Conservation and agriculture groups - including the Utah Farm Bureau - have united behind a plan to divert a portion of oil and gas mining severance taxes to create a land and water reinvestment account.

A legislative committee on Thursday strongly endorsed the bill, sending it to the full House, where it appears to be well positioned for passage. The sponsor is House Majority Leader Dave Clark.

"Given the period of high growth we're in, this is the right time to be doing this," said Clark, R-Santa Clara.

The bill would distribute funds equally between the LeRay McAllister Critical Land Conservation Fund, the Rangeland Improvement Fund and the Department of Natural Resources for watershed rehabilitation or restoration.

Funds for the new account would be generated by oil, gas and mining severance taxes at the greater amount of 9 percent of revenues or $6 million, annually.

The account would be capped at $15 million. But whatever the amount available in a given year, it creates an unprecedented amount of dedicated funds for the conservation of lands and watersheds deemed critical by a growing spectrum of backers.

Just the fact that Clark is carrying the bill says a lot about how this latest bid to acquire more funding for critical lands may succeed where others - such as the ill-fated 2004 open space ballot initiative, which would have been funded by a portion of sales tax - failed.

The bill cruised out of the House Natural Resources Committee with just one dissenting vote, from Rep. Mel Brown, R-Coalville, the former House speaker.

"I think the message is that things are turning around," said Amanda Smith, government relations director for the Nature Conservancy of Utah, which has largely driven the bill. "The Legislature has determined that it's time to put some money back into the land, not only to preserve critical lands and watersheds, but to help keep rural economies going."

With the Rangeland Improvement Fund guaranteed a cut, HB102 has gotten the support of a wide range of agricultural interests which in the past have opposed such legislation.

"This is a three-pronged approach that addresses everybody's interests in resource development," said Brent Tanner, president of the Utah Cattleman's Association. "This bill, coupled with the grazing improvement program, is probably the most significant piece of grazing legislation we've seen in years."

Bill supporters also hailed the idea of tapping severance taxes to fund the new account, reasoning that funds derived from extraction can now be put back into the ground.

But support for the bill wasn't unanimous. The Utah Taxpayers Association opposes the funding mechanism, and an industry representative from Kennecott Utah Copper was ambivalent.

"We've been supportive of how you spend that money," said Larry Bunkall. "We just hope that you'll be cautious in your thinking when spending those [tax] dollars."

jbaird@sltrib.com