Inspire

Park City and the communities along the Wasatch Back draw people who are seeking a life that’s in balance with the rhythm of nature. The geography and open spaces inspire and infiltrate every facet of our existence — from playing fetch at Library Field and sharing miles of hiking trails with moose at Round Valley to meandering around the historic buildings of McPolin Farm.

These treasured open spaces are part of the 13,000 acres of land preserved by the Summit Land Conservancy, one of two organizations in Utah that is certified by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission. The Summit Land Conservancy works with willing landowners — including private, city, county, state and federal — to create easements that preserve open spaces from development and protect working farms and ranches.

“We have a lot of land in Park City that’s owned by the city. And we have private landowners as well. Many of our agricultural and range lands are private ownership with easements held by us,” explains Brett Denney, the stewardship manager for Summit Land Conversancy. Brett is responsible for overseeing the 13,000 acres and 50-plus properties that are protected by the organization.

“To be an accredited land trust, we have to show that we are monitoring these properties to ensure that the terms of the conservation easements are upheld.”

The appreciation for nature that pulses through daily life in the Wasatch Back permeates into land conservation. “We have way more landowners interested in doing conservation easements than we can accommodate,” Brett says.

“All of our landowners are the real conservationists; they’re dedicated to preserving the land as it is.”

Photo by Gillian Hunter

For many Parkites, the most appealing benefit of land preservation may be places to play, but Summit Land Conservancy has a loftier
goal. “The core of what a conservation easement does is to ensure that there are no more development rights associated with a given property,” Brett says. “Conservation easements are reinventing what we value in land. … By defining ‘value’ as scenic open space and natural land. That is the primary value of the landscape, not thinking in dollars and development potential of the property.”

Summit Land Conservancy deems assets like scenic open space, recreational use, wetland habitats and water quality as extremely valuable. Brett believes that large chunks of preserved land provide hope for the future.

“I get most excited about the really big acreages of range land,” he says. “Those spaces, as natural ecology and healthy functioning landscapes, are making a big dent in our climate change impact.”

Considering human impact on the environment is at the heart of Summit Land Conservancy’s values, which is why the organization launched the For the Future Fund.

“The three major rivers that feed the Great Salt Lake have their headwaters in Summit County,” Brett explains. “The For the Future Fund is one of our capital campaigns that looks at making substantial changes at the headwaters of the Great Salt Lake.” Over the next five years, the organization aims to preserve 36,000 acres of land surrounding the Great Salt Lake tributaries — the Weber, Provo and Bear River Watersheds.

The Summit Land Conservancy is successful because of conservation-minded landowners and community support. A simple love for nature is creating a new appreciation and vision for the land: It’s not about what can be gained; it’s about what can be preserved.