Brent Hutchings, the Division of Wildlife Resources' (DWR) habitat acquisition program manager, said all parties - including the division, Dallas-based Hunt Consolidated and the Jensen family, owner of the expansive Tavaputs Ranch - have signed off on the swap, which exchanges three 2,600-acre parcels on and around the Tavaputs Plateau, just west of Desolation Canyon.

State officials have praised the agreement, calling the new DWR property richer in deer and elk habitat, and easier for the public to access, than the property it is trading away. But critics have panned the deal, arguing that the swap will increase the difficulty of accessing 80,000 acres of federal land atop the plateau.

Under the complex arrangement, DWR will swap a parcel on what is called Buckskin Ridge in exchange for a similar-size property farther north in the Cold Springs area that is owned by Hunt Consolidated. Hunt, in turn, will receive a parcel in the Rock Creek area from the Jensen family, which gets the Buckskin Ridge property to complete the swap.

All three parcels sit in the vicinity of Range Creek, where a trove of Indian artifacts was discovered earlier this year.

"The public now has a greater opportunity to enjoy the land in the Range Creek area," said Hutchings. "This area is accessible, whereas the Buckskin area is surrounded by private land. We [the state] had access, with permission. But the public had no access."

But a group of sportsmen and hikers calling themselves the Desolation Canyon Coalition have fought the land trade, charging that the loss of state ownership on Buckskin Ridge it will cut them off from the most direct route to the plateau and its rich hunting and backcountry opportunities.

"I kind of anticipated losing this fight," said North Salt Lake resident Tim Pilling, the coalition's spokesman. "But when everyone in the government wants a deal to go through, it's tough to fight. Especially when you're talking about an area that most people have never seen."

Once the land swap is official, probably today, Pilling says the only way to access the Bureau of Land Management acreage atop the plateau is traveling 45 miles up the Green River, then hike in. Or via Steer Ridge, which he describes as a significant, overland detour.

But Hunt Consolidated representative Blair Eastman says the coalition's claims of inaccessibility are overblown. He says the company - which owns 30,000 acres in the area, anchored by a large hunting lodge - has sought to consolidate its land holdings with the trade. But he says there are still reasonable ways to get to the plateau, and that the company is contemplating providing an access easement as part of a planned, future land trade with the BLM.

Pilling's coalition also has criticized the transfer of a conservation easement from the Buckskin property to the Cold Springs tract. Eastman acknowledges the shift is unique, but says it was a legally necessary part of the agreement, and proposed before the original easement was in place.

Eastman says Hunt Oil has no plans to explore for gas and oil on its property; rather, he said, it will remain a hunting preserve.

jbaird@sltrib.com