The Utah School and Institutional Trust Land Administration, directed by the Legislature to maximize profits from the lands it administers, is sometimes working against the best long-term interests of the state. That must change before other priceless lands, valuable for water, recreation and wildlife, are lost.

SITLA's shortsighted mission - to get the best deal possible by selling, leasing or trading these public lands - nearly resulted in the sale of 364 acres at Little Hole on the Green River, some of the best trout-fishing waters in the country, to a private developer. Another state agency, the Division of Wildlife Resources, was able to keep the land for the state by first vowing to cut off access to the property and then by offering $1.6 million for it in a bidding war with private developers.

The auction of this property never should have happened. A battle between two state entities over public lands is ludicrous. This land and other parcels of particular worth to Utahns for their own enjoyment and as lucrative tourist attractions should be left in state hands. The law should direct SITLA to treat them as special, since indeed they are.

If it were possible to separate the interests of Utah schoolchildren from the economic interests of the state, you might say those children got a windfall from this sale, which totaled $375,000 more than the minimum bid. But it came at taxpayers' expense. And, if the land had passed into private hands, all Utahns, including our children, would have been the losers.

SITLA manages an arbitrary checkerboard of land parcels deeded from the federal government in 1896. Proceeds go into a trust fund for schools. SITLA has been directed to consider only the land's immediate cash value, not its long-term recreational, historical or scenic worth to the state as a whole.

It's time for the Legislature to revise that directive to allow preservation of unique places. Then all Utahns would win.