'This is pretty significant': 480-acre conservation easement secured at base of Payson Canyon

PAYSON — In 2003, Carey Pierce started building mountain bike trails at the base of Payson Canyon for himself and his friends to ride on. Today, those trails are part of a 480-acre conservation easement over Forebay Recreation Area, permanently protecting the land for public use.

"I started managing a local bike shop, and at the time, they created a bike race as part of (Payson) Onion Days," Pierce told KSL. "The race was all on old roads, and just being up there, I thought we could make some trails and connect some of these roads back to themselves. It started out as just some small connector trails and then I saw the potential."

The land where Pierce built trails was purchased by the city of Payson in 2001 to protect the watershed, habitat, and for recreational opportunities.

As he worked on building trails, while also doubling as a firefighter for Provo Fire and Rescue, he foresaw an open space for not just bikers but all recreationists who he hoped would be able to enjoy the area for generations.

Making that happen, however, took many years of not only building trails, but building relationships with people of influence. He also said it took a lot of patience among what he called a "frenzy" to build in open spaces.

"Getting this easement took a lot of patience and trying to build good relationships with the city and the city council and the mayor, and just trying to show them the potential," he said. "I saw all the other small towns around us scrambling for the last of their open space to try to build something, and we had all this amazing terrain in Forebay — we just needed to save it. I've always looked at Forebay as the last stronghold of nature in our canyon."

Step-by-step, Pierce and many other locals formed a group called Friends of Forebay. Together, they created a conservation management plan.

In 2016, the area was deemed "surplus property" by the city, and in 2019, a grant was awarded by the National Parks Service for management of the area, with a parking lot being built just two years later.

During the fall of last year, the group presented a conservation easement proposal to city officials, which was accepted in November 2025. In December, Payson partnered with the neighboring city of Lehi on conservation efforts, with Lehi agreeing to serve as the conservation easement holder.

Friends of Forebay committee member Adam Cowie presented the conservation plan to the city and said the partnership is a huge step not only toward preserving what is there now but also toward developing more recreational space.

"With the conservation easement, there's quite a bit of property to the north end of Forebay that is still fairly undeveloped as far as recreational trails go," Cowey said. "Many members of the committee have gone up and marked out and cleared an equestrian trail on the north end that will loop all the way around, and so it's awesome to see. The recreation department is really trying to expand the types of users. It's not just mountain bikers."

Many Friends of Forebay, along with city officials from Payson and Lehi met on June 16 to tour the area in an event that Cowley said represented something significant.

"It's preserving recreational open space forever," Cowie said. "Lehi City has been a local leader in preserving and protecting open spaces and recreational lands through prior conservation easement agreements. It's awesome to have been part of preserving something that future generations will enjoy."

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