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Jed Boal Reporting Two square miles of land in the Wasatch Front foothills represents a gold mine to a developer, but it also holds great value to our community protected from development.
The open land in the foothills above the Bonneville Shoreline Trail east of Draper was fragmented by private property, until recently. Now this wildlife habitat is part of the Wasatch Cache and Uinta National Forests, and the plan is to add even more land soon.
Water companies sold the property to the Trust for Public Land for one-point-seven million dollars.
Shauna Kerr, Utah Director, The Trust for Public Land: "It would have ultimately been sold. And it could have been sold for development. But, we have a willing seller here that also had a conservation ethic."
The Trust for Public Land and the U-S Forest Service acquired parcels totaling 1,240 acres. That helps connect existing public lands including the Lone Peak Wilderness and the one-thousand acre Corner Canyon area.
Loren Kroenke, District Ranger, USDA Forest Service: "The trust for public land plays a really important role in that they can move more quickly than the federal government to acquire properties and then eventually transfer them to public ownership."
This is the first of two planned acquisitions. When the second phase is complete, the acquisitions will add more than 25-hundred acres to the National Forest to protect more than a mile of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and improve public access.
The Trust for Public Land intends to close the second phase when funding is available from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
As our population continues to grow along the Wasatch Front, it becomes even more critical to preserve area like this for non-motorized recreation and the animals which live here."
Loren Kroenke: "This area is important for winter range for mule deer, as well as habitat for other wildlife species."
Shauna Kerr: "As long as we can keep contiguous habitats with the national forest we can keep healthy wildlife herds."
The Trust for Public Land uses federal funds to buy private lands and transfer them to public ownership. Right now, according to the Trust, funding is not keeping up with the interest of private landowners in Utah who want their property preserved.
The Utah Congressional delegation and leadership of Senator Bob Bennett enabled this purchase through the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
