Land swap for school trust land in Bears Ears on hold

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Federal and state officials say a land swap for 109,000 acres of state school trust land within the newly created Bears Ears National Monument won’t happen before President Barack Obama leaves office.
The presidential proclamation creating the monument set Thursday as a deadline for a progress report to Obama on the land exchange.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell conceded in a letter sent Wednesday to Utah Gov. Gary Herbert that president-elect Donald Trump’s administration will have to carry out the exchange. She says her staff made significant progress toward a framework for the land exchange with the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration this fall.
But that organization’s board recently voted not to take any action because it wants to wait and see if Utah’s congressional delegation can reverse the designation.