South Dakota-based ranchers are proposing to trade 2,680 acres scattered around the Henry Mountains for federal land adjoining the ranch they own bordering Capitol Reef National Park, as well as 2,033 acres west of Toquerville.
While the ranch holds grazing allotments on the Henrys west slope, owning land there is of little use to the livestock operation. Sandy Ranch has rarely run cattle there in recent years because of drought and the bison consume the forage grown on the ranch’s private land there, according to Wiessner.
These bison have never interbred with cattle, so they are not only genetically pure but also free of the bovine disease known as brucellosis, according to wildlife biologist Dustin Ranglack, a professor at the University of Nebraska who researched this heard as a Utah State University graduate student.
“If that land were to remain in private ownership, it could be developed for private retreats, houses, or other recreational projects, which would not be good for wildlife,” wrote Perry Hall, BHA’s Utah chapter chairman, in a letter of support. “While development in such a remote area seems unlikely in the short term, we note that since the advent of COVID, there has been a rush of people seeking to buy and develop remote lands to ‘get away from it all.
Because the Henry Mountains exchange parcels are worth more than the acreage the ranch would receive in Garfield County, Wiessner is asking the BLM to include additional federal lands in the deal. The lands the Lindskovs want are in Washington County, just west of Toquerville, miles away from their ranch.
The public land selected for the swap sits just west of the future Toquerville Parkway, a 4.5-mile four-lane highway now under construction. The $18 million project is designed to allow millions of motorists to bypass Toquerville’s historic residential core as they travel to and from Zion National Park.
“We aren’t excited about the BLM giving up land that it’s managing for wilderness and natural areas,” said Neal Clark, a field attorney for SUWA. “It’s like outright buying BLM land that is not for sale that’s going to make them millions of dollars. You can find BLM land elsewhere, instead you homed in the fastest growing place in the state. The more I look at it the more suspicious I get. Why does this ranch need land in Washington County? It’s because they want to sell to developers.
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