He noted that east of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, more than 95 percent of the public lands are controlled by the states. That drops to only 50 percent west of that line. It would be more economically feasible and practical for the states to manage those lands, Ivory said.

He sponsored a bill in Utah that requires the United States government to make the title transfer by the end of 2014, though conceding that probably won’t happen within that time frame. He added that five other states — Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada and Montana — also passed legislation to explore the issue.

“We set that as a date to work toward,” Ivory said. “(Utah’s) House Bill 148 set a deadline because without a deadline you know it gets put off and it really crystallized the groups working on this. No one said this is a quick fix.”

That was one of the few statements Ivory made that Tom France, an attorney with the National Wildlife Federation, supported.

“I don’t think the federal government will be divesting lands anytime soon, and I don’t think it’s a profitable way to spend our time,” France said. “But all of us agree there are some problems. We need to do a better job moving timber off federal lands; so the question becomes how to do that and where do we do that.”