Utah’s residents have had a contentious history with the federal government when it comes to public lands. Now one county in the state has taken things a step further, passing a resolution refusing to recognize federal agents.
Carbon County, located on the eastern side of Utah and named for
the coal deposits in the region, unanimously passed the
resolution against federal agents on June 4. The county board of
commissioners specially singled out officials from the Bureau of
Land Management in its prohibition.
“Accordingly, the Board of Commissioners of Carbon County
declares publicly in the interest of the health, safety and
welfare of its citizens, that Carbon County does not recognize
any attempt by a federal official to try to enforce state or
local criminal or civil laws on any lands in Carbon County,
including any BLM and Forest Service lands in Carbon County…
including federal lands.”
“Any such attempted exercise of law enforcement powers by an
official of a land management agency IS NOT RECOGNIZED by Carbon
County,” the
resolution stated (caps in original), “and shall be
deemed AN IMMINENT THREAT TO THE HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELFARE OF
THE CITIZENS OF CARBON COUNTY.”
The resolution also demanded that any federal agent intending to
take a law enforcement action “shall first declare his
presence and intended action to the Sheriff of Carbon
County.”
The resolution is the second repudiation of federal authority in
Utah since Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy (known as the “last
rancher in Clark County, Nevada”) took a stand in a recent showdown
against the BLM over his refusal since 1993 to pay fees to
the federal government for the right to raise cattle on land his
family has ranched since the 1870s. In May, residents of the town
of Blanding were joined by Bundy supporters as they rode ATVs on
BLM land that has been closed to motorized vehicles since
2007.
“People are hugely frustrated,” San Juan County
Commissioner Bruce Adams said to the
Deseret News of the ATV ride. “People are ready to draw a
line in the sand, they’re ready to push back.”
Although some in Utah see the board of commissioners’ move as not
the most logical one (“Carbon County now joins LaVerkin in
the tinfoil hat world. LaVerkin, you might recall, once passed a
resolution banning the U.N. from the southern Utah city,”
Paul Rolly wrote in a
Salt Lake Tribune op-ed), Utah’s frustrations with the
federal government aren’t limited to Blanding and Carbon County.
On Wednesday, state lawmakers vented their frustrations about
grazing cutbacks and renegade federal law enforcement agents
during a committee meeting with top BLM and Forest Service
Officials, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
“We as a state are heavily dependent on what you do in
managing these lands. … It is very, very important we have a
working relationship,” said Rep. Mike Noel, the chairman of
the House’s Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
Committee, according to the
Tribune.
Noel represents seven rural counties, and said his constituents
“have a very, very difficult time understanding some of the
decisions that come down.”
Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox said the BLM arbitrarily canceled its
contracts with county sheriffs’ departments on the premise they
were “illegal,” but Utah was the only state in which that action
was taken.
Rep. Ken Ivory lambasted the BLM for an excessive display of
force by federal agents at the Bundy ranch. “There were
hundreds of agents armed heavily with Tasers and attack dogs
going in to collect a fee or fine. We have not seen that
before,” he said.
Even before Utah’s protests stemming from the Bundy standoff,
residents of the Beehive State viewed the federal government with
suspicion.
“It is fair to say that the vast majority of people here are
frustrated with the federal presence here,” Bill Boyle, a
lifelong resident and publisher of the San Juan Record newspaper
told the Denver Post in
2011.
Back then, a federal raid by 150 armed agents took place against
16 Blanding residents, the Post reported. The raid focused on
violations of the 1906 Antiquities Law and the 1979 Archeological
Resources Protection Act for looting Ancestral Puebloan
artifacts, the Department of Justice said at the time.
But Blanding’s citizens contended that the BLM was being
hypocritical. According to the Post at the time, the BLM “has
been known to smash pots and rock objects when there was no place
to store them. And BLM and US Forest Service agents were
implicated in one of the recent search-warrant affidavits for
taking and selling items themselves.”
Federal raids also occurred in the area in the 1980s.