Utah Open Lands Receives Environmental Stewardship Award

 Utah State University’s Utah Botanical Center recently presented its Environmental Stewardship Award to Utah Open Lands, a non-profit land trust conservation association that protects open space by helping landowners navigate the legal and business aspects of creating conservation easements or by outright purchase and ongoing care and resource management.
 
In presenting the award, Noelle Cockett, vice president for Utah State University Extension and dean of Agriculture, said it is easy to be impressed by the list of more than 50 land preservation projects Utah Open Lands has accomplished, but that the list tells only a fraction of the story. Another important part of the story is that in 1990 when the group began working with landowners to preserve open space, including agricultural land, most people did not recognize the need for land preservation. Utah was home to 1.7 million people and since then the state’s population has grown by more than one million.
 
“People have widely differing opinions about land use and preservation and which of its many aspects are most important,” Cockett said. “Weighing diverse opinions and working out the best possible agreements does not come easily, as the Utah Open Lands’ staff well understands. But they recognized from the start that land preservation will not get easier and it cannot wait because once the pavement is poured, the discussion is over.”
 
Accepting the award, Wendy Fisher, Utah Open Lands’ executive director, said she is used to being in front of audiences to explain the importance of land preservation and that she was honored and humbled to be recognized by others in the state’s conservation community.
 
“It’s so wonderful to know that people have been watching and appreciate what we’ve done,” Fisher said. “It’s gratifying to see some of the landowners we’ve worked with here because without the vision and foresight of landowners, what we do would not happen.”
 
Utah Open Lands has stewardship of more than 53,000 acres in areas all around the state. Just days before receiving the award, the group overcame the last hurdle to acquiring 256 acres of pine and aspen forest just minutes from downtown Salt Lake City, after bringing together landowners (who dropped their asking price by more than $1 million), county government, state land preservation funding and tools and many large and small private donations.
 
Dave Anderson, director of the Utah Botanical Center, noted that resource conservation and planning is such an overwhelming task that it’s important for many individuals and organizations to contribute their efforts.
 
“Supporting the conservation community is critical,” Anderson said. “The tasks are too great for any one group. Community is the thing that will save us and allow us to move forward.”