs in 2004, according to legislative auditors.
"To reach total potential will ultimately require that SITLA owns no land," he said.
'Let's not destroy'
But not everyone is on board with that philosophy.
Don Peay, who heads up the influential Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife and is a former SITLA board member, worries that SITLA-managed lands cherished by outdoors aficionados will be sold off to developers.
He maintained that some of the trust lands, like the Tabby Mountain acreage, should be purchased by the state and left open to the public.
The state's scenic lands are what make Utah special and are "the best classroom" for children, Peay said. Even at $2 billion, interest earned by the endowment would provide only a tiny fraction of Utah's annual education budget.
"Let's go ahead and make some money for schoolchildren," said Peay. "But let's not destroy the customs and the culture of Utah. Maybe it's time to tweak SITLA's mission so that some of these lands can be set aside."
Peay seems to have support in the Legislature, including Senate President John Valentine.
"One of the things we've done is say, 'What is a more rational approach to these lands? Do we have to get the last dollar - or is there some public aspect to it?' '' he said.
Trust-lands officials concede they have a public-relations problem.
But the agency's director, Kevin Carter, said that is because most Utahns, including sports enthusiasts, do not notice SITLA's myriad conservation agreements, land exchanges and other efforts at stewardship.
"It's unfortunate that we can't make everybody happy. But when you deal with 3.4 million acres, you can't make everybody happy," he said.
More grumbling - particularly over agency-managed residential developments in Washington County and compensation for top trust-lands officials - led legislators two years ago to push for the audit. Last year, in its report, the Office of the Legislative Auditor General revealed that, among other things, the agency continues to sell land at a brisk pace, even though land sales account for only about 20 percent of its profit.
The trust-lands agency makes almost 60 percent of its profits from leases on lands rich in coal, oil and natural gas. The balance comes from other kinds of leases and interest from investments.
'More than the bottom line'
Auditors point out that Western states have differing philosophies.
"Other than Utah and Arizona, most Western states do not sell trust lands," the audit stated. The report quoted Colorado's director of Natural Resources who said, "The best protection for the next generation is to keep the land [in the public domain]."
Colorado legislation passed a decade ago recognized that significant areas need protection, according to Bob McCarty, a real estate specialist with the Colorado Division of Wildlife and a liaison to that state's trust-lands agency.
"There is a level of oversight that wasn't there before," he said. "[Trust-land] boards have to have the guts to say 'no,' and balance maximizing revenues with the benefit to the public" of keeping some lands open.
In Utah, SITLA is doing just that, Carter contends. He points to the sale of trust lands in Castle Valley near Moab to the nonprofit Utah Open Lands. In 2003, the agency sold 221 acres surrounding Castleton Tower for $640,000.
Additionally, the agency agreed in 2005 to trade 40,000 acres - near Dinosaur National Monument in Uintah County and along the Colorado River in Grand County - to the federal government. Those acres, with no underlying oil and gas reserves, will remain as open space.
In exchange, SITLA would gain energy-rich federal lands in the Book Cliffs. If Congress OKs the deal, the Book Cliffs deed will include a permanent public easement.
Last year, the agency hammered out an agreement with the state Division of Wildlife Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, among others, to establish an 800-acre prairie-dog preserve in south-central Utah.
Beyond that, Carter said, the agency is constantly seeking to trade scenic lands to federal and state agencies for other ground that may have potential for energy exploration.
"We're in a position right now to capture significant revenue from oil and gas because we've done land exchanges that have allowed us to do that."
Nobody is complaining about SITLA's success at increasing the permanent school fund, particularly the Utah Board of Education, said Margaret Bird, education's liaison to the trust-lands agency.
She supports the agency's decisions at Little Hole and Tabby Mountain.
"If SITLA would have done an inside deal [with the Division of Wildlife Resources] at Little Hole, we'd have cried bloody murder."
Further, Bird explained that Tabby Mountain land is increasing in value at a greater rate than the estimated 7 percent return it could expect if SITLA had sold the tract to the state for $40 million.
"If the purpose of [the trust-lands agency] is to support schools, then the purpose is to make money," she said.
But at least one Board of Education member disagrees.
"We need to broaden our vision and see there is more than the bottom line," said Board of Education member Debra Roberts. "If there are pieces of land that have our unique heritage, maybe those lands should be preserved."
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COMING MONDAY: SITLA'S DECISIONS DON'T ALWAYS SIT WELL WITH THE LOCALS