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Legislative Wrap-Up
With the Legislative session finally at a close, conservation and natural resource issues received quite a bit of attention — and some funding! Most notably, the passage of Land and Water Reinvestment (HB 102) secured on-going funds for two key conservation and restoration programs, the Grazing Improvement Program and the Watershed Initiative, and the LeRay McAllister Fund received a $2 million one-time appropriation. (See below for more information on this bill.) There were a number of other bills affecting natural resources this session, and the following is a partial list of numbered bills that we were watching.
Title: Joint Resolution Regarding Action on Groundwater in Snake Valley
Bill number: H.J.R. 1
Sponsor: Representative Richard Wheeler (R-Ephraim)
What the bill proposes: This joint resolution of the Legislature expresses to the Governor the will of the Legislature regarding the division of the aquifer shared with Nevada.
Status: Passed
Title: Department of Natural Resources Amendments
Bill number: H.B. 48 (Substitute)
Sponsor: Representative Richard Wheeler (R-Ephraim)
What the bill proposes: This bill makes changes to provisions governing the Department of Natural Resources.
Status: Passed
Title: Age Amendments for Hunting Big Game
Bill number: H.B. 67
Sponsor: Representative Curtis Oda (R-Davis)
What the bill proposes: This bill changes the age requirement for hunting big game.
Status: Passed
Title: Land and Water Reinvestment
Bill number: H.B. 102 (Second Substitute)
Sponsor: Representative Dave Clark (R-Santa Clara)
What the bill proposes: This bill appropriates $4 million in on-going funding to be split evenly between two existing programs focused on conservation, watershed restoration, and improving grazing lands: Watershed Restoration Program and the Grazing Improvement Program. An additional $2 million in one-time funding was appropriated for the state’s critical lands preservation fund, the LeRay McAllister Fund.
Status: Passed
Title: School and Institutional Trust Lands Amendments
Bill number: H.B. 134
Sponsor: Representative John Mathis (R-Vernal)
What the bill proposes: This bill changes the distribution of mineral revenue generated from lands acquired by the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration from the federal government, and appropriates about $1 million for test wells and other hydrologic studies in Utah’s West Desert.
Status: Passed
Title: Environmentally Restricting Zoning Districts
Bill number: H.B. 233
Sponsor: Representative Michael Morley (R-Spanish Fork)
What the bill proposes: This bill amends county and municipal land use provisions.
Status: Failed
Title: Instream Flow to Protect Trout Habitat
Bill number: S.B. 29
Sponsor: Senator Pete Knudson (R-Brigham City)
What the bill proposes: This bill authorizes a fishing group to temporarily change a water right for instream flow to protect trout habitat.
Status: Failed
Title: Permanent Instream Flow to Preserve Water Quality
Bill number: S.B. 95
Sponsor: Senator Mike Dmitrich (R-Carbon, Emery, Grand, San Juan, Utah Counties)
What the bill proposes: This bill authorizes a municipality and certain special districts to change a water right for instream flow to protect water quality.
Status: Failed
Title: Hunting and Fishing License Amendments
Bill number: S.B. 161
Sponsor: Senator Allen Christensen (R- Morgan, Summit, Weber Counties)
What the bill proposes: This bill amends provisions relating to hunting and fishing licenses and permits.
Status: Passed
Title: Restrictions on Designation of Wetlands
Bill number: S.B. 183
Sponsor: Senator Sheldon Killpack (R- Davis County)
What the bill proposes: This bill enacts provisions relating to county and municipal land use and development authority.
Status: Passed
Title: Wildlife Resources Conservation Easement Restricted Account
Bill number: S.B. 188
Sponsor: Senator Dennis Stowell (R- Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Washington Counties)
What the bill proposes: This bill creates the Wildlife Resources Conservation Easement Restricted Account.
Status: Passed
Title: Litigation Fund Restricted Account for Highway Projects
Bill number: S.B. 240
Sponsor: Senator Sheldon Killpack (R- Davis County)
What the bill proposes: This bill creates a restricted account to be used to fund litigation expenses for highway projects.
Status: Passed
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Wilcox Ranch
For three generations, the Wilcox family has worked hard to care for the resources on their 4,200 acre private ranch. Located in the Range Creek area of the Book Cliffs in Carbon and Emery Counties, the Wilcox's have moved cattle through this remote valley for decades, and have protected the natural resources and prehistoric cultural artifacts located on their property since they purchased it in 1951.
The multiple natural and intact prehistoric cultural resources on the Wilcox Ranch are unprecedented. For example, twelve miles of Range Creek (whose fish population ranks among the region's best) meanders through the ranch, and the riparian areas along the creek are considered critical habitat for a variety of species. In addition, the higher elevations of the ranch provide winter range for deer and year-long habitat for elk, and numerous upland species (from sage grouse to Rio Grande turkeys) inhabit this area as well. The ranch, however, is best known for the archeological treasures located on the property, including the intact granaries with their roofs still in place; the decorated arrowheads, beads, and remnants of stone-tools that litter the ground; and the petroglyphs and pictographs that cover the ranch's canyon walls, depicting the prehistoric Fremont culture that once thrived in this area.
In 2001, Waldo Wilcox, who has spent most of his life on the ranch, realized he could not protect this ranch on his own forever. Therefore, he invited the Trust for Public Land and state and federal agencies to help him establish a conservation easement on his ranch, preserving it in perpetuity. Using public and private funding, including dollars from Utah's LeRay McAllister Fund, an easement was purchased on the ranch for $2.5 million, which ensured the protection of the natural and cultural resources on this ranch forever. With its extensive natural and prehistoric archeological resources, the ranch remains one of Utah's most important archeological sites.
For more information on this project, click here.
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Utah Open Lands
Utah Open Lands (UOL) is a non-profit land trust that assists landowners in protecting the scenic, wildlife, historic, agricultural, and recreational values of open land in the state of Utah for the enjoyment of present and future generations. UOL is a non-governmental, non-political community based organization which utilizes educational outreach, donations of land and conservation easements, acquisitions of land and easements, and conservation buyers and investors to accomplish its goals of tangible land protection. By preserving open spaces, Utah Open Lands aids communities, investors, and government leaders interested in protecting Utah’s quality lifestyle.
UOL first began as the Summit Land Conservation Association, incorporated in 1990, in response to the overwhelming pressures of growth and development in Summit County. As these pressures increased and the importance of open space protection became even more apparent and urgent, in 1995 the organization became a regional land trust with the mission of serving as a statewide resource for land protection.
For more information, click here.
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Bird watching at The Great Salt Lake
Spring is a great time to visit Utah's outdoors to view migrating birds especially around the Great Salt Lake. The next few months are peak times to view migrating waterfowl. Species likely to be seen are Tundra Swans, Northern Pintail, Green Winged Teal, Northern Shoveler and many others. As spring progresses into late April and May, migrating shorebirds will start to arrive, species such as American Avocet, Black necked Stilt, Dowitchers, Phaloropes and a myriad of others. Some of these species will use the Great Salt Lake as only a stopover to refuel and begin the next leg of their journey; others will stay and begin to raise a family. Best places to view these migrants are Farmington Bay Bird Refuge, Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve, Bear River Bird Refuge, Antelope Island State Park and many other locations around the lake.
- Chris Brown, Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve Manager, The Nature Conservancy
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""If the two most powerful forces in America, religion and science, could be united...the country's environmental problems would be quickly solved." "
- Bruce Babbitt, Former Secretary of the Interior, in a conversation he had with E.O. Wilson, scientist/biologist/ conservationist (Source: The Future of Life by E.O. Wilson)
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New Watershed Restoration Initiative Website
The Utah Partners for Conservation and Development (UPCD) have launched a brand new Watershed Restoration Initiative website that includes information about UPCD, projects, recent journal articles and literature and more.
Check it out at wildlife.utah.gov/watersheds/index.php
LeRay McAllister Fund
Application Information for FY 08 now available!
The LeRay McAllister Fund application timeline and materials are available for the upcoming fiscal year.
Click here for more information.
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March 1, 2007
Utah lawmakers call it a day after making (almost) everyone happy
March 1, 2007
4 plans offered on managing Colorado River
March 1, 2007
Land bill again seeks BLM swap
March 8, 2007
'07 banner year for conservation funding
March 8, 2007
BLM, Park Service nix drilling plan
March 8, 2007
Water deals
March 8, 2007
Stowell bill starts conservation account
March 8, 2007
BLM issues new rules for drilling permits
March 8, 2007
Lawsuit filed over OHV restrictions at Factory Butte target="_blank"
March 9, 2007
Hatch seeks land turn-around for Garfield County's Turn-about Ranch
March 10, 2007
Guv signs panel to improve, protect
March 10, 2007
Top predator: Wolf delisting in West is premature
March 11, 2007
New York lawmaker wants land in Utah protected
March 14, 2007
Cache County: Council says no to using tax dollars on land preservation
March 14, 2007
Sage grouse survival focus of conservationists
March 14, 2007
Whirling Disease Found In The Duchesne River
March 15, 2007
County OKs trails plan
March 15, 2007
S.L. County plan calls for upgrade of Jordan River
March 15, 2007
Future of the Washington County Land Bill
March 15, 2007
Water: Initiative will provide guidelines to help cities protect the resource
March 16, 2007
Park City land use controversy
March 17, 2007
Escalante Valley water drain
March 18, 2007
Clashing over Utah's trust lands: Selling the land vs. saving the land
March 19, 2007
Trust-lands agency creates controversy in Utah's Dixie
March 20, 2007
Bill to transfer land to Park City advances in D.C.
March 20, 2007
Guard the tap
March 20, 2007
Rural Counties to See Big Bucks from New Lands Policy
March 21, 2007
Activist to oversee open-space program
March 22, 2007
Man who lost arm in Utah to lobby for land protection
March 22, 2007
Utah Lake Commission
March 22, 2007
Open space likely to get OK
March 22, 2007
Trust lands agreement reached
March 23, 2007
More than money: SITLA should consider land preservation, too
March 24, 2007
Lorna Vogt to head open spaces, park land program
March 24, 2007
Loved and maligned, wolves spotted in Summit County
March 24, 2007
Green donor or dirty money?
March 27, 2007
Impact of water plan in question
March 28, 2007
Bear River may feature up to 5 dams by 2040
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Agricultural Visionary and Industry Leader
"The problem is . . . making sustainable agriculture pay for those who practice it"
- Leonard Blackham, Utah Commissioner of Agriculture & Food
Leonard Blackham has been a huge asset to the state of Utah in his role as Commissioner of Agriculture and Food. As a long time turkey farmer, and Vice President and Manager of Moroni Feed, he has a unique understanding of Utah's agricultural markets and what it takes to sustain production and profit.
This experience, coupled with his years of public service as a San Pete County Commissioner and a State Senator, have positioned him as a leader in designing and implementing programs that really get at the issue of sustainable agriculture. From Utah's Own to the recent Grazing Improvement Program - Commissioner Blackham has proven that he is willing, and able, to move the ball forward for Utah's agricultural community.
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