From Deseret News archives:
Drive to preserve Emigration Canyon land beats fund deadline
"I have been nervous for the past six months. This was an intense campaign with a lot at stake," said Wendy Fisher, executive director of Utah Open Lands. "I can finally sleep."
Fisher has been pushing residents to chip in to preserve the parcel — located about two to three miles inside the mouth of Emigration Canyon — and has lobbied state and local groups to help the group gather the funds.
In the end, Salt Lake County put up $485,000 toward the purchase and conservation of the land, putting in the last $85,000 just this week to close the final funding gap. Resident and community sponsors gathered $365,000, Envirocare Environmental Foundation put up another $200,000, and the state's conservation fund chipped in $350,000.
Salt Lake County will officially be the owner of the property after the deal is finalized in October, and Utah Open Lands will hold the conservation easement on the lot.
"Nobody bore the whole brunt of this, and it's going to take these kinds of partnerships in the future," Fisher said. "It took a village to protect this."
Heather Ross, who lives just above the property, spent the past few months working with Fisher to garner neighborhood support via community meetings and door-to-door visits.
The 190-acre area includes Perkins Flat and was being eyed for development before Utah Open Lands came on the scene because it does have several flat, developable areas. Ross added that the land is also a watershed area and a historic piece of property for Utahans because it was the campground for an advance scout group of Mormon pioneers in 1847.
"I was doing quite a nervous poodle dance over it," Ross said. "I've seen coyotes play in it, rabbits go dashing across it and a whole family of moose. This is really an important piece of land. A lot of people got it, they understood that."
E-mail: estewart@desnews.com
