Our Land Is Not For Sale
What is happening to Utah's land, parks, and water, and the twelve things I would do about it.
Start here
About 64 percent of Utah is public land. It belongs to all of us. No private company owns it. You can hike it, hunt it, camp on it, graze cattle on it, and drill on parts of it.
Right now the state is fighting to take control of 18.5 million acres of that land from the federal government. Utah says the goal is better management, and that selling the land is not on the table.
While that fight goes on, two of the biggest water sources in the West are running low. The Great Salt Lake is close to the lowest level ever recorded. The Colorado River serves seven states, and it just got a new set of rules starting October 1, because there is not enough water to go around.
That brings me to the problem I keep coming back to. Utah is spending millions of dollars to get more land. We are not spending nearly enough to take care of the land and water we already have.
One word you will see a lot
An acre-foot is a way to measure water. One acre-foot would cover a football field about a foot deep. That is roughly what two or three Utah homes use in a year. So when you hear "13,000 acre-feet," picture 13,000 football fields with a foot of water sitting on each one.
Four numbers that explain the problem
That is how close the Great Salt Lake is to the lowest level ever measured. On September 6, 2026, the lake sat at 4,189.6 feet above sea level. The record low is 4,188.5 feet, set in November 2022. The lake usually keeps dropping into the fall.
A healthy lake sits around 4,198 feet. We are more than five feet below that.
That is what a University of Utah study says it would cost the state every year to take care of the federal land Utah wants. The study found the state could break even, but only if oil and gas prices stay high and Utah collects every dollar of mineral money instead of the half it gets today.
That is a large bet on prices nobody in Utah controls.
That is how many visits Utah's 46 state parks got last year. Ten years ago the number was 5 million. The crowds more than doubled. The funding stayed flat.
That is how much of Utah burned in the 2026 fire season, the second worst on record. By August the state had already spent $33 million fighting fires, and the bill was still climbing.
Land comes with a fire cost attached every single year, whether we plan for it or not.
Why this matters if you never go camping
Dust. When the Great Salt Lake shrinks, the dry lakebed is left open to the wind. That dirt holds arsenic and other metals. During one dust storm in July 2026, air pollution hit about four times the healthy level. Kids, older people, and anyone with asthma feel that first.
Snow. The lake helps build the snow that fills our mountains, our ski resorts, and our drinking water supply. A smaller lake means less snow.
Jobs. Outdoor recreation brings $9.75 billion into Utah's economy and supports more than 75,000 jobs. The lake alone supports about $2.5 billion in business, including mineral mining and brine shrimp.
Your utility bill. Huge new customers, like giant computer data centers, use enormous amounts of water and electricity. When nobody makes them pay their own way, the cost gets spread onto everyone else's bill.
Where the water actually goes
About 71 percent of the water pulled from the Great Salt Lake area goes to farming. Roughly 80 percent of that grows hay and alfalfa to feed cattle.
This is the point where people usually start blaming farmers. Please do not.
Utah wrote its water law a long time ago, and for most of that time the rule worked like this. If you did not use your full water right, you could lose it. The law told farmers to use every drop, so they did. If we want farmers to use less water, we have to change the law and pay them fairly for the water they give up. That work happens in the Legislature, which is the seat I am running for.
The twelve things I would do
Every one of these is a real bill. Four of them cost nothing.
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Make it illegal to sell the land
If Utah ever does win control of federal land, pass a law saying none of it can be sold without a two-thirds vote and a public hearing in that county. State leaders say they have no plans to sell. Then put it in writing.
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Show the price tag before we sue
Before the state spends big money on a public lands lawsuit or ad campaign, require it to publish what managing that land would cost each year. Utah set aside $20 million for a lawsuit the Supreme Court refused to hear, plus $2.6 million for an ad campaign. Voters should have seen a real number first.
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Take care of the parks we already own
Create a dedicated fund for the 46 state parks. It pays for bathrooms, water lines, parking, rangers, and trail access. Visits doubled in ten years while the budget stood still.
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Spend on fire before it starts
Set a floor for what the state has to spend thinning forests and clearing brush, tied to what we spend fighting fires. Clearing brush in the spring costs far less than flying helicopters in August.
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Put a trigger in the law for the lake
Write real numbers into the law. If the lake drops below a set level, protections switch on by themselves: no new water permits in the area, public reporting from big industrial users, and emergency money for leasing water. Nobody has to wait on a vote in the middle of a crisis.
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Pay farmers real money to send water to the lake
Utah started a program in 2026 to lease water from farmers for the lake. It holds $2.75 million. Scientists say the lake needs about 650,000 more acre-feet of water a year. The program has to get much bigger, and it should pay for every gallon that actually reaches the lake.
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Pay for the water we actually save
Utah has spent tens of millions helping farms upgrade their sprinklers and pipes. Better equipment sometimes just means more acres get watered, so the savings never show up. Tie the money to water savings somebody measured, and post the results online.
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Finish installing the water meters
Utah law already requires meters on outdoor watering systems by 2030. Homes with meters cut their water use by 20 to 30 percent just from seeing the number. Help small districts afford the meters, then publish the data so neighborhoods can compare.
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Treat water for the lake like any other water right
In 2026 the Legislature protected water districts from losing rights they were not using. The same bill made it harder to leave water in a river for wildlife. One rule should apply to everybody.
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Fund Utah's share of Colorado River savings
The new rules for the river start October 1, 2026. Utah does not face forced cuts, but we are asked to save water voluntarily. Asking without funding gets us nothing. Pay people fairly to use less, measure what they save, and bank the credit.
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Make the data center rules apply to everyone
The governor set standards for data centers in 2026, then admitted the order gave state agencies no new authority. The appointed board that approved the huge Stratos project does not have to follow it at all. Put the standards in state law and apply them no matter which board signs off.
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Test water-saving technology before we buy it
I drove down to Beryl, Utah this summer to look at an ozone water system. The company says it grows more crops with less water. So far those results come from the company itself, and no outside scientist has checked them. Let Utah State University run the test and publish what it finds. Anything that works gets fast-tracked. Anything that fails, we find out cheaply.
The bottom line
Utah can keep its public land. We just have to be willing to pay what it costs to take care of it, so we can hand it to our kids in better shape than we found it.
The lake is thirteen inches from its worst day on record. The river's rules change in three weeks. Twelve million people walked into a park system built for five million.
Adding acres to Utah's books will not raise the lake, fund the parks, or stop the fires. Paying to take care of what we already own will.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure above is public. Click any one of them and check me.
- How much of Utah is federal land. Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, Federal government owns 64.4% of Utah's land, July 2, 2025. Adding the 10% held by the state brings all public land to about 74%.
- 18.5 million acres, and the Supreme Court declining the case. Salt Lake Tribune, U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear the state's challenge, January 13, 2025.
- $20 million for the lawsuit and $2.6 million for the ad campaign. Utah News Dispatch, How much is Utah's public lands lawsuit and PR campaign costing taxpayers?, December 2, 2024, and High Country News, Inside Utah's PR campaign to seize public lands. Both figures are amounts authorized, not amounts already spent: the ad contract runs through 2029.
- Where the lake sits, and the record low. U.S. Geological Survey, Great Salt Lake at Saltair Boat Harbor, gage 10010000, the south arm gage, and Great Salt Lake Elevations and Areal Extent. The record low of 4,188.5 feet was set November 7, 2022.
- A healthy lake near 4,198 feet, and how much water it needs. Great Salt Lake Strike Team, Great Salt Lake Data and Insights Summary, January 2026. The Strike Team, which is the state's own body, puts the shortfall near 800,000 acre-feet a year.
- $280 million a year to manage the land. Bureau of Economic and Business Research, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, An Analysis of a Transfer of Federal Lands to the State of Utah. $248 million to manage, plus $31.7 million to maintain PILT payments to counties. The profitable scenarios assume high oil and gas prices and Utah collecting 100% of mineral royalties instead of the current 50%.
- 12 million visits to 46 state parks. Utah State Parks, Annual Visitation Reaches over 12 million, August 19, 2026, which also confirms the rise from 5 million a decade ago.
- 532,000 acres burned and $33 million spent. Utah News Dispatch, Utah's intense, dangerous fire season could be its most expensive, August 11, 2026. Those are year-to-date figures as of that date, with the season still running.
- The July dust storm, and what is in the dust. Salt Lake Tribune, Great Salt Lake dust storm pushed Salt Lake Valley air pollution to hazardous levels, July 20, 2026, and Putman et al., Contributions of Great Salt Lake playa- and industrially-sourced priority pollutant metals, GeoHealth / USGS, 2025.
- $9.75 billion and more than 75,000 jobs. Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation, Utah's Outdoor Recreation Economy Reaches $9.75 Billion, using 2024 federal data: 75,182 jobs and 3.3% of state GDP.
- The lake's own economic value. Congressional Research Service, Restoring the Great Salt Lake Ecosystem, April 30, 2026, which gives a range of $1.9 to $2.5 billion a year including tourism, recreation, brine shrimp and mineral extraction.
- 71% to farming, 80% of that to cattle feed. Richter et al., Reducing irrigation of livestock feed is essential to saving Great Salt Lake, Environmental Challenges, January 2025. The 71% is agriculture's share of human-caused depletions, not of all water in the basin.
- New Colorado River rules on October 1. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Record of Decision, Coordinated Operations of Lake Powell and Lake Mead, August 21, 2026: new operations must begin October 1, 2026.
- $2.75 million in the leasing program. Utah Department of Natural Resources, Great Salt Lake legislative actions, and Utah Public Radio, How Utah's 2026 legislative session reshaped water policy, March 17, 2026. HB 410 was funded at $2.75 million after a proposed $5 million was cut.
- Meters by 2030, and 20 to 30% less water. Utah Division of Water Resources, Water conserved through metering extends Utah's water supplies, citing Utah Code 73-10-34. The deadline falls on suppliers, not on individual homeowners.
- The 2026 bill on forfeiture and instream flow. H.B. 187, Water Amendments, 2026 General Session, and Western Water, Utah bill shields future water use in the lower basin. It applies to the lower Colorado River basin, not statewide.
- The data center order, and the board it does not reach. Office of Gov. Spencer J. Cox, Executive Order 2026.05.29, Establishing a Higher Bar for Data Center Development in Utah, and Utah News Dispatch, Cox orders 'higher bar' for data centers, May 29, 2026, where the governor says the order "doesn't give any extra authority to executive agencies." The board that approved Stratos is the Military Installation Development Authority.
- Use it or lose it. Civil Eats, Why Utah Is Bucking One of the West's Oldest Water Rules, November 5, 2024, and Salt Lake Tribune, how HB 33 changed Utah water law in 2022 to let rights holders lease water to the lake without forfeiting it.
