Utah Test and Training Range Encroachment Prevention and Temporary Closure Act

Utah Test and Training Range Encroachment Prevention and Temporary Closure Act

This bill directs the Departments of the Interior and the Air Force to enter into a memorandum of agreement for the continued management by Interior of approximately 625,643 acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land in Utah in a manner that provides for its limited use by the Air Force.

Under such Agreement the BLM shall continue to manage the BLM land, subject to use by the Air Force for:

• the preservation of the Utah Test and Training Range against encroachments incompatible with test and training requirements;
• the testing of advanced weapons systems, including hypersonic weapons, and the standoff distance for weapons;
• increased public safety for civilians accessing the BLM land; and
• other purposes related to meeting national security needs.

If military operations, public safety, or national security require the temporary closure of the use of roads, trails, or other portions of the BLM land to the public, the Air Force may take necessary action to carry out such closure.

The bill establishes the Utah Test and Training Range Community Resource Group to give input to Interior and the Air Force on matters involving public access to, use of, and management of the BLM land.

Interior shall convey to the state of Utah, through the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration in Utah, BLM land in Box Elder, Millard, Juab, Tooele, and Beaver Counties, Utah, in exchange for non-federal land owned by Utah in Box Elder, Juab, and Tooele Counties. Upon conveyance, the non-federal land located: (1) within the Utah Test and Training Range shall be managed according to the memorandum of agreement, and (2) within the Cedar Mountains Wilderness shall be added to and administered as part of such Wilderness.

Interior, respecting BLM land, and the Department of Agriculture, respecting Forest Service land, shall convey to Utah and to Box Elder, Juab, and Tooele Counties separate easements for motorized travel rights of way across the federal land for all Class B and Class D R.S. 2477 roads.