Environmentalists decry Trump deal giving Utah control of national park land

(CN) — The Trump administration announced a deal on Tuesday that gives the state of Utah control over 8 million acres of national forest land for potential timber production, among other things.

But environmental groups in Utah and the Rockies denounced the 20-year cooperative agreement between Utah and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, saying it would weaken environmental review and public oversight of the lands while opening them up to commercial enterprise. The new agreement builds on a similar partnership from 2018.

In a release, the Center for Biological Diversity described the move as the latest effort by Utah lawmakers to sell off public lands to private businesses.

“Utah politicians have failed repeatedly to sell off public lands outright, so now they’re teaming up with their Trump cronies to push the same disgraceful agenda,” the center’s national public lands advocate Laiken Jordahl said. “This agreement strips federal protections, shuts the public out of decision-making and puts Utah’s old-growth forests directly on the chopping block. The American people will see this latest scheme for what it is, a backdoor push to privatize our public lands.”

The Center for Biological Diversity was exploring its options in challenging the partnership and that it would do everything it could to fight it, Jordahl told Courthouse News.

https://www.courthousenews.com/environmentalists-decry-trump-deal-giving-utah-control-of-national-park-land/