CONSERVED FOREVER
An Olympic Effort to Protect East Canyon
PHOTO: RMEF
by Paul Queneau
As one of the fastest growing states, Utah’s population is projected to nearly double over the next 50 years. Now add the Winter Olympics returning to Salt Lake City a decade from now, and it gets pretty easy to predict how a surge of development will put a further stranglehold on wildlife migration paths to critical summer and winter ranges for Utah’s prized herds of elk, mule deer, moose and many other species.
That’s especially true up and down the Wasatch Front as you approach Park City and other mountain resorts. New neighborhoods and strip malls seem to spring up weekly, often smack dab in the middle of big game habitat.
It's also why RMEF didn’t hesitate earlier this year after Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) and Utah State Parks sought help protecting 2,600 acres of vital wildlife habitat in the Wasatch Range next to East Canyon Reservoir less than 45 minutes from Salt Lake. Morgan County, where this land is located, is 96% privately owned, and the investment group that owned this parcel had previously planned to subdivide it for luxury homes.
This region is home to nearly 20,000 mule deer, more than 4,000 elk and over 1,000 moose, and also hosts greater sage grouse, with leks both on and around the property. Most deer are migratory, but low-elevation winter habitat is severely limited. The East Canyon parcel overlaps a critical migration corridor for muleys, and biologists have counted several hundred elk there during helicopter surveys.
Knowing the state needed to move fast, RMEF came forward with $1.3 million to be the sole nongovernmental contributor on this purchase. Utah tapped proceeds from hunting permits and other sources to cover the remaining $17.2 million. DWR will integrate 2,200 acres of the purchase into the bordering East Canyon Wildlife Management Area, increasing the size of the existing 3,200-acre WMA by nearly two-thirds. The remaining 400 acres near the reservoir will be added to the adjacent East Canyon State Park, which last year alone attracted more than 230,000 visitors, one of Utah’s top 15 most visited state parks.
“There is a scenic byway right there as well, and it’s just really gorgeous country,” says Aaron Swift, RMEF’s senior lands program manager for the Intermountain West. “It hits every corner of RMEF’s mission: superb wildlife, habitat and public access for many different kinds of user groups. You can ride horses on the WMA, you can bike, you can hunt, you can fish for trout in the lake, you can boat, you can tube, you can swim, picnic, camp—you name it. I don’t know how you’d argue against it. It’s great mission work, and it’s not missing anything.”
