Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
PLPCO: means the Public Lands Policy Coordination Office. See Utah Code 63L-7-103
Protected wilderness area: means an area of wilderness that has been designated under this chapter as part of the Utah wilderness preservation system. See Utah Code 63L-7-103
State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes a state, district, or territory of the United States. See Utah Code 68-3-12.5
Wilderness: means a roadless area of undeveloped state-owned land, other than land owned by the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, that:
(a)
is acquired by the state from the federal government through purchase, exchange, grant, or any other means of conveyance of title after May 13, 2014;
(b)
retains its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation;
(c)
generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with minimal human impact;
(d)
has at least 5,000 contiguous acres of land, or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition;
(e)
has outstanding opportunities for solitude, or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; and
(f)
may contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value. See Utah Code 63L-7-103
(a)
Subject to Subsection (1)(b), the director of PLPCO, within one year of the acquisition date, shall identify within a parcel of acquired land any conservation areas.
(b)
Before identifying a parcel of land as a conservation area, the director of PLPCO shall:
(i)
inform the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration that a parcel is being considered for designation as a conservation area; and
(ii)
provide the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration with the opportunity to trade out land owned by the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration for the parcel in question subject to reaching an exchange agreement with the agency that manages the parcel.
(2)
The director of PLPCO shall:
(a)
file a map and legal description of each identified conservation area with the governor, the Senate, and the House of Representatives;
(b)
maintain, and make available to the public, records pertaining to identified conservation areas, including:
(i)
maps;
(ii)
legal descriptions;
(iii)
copies of proposed regulations governing the conservation area; and
(iv)
copies of public notices of, and reports submitted to the Legislature, regarding pending additions, eliminations, or modifications to a conservation area; and
(c)
within five years of the date of acquisition:
(i)
review each identified conservation area for its suitability to be classified as a protected wilderness area; and
(ii)
report the findings under Subsection (2)(c)(i) to the governor.
(3)
The records described in Subsection (2)(b) shall be available for inspection at:
(a)
the PLPCO office;
(b)
the main office of DNR;
(c)
a regional office of the Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands for any record that deals with an identified conservation area in that region; and
(d)
the Division of State Parks or the Division of Outdoor Recreation.
(4)
A conservation area may be designated as a protected wilderness area as described in Section 63L-7-105.
(5)
A conservation area identified under Subsection (1) shall be managed by DNR, in coordination with the county government having jurisdiction over the area, without the conservation area being designated as a protected wilderness area unless otherwise provided by the Legislature.
