PUBLIC LAW 106-301—OCT. 13, 2000 114 STAT. 1059 Public Law 106-301 106th Congress An Act To provide for the exchange of certain lands within the State of Utah. Oct. 13, 2000 [H.R. 4579] 2000. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, Utah West Desert Land SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. Exchange Act of This Act may be cited as the "Utah West Desert Land Exchange Act of 2000". SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. (a) FINDINGS. — The Congress finds the following: (1) The State of Utah owns approximately 95,095.19 acres of land, as well as approximately 11,187.60 acres of mineral interests, located in the West Desert region of Utah and contained wholly or partially within certain wilderness study areas created pursuant to section 603 of the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act of 1976, or proposed by the Bureau of Land Management for wilderness study area status pursuant to section 202 of that Act. These lands were grsmted by the Congress to the State of Utah pursuant to the Utah Enabling Act of 1894 (chapter 138; 23 Stat. 107), to be held in trust for the benefit of the State's public school system and other public institutions. The lands are largely scattered in checkerboard fashion amidst the Federal lands comprising the remainder of such existing and proposed wilderness study areas. (2) Development of surface and mineral resources on State trust lands within existing or proposed wilderness study areas, or the sale of such lands into private ownership, could be incompatible with management of such lands for nonimpairment of their wilderness characteristics pursuant to section 603(c) of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 or with future congressional designation of the lands as wilderness. (3) The United States owns lands and interests in lands outside of existing and proposed wilderness study areas that can be transferred to the State of Utah in exchange for the West Desert wilderness inholdings without jeopardizing Federal management objectives or needs. (4) The large presence of State trust land inholdings in existing and proposed wilderness study areas in the West Desert region makes land and resource management in these areas difficult, costly, and controversial for both the State of Utah and the United States.
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