ST. GEORGE - The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests heard testimony from Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, William Meadows, president of The Wilderness Society, and Jim Eardley, chairman of the Washington County Commission, last week on the Washington County Land Bill.

The bill - Washington County Growth & Conservation Act of 2008 (S. 2834) - addresses the county's population growth and public land preservation.

The legislation should be introduced in the House in the near future, Bennett said. As far as the next steps in the Senate, Bennett said, "we will work with senate leadership on timing" to try to find the right opportunity to move the bill out of committee and forward it on to the floor.

Bennett said the legislation "gives certainty to all sides of the dispute."

Instead of hanging in limbo and wondering what's going to happen with off-highway vehicles, with wilderness and conservation areas and land sales, Bennett said, the bill "lays out the parameters of that."

"As a consequence, every stakeholder now, if the bill passes, knows where he or she stands and can proceed accordingly," he said.

Meadows, in his testimony, said S. 2834 represents a "breakthrough in what has been a long-polarized debate in Utah over land protection," according to a release from Bennett's office.

"We believe this legislation represents significant gains for America's public lands," Meadows said in his testimony.

Eardley, in his testimony before the subcommittee, said the objectives of Vision Dixie are overall objectives and "are very similar to our land bill - to protect special places, enhance open space, develop trails and parks and accommodate accelerated growth."

"In fact, except for this legislative effort, Vision Dixie would never have taken place," he said. "The land sales element of S.2834 not only provides tools to finally deal with the private in-holdings within the Red Hills Tortoise Preserve, but the 10 percent earmark for the county allows us to accomplish the very things described to implement Vision Dixie in a very real way," he said.

While the bill has garnered support from various environmental and conservation groups as well as local officials, three conservation groups - the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Sierra Club and the Wasatch Mountain Club - released a joint statement last week, saying they can't support the bill as currently drafted but look forward to working with Bennett and others on improving it.

Justin Allegro, legislative director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said while the bill is improved, it "just isn't good enough as currently drafted."

"We want to work to improve it," he said, specifically in the area regarding the sale of public land.

"Public land can be disposed of in an appropriate manner but this bill goes too far," Allegro said.

He stressed the benefit of "keeping public assets in public hands and not unnecessarily giving public land and money to Washington County."

The three conservation groups submitted a joint written testimony last week expressing their concerns, Allegro said.

"We don't support the bill right now but it's early and we'd love the opportunity to work with Sen. Bennett to make it a better bill," Allegro said.

Lawson LeGate, of the Sierra Club, said local governments shouldn't develop a dependence on selling off public lands to fund local projects, according to the release.

"That's why we need to remove the provision that grants millions in land sale revenue to Washington County," LeGate said.

Washington County Commissioner Alan Gardner said the legislation "resolves our land designations in the county for management purposes."

The commission, he said, supports the bill although "it certainly doesn't have everything in it that we hoped to have in it."

"I think, overall, we've got a pretty good bill," he said. "We have some good things in there that will be beneficial to the county."

He said the commission had the option to not have the bill introduced but "it was our decision to go ahead with it."

Of the current bill, he said the money from the BLM land sales will stay in Washington County, saying portions of the money will go to acquiring private lands in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, for the management of the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, toward the creation of the Beaver Dam Wash National Conservation Area and for the public process for the BLM to create its transportation plan, as examples.

Bennett emphasized Washington County's rapid growth, saying there are "clashing interests down there."

He said the vast majority of acreage in the county is in federal hands.

"That means you have to have a federal component to the planning process," Bennett said.

Vision Dixie, Bennett said, which he said he fully supports, can't control the federal government and "you have to have action by the Congress to deal with the federal portions of the planning process."

"This becomes a federal counterpart to Vision Dixie," he said.

Paul Van Dam, executive director of Citizens for Dixie's Future, said the legislation is a "vast improvement" from the original bill.

"It's very clear to me that the senator (Bennett) has paid some attention to the Vision Dixie process," he said. "It's to be commended that he's really made tremendous improvement to the bill," particularly in the area of public lands, including increased land protection and the reduction of publicly owned land for sale, as examples.

But through the Vision Dixie process, Van Dam said, it was quite clear the public wanted to "limit public land conversion to sustain communities and preserve critical lands."

Van Dam said instead of selling public lands to the higher bidder, any BLM land should be sold to the county for public purposes, which has been done under the Recreation and Public Purposes Act, which provides the county and cities with areas for public recreation, fire stations and schools, among other uses, he said.

He said that system under the act has worked successfully.

In the county, Van Dam said, "we don't need public land for sale," saying there are about 225,000 acres of developable private land.

"It puts those two things in conflict," he said.

Van Dam submitted written testimony to the Senate committee to be made as part of the public record.

He encourages Bennett and Matheson to create a public process by hosting a listening tour in the county to hear what people here have to say about the legislation.