"I was shaped by the West and have lived most of a long life in it, and nothing would gratify me more than to see it, in all its subregions and subcultures both prosperous and environmentally healthy, with a civilization to match its scenery." — Wallace Stegner, "Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Spring"

How do we measure 20 years of work by the Utah Nature Conservancy?

Do we count the increasing number of conservancy members, volunteers and conservation projects? Do we total the number of acres forever protected? Or evaluate the attitudes toward open space forever changed?

Or do we measure whether our civilization is indeed growing to match this state's spectacular scenery?

It's a little bit of all of those things, say the people who have watched the organization grow during the past two decades.

"The results speak for themselves," said Norma Matheson, former Utah first lady and widow of Scott Matheson. "Here in Utah, the conservancy has achieved so much because they consistently think and work outside of the box."

For example, when the federal government wanted to create a one-of-a-kind federal agency called the Utah Reclamation, Mitigation and Conservation Commission to supervise grants to correct the effects of the Central Utah Project, the conservancy worked hard to make certain the wetlands and uplands of the Great Salt Lake were included in its focus.

Since 1994, the conservancy has completed 14 acquisitions along the Great Salt Lake shore in partnership with the URMCC, protecting more than 1,637 acres of habitat for shorebirds and waterfowl.

In maybe its best-known agreement, the conservancy used sophisticated land protection and estate planning tools to acquire the 5,167-acre Dugout Ranch at the entrance to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.

The easements on rancher Heidi Redd's San Juan County land were certainly not the first of their kind in the Beehive State, but the deal was one of the most well-publicized. With more than 250,000 acres of associated grazing allotments also under contract, the deal was arguably one of the most significant conservation and ranching properties in the West.

It is the largest land purchase by a conservation organization in Utah's history.

"The people at the Nature Conservancy went out on a limb to make the dream we share come true," Redd said at the time. "It hasn't been easy, but the fact that the Dugout will now be protected forever, as a working ranch, means everything to me."

The property supports deer, elk, bear, cougar, birds, rare plants, numerous archaeological sites and more than 42 miles of valuable cottonwood-riparian forest. More than $6.4 million was raised from 1,500 donors to purchase and endow this project.