"Here they were, two doors apart, writing to the same agency on the same subject and didn't know the other was doing it," McKeachnie, in his new role as the state's rural affairs coordinator, told a legislative committee Monday.

That's why, he says, the state needs a public lands policy office, which would avoid duplication and increase accountability. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has proposed the change as part of a restructuring of several offices.

McKeachnie told the Natural Resources Joint Appropriations Subcommittee that a transition team that analyzed the Natural Resources Department said the state's public lands efforts "have been so puny as to be almost insignificant" or they have been confusing and mixed.

"We're almost trying to do brain surgery with a sledgehammer," McKeachnie said.

In his new position, he hopes to consolidate all the efforts, or at least coordinate them, so that federal agencies, other departments and the public knows there is one state policy.

Sen. Tom Hatch, R-Panguitch, is drafting a bill that would create the policy office and also move the state's Energy Office out of the Natural Resources Department to work directly under the Governor's Office.

Rep. Brad Johnson, R-Aurora, said it was time to make the changes.

"We've got a window of opportunity to do some great things for these public lands," Johnson said. "The stars are lined up."