The Summit Land Conservancy received the single largest grant it’s ever been awarded earlier this month, allowing the accredited nonprofit to preserve more land than ever before. 

More than $22 million was granted to the land trust by the federal government for future conservation projects in the Kamas Valley. The project was one of more than 80 funded through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

“It’s at risk for development. We made the case that this should be an area of particular concern … also because those areas are at increased risk of being ruined. The Kamas Meadows hit all of those criteria,” said Cheryl Fox, the CEO of Summit Land Conservancy. 

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“The federal government has realized that working with land trusts like the Summit Land Conservancy is a really cost-effective way of getting things done,” she said. “We have been successful in showing our federal partners how important land conservation is here on the Wasatch Back, even though it’s expensive.”

The Regional Conservation Partnership Program uses the same tools as the Summit Land Conservancy, such as conservation easements and public-private partnerships, to preserve land. It received historic funding this year through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Farm Bill. The conservation partnership also provides more flexibility compared to other programs by allowing land trusts to focus on a region of importance rather than one specific project. 

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Fox said the Kamas Meadows was chosen because of its critical role as farmland and wetlands. The land trust worked with Doug Clyde, a former Summit County councilor, to understand how the area functions. The Weber and Provo rivers run through the north and south of the valley, which provide water for irrigation and drinking. The Weber River even flows into the Great Salt Lake — both threatened.

“We in Park City drink that water,” Fox said. “The way the hydrology currently functions, it takes that water, it purifies it, it sequesters carbon deep, deep under the soil; so deep into the ground, it’s sequestered for a millennia, right? And it purifies the water as it does that, too. So, if we pave it and dig it up and put sewer lines and things like that through it, we wreck it.”

Wasatch Back landowners who value the area’s environmental assets and wildlife habitats may choose to enter into agricultural easements to protect their land from urban expansion and development forever. Fox said the property owners are heroes for their patience and fortitude amid red tape and bureaucracy. 

The Summit Land Conservancy isn’t quite sure yet how it will spend the $22.4 million. The grant has certain requirements on what can be funded, but the payout to property owners would be higher than the typical agricultural land easement program.

Some of the funds might be used to leverage Summit County’s option agreement for the 834-acre Ure family farm as well as the overall $50 million open space bond approved by voters in 2021. However, watershed properties or projects rooted in water quality are likely to be prioritized. 

“The thing about the Kamas Meadows is you look at it, it’s one big, beautiful green swamp,” Fox said. “But if you plot a map, it’s a jigsaw puzzle. Even somebody who owns 200 or 300 acres, they’ve got 40 here, and 100 over there … and they may or may not be contiguous. Trying to put together a big enough swath of land to really achieve the objectives of this funding source is going to be the challenge.”

The grant could also bolster the For the Future Fund, a five-year campaign to raise $20 million to make a down payment or purchase the land outright, as well as donations from individual donors, private foundations and other sources.

The Summit Land Conservancy was also awarded a $9.4 million Regional Conservation Partnership Program grant in 2020, yet the money hasn’t been released yet. The land trust recently put in an application to use the first round of funding to preserve a property in the area. It’s also working to close on two, 99-acre properties in the Kamas Valley.

It isn’t a quick way to earn money, Fox recognized, but she said it is powerful. There’s a five-year deadline to use the money.

And if it wasn’t for the community’s backing, the federal funding might not have been possible. Every donation is a vote of show support for the work Summit Land Conservancy does, Fox said.

The land trust hopes to finalize several other projects before the end of the year or early next. These include 100 acres in Coalville along the Weber River, a 68-acre donation in Daniel close to Heber City and a conservation easement with City Hall to protect around 120 acres of Treasure Hill.