2024 0820 KSL

thank you the cost of wildfire still ahead we're going to take a look at how expensive this year's Fire season has actually been and who should manage public lands in Utah the latest chapter in that battle coming up there have been nearly 1,000 fire starts in Utah this year now fortunately a majority of them have not burned more than 10 acres State managers still calculating but they believe these fires have cost more than $28 million to get under control and they say it could reach more than 37 by the end of the fire season if that comes to fruition it would be about double the cost of last year's Fire season but still lower than the average Utah will have to pay the full cost of some of those fires which burned entirely on local and state-owned lands well Utah is suing to get more control of more than 18 million acres of land currently managed by the federal government state leaders say it's about taking care of our natural resources critics say this issue has already been settled long long ago news specialist Daniel Woodruff now with the story the governor and other say this isn't about National Parks national monuments or national forests they say it's about federal land that's just sitting there with no plan in sight it is time that we stand for our land Governor Spencer Cox says too much of that land inside Utah is federally controlled Utah does not have the ability to manage manage over 2/3 of our state so the state is asking the US Supreme Court to weigh in and say whether the federal government can hold land without any specific purpose indefinitely public lands need to stay in public hands and those hands belong to Utah this is going to be a very difficult claim University of Utah law professor John ruple says the US Constitution gives Congress power to control federal land plus when it became a state Utah specifically gave up any right or claim to Federal public lands the Court's under no obligation to take this case up multiple groups are blasting the state of Utah for filing the claim the center for Western priorities saying quote Governor Cox and the state legislature need to make a U-turn before they waste millions of taxpayer dollars enriching outof state lawyers on this pointless lawsuit but leaders like Senate President Stuart Adams say this issue has been decades in the making and the time to decide it is now the primary caregiver should be the state of Utah supported by the federal government not the other way around the governor says he doesn't know yet if other states will join Utah's lawsuit Daniel Woodruff KSL 5 News Daniel thank you well the US Army and un