Utah Open Lands receives annual award
Utah State University’s Utah Botanical Center presented its fourth annual Environmental Stewardship Award to Utah Open Lands and were recognized in an on-campus ceremony August 12.
Utah Open Lands is a non-profit organization of 20 years, designed to protect lands by assisting landowners to conserve land through both business and legal navigation, and through the outright purchase of land, which is in turn managed and cared for by the landowners.
Noelle Cockett, vice president for USU Extension and dean of agriculture, presented the award, and in her presentation was complimentary of the efforts that Utah Open Lands has put forth to preserve natural land, an effort that has produced 50 land preservation projects in the two decades of its existence.
“To truly describe the organization we must begin with words like ‘visionary’ and ‘uncommon foresight,'” Cockett said. She said the group stewards over 53,000 acres in different parts of the state.
In her presentation address, Cockett also was sure to highlight other members of the award selection committee’s compliments of Utah Open Lands executive director Wendy Fischer.
“One member of our … committee said, ‘’Wendy Fisher is tireless if not relentless, and Utah would not have some of the things we have were it not for her,” she said.
Among the members of that committee was Charles Gay of the USU College of Natural Resources. Gay said he was particularly impressed with Open Lands’ conservation success in the past year.
“Utah Open Lands has worked tirelessly, thoughtfully, and collaboratively to help landowners and government come together to ensure that these lands, upon which we gauge our quality of life, remain for the future against the relentless pressure of development,” Gay said.
Cockett said, “Some of the things we have, and will always have, because of Utah Open Lands are wetlands, red rocks, farmland, hiking trails, wildlife habitat, alpine meadows and rangeland.”
Fischer said she was gracious for the recognition, especially considering the time of Open Lands’ existence and the source from whence it came.
“To have the recognition of some of our peers in the conservation community, certainly was a thrill… the fact that it coincided with our 20th anniversary was icing on the cake,” she said.
Fischer remarked that she was grateful for the award in light of all the other organizations who have undergone the same land-saving endeavor as Open Lands.
“It was a humbling experience to be recognized by other entities and individuals who are also doing other great things for the state,” she said.
Among those entities is the Utah Botanical Center (UBC), which is located in Kaysville, Utah, but is owned and operated by the university.
Dave Anderson, UBC director, said the award, a four-year-running program, was created for the purpose of recognizing those who have produced “very clean and pronounced environmental stewardship,” and have “provided a learning place and educational facility, a user-friendly place with its purpose to beautify and enhance the environment, a purpose that is more of a spiritual stewardship.”
“Many times these entities don’t receive much recognition,” he said.
Envision Utah, the Nature Conservatory, and the Utah Mitigation and Conservation Commission (URMCC) were the recipients of the first three awards, Anderson said.
However, Fischer said that the efforts of these and similar organizations can continue only based on the generosity of the public.
“We are dependent upon members and owners for the growth of the organization,” she said. “(Open Lands) provides as an organization to land owners who want to preserve open space, and we’ve seen great progress in those land owners who are interested in conservation.”
Fischer, who has been with Open Lands since its inception, said she views the work as something of sentimental purpose as well. She said she has a passion for preserving land as a way of helping to “shape a community” after having grown up with a horse and appreciating the wildlife that inhabited the land where she was able to spend time riding.
“I think we sometimes don’t see the direct correlation between the wildlife and our lifestyle,” she said.
“(Natural environments) had an impact on my childhood, and on my character, and so what I enjoy most is the fact that we are helping to preserve some of those memories and values that shape our community,” she said. “Preserving the legacy for the next generation is what inspires this kind of work.”
And that work continues for the award recipients. Within the past month, Utah Open Lands announced it had raised $900,000 required to purchase and preserve 256 acres of pine and aspen forest at Killyon Canyon, just minutes from downtown Salt Lake.
“We look forward to seeing what (Open Lands) will accomplish in the next 20 years,” Cockett said.
– rhett.wilkinson@aggiemail.usu.edu