Deal Nears on Ownership of Bear River Refuge

By Patty Henetz, The Salt Lake Tribune

May 24–An agreement struck Friday would allow the state to sell its portion of the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge to the U.S. Interior Department, resolving land ownership questions that have lingered since the refuge was established 79 years ago.

The agreement allows the state and federal governments to hire appraisers and negotiate a price for about 37,000 acres of land around and under the refuge waters. A final sale would be subject to congressional approval, said Utah Assistant Attorney General Stephen Schwendiman.

At the center of the deal are sovereign lands granted at statehood, in this case the land that lies under navigable waterways. Ownership of a segment of the refuge’s north shore, never surveyed, also would be settled.

The agreement is good through 2011, but may be renewed if necessary.

A similar deal was in the works in 2001, but died when former Interior Secretary Gale Norton couldn’t get Congress to approve spending $15 million for the refuge property.

During the 2007 legislative session, Rep. Ben Ferry, R-Corinne, sponsored a successful bill to start over again. The bill went into effect this year. Ferry this year sponsored a similar bill as a backstop.

In 2007, conservationists and others worried about what would happen to water rights, who would end up managing the federal refuge and what would become of the millions of dollars Interior had spent to improve and expand it.

Schwendiman said the agreement won’t affect the federal government’s water rights and would leave management with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Appraisals would not include water rights or property improvements, he said.

On Friday, Ferry said Utah had neither the desire nor the money to manage the refuge, but had the obligation under the state constitution to properly manage sovereign lands.

That means the state must get compensation for its property, either in the form of cash that likely would be spent on other state natural resources or some other kind of exchange with the feds.

While negotiations continue over the price of the land, Fish and Wildlife will continue to manage the refuge under a lease agreement, Schwendiman said.

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