Watershed Symposium 2024

Exploring challenges and gaps with implementing conservation and protection best practices for sensitive lands around Great Salt Lake and the Jordan River. A critical and often overlooked component of a healthy watershed.

Full Abstract:
While communities are putting greater focus on increasing density and redeveloping urban spaces, critical natural lands and agricultural areas at the edges of our cities continue to be a target for new development. But at what cost? Many city general plans include general guiding principles and goals oriented toward preservation of critical lands, but the tools to actualize these goals often lag far behind development pressures. Our decentralized local land use policies can be a patchwork of strengths and weaknesses, and on a regional issues like preserving sensitive lands around Great Salt Lake, how do you coordinate efforts for the best outcomes. Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County offer a useful and ongoing case study. Both have adopted plans with aspirations to “expand natural lands and watershed protection,” and specific goals to “over the next 25 years, …protect and restore critical wildlife habitat, sensitive natural lands, and open space.” There have been some important wins: setting aside a natural buffer area between the Inland Port in Salt Lake City and wetlands of Great Salt Lake, establishing the Legacy Nature Preserve along the northern extent of the Jordan River in North Salt Lake, and other significant greenways and riparian restoration projects across the Jordan River. But is the rate of suburban, light industrial development outpacing conservation of remaining critical natural areas, particularly integral upland areas that are part of the Great Salt Lake Shorelands ecosystem? Have we done enough? This presentation explores some of the gaps and challenges reconciling broad preservation and restoration goals associated with general plans, and the deficit of codified land use tools encoded in local laws and ordinances. With a very decentralized local government land use structures, lack of coordinated regional frameworks and cooperation around sensitive lands, and often conflicting development pressures, real estate development is often outpacing preservation and restoration of critical lands adjacent to our waterways and Great Salt Lake, putting the capacity for improving water quality, conserving water, sustaining habitat resources of migratory pathways to Global Important Bird Areas and other wildlife at high risk. We present the need for establishing a Shoreline Heritage Area around Great Salt Lake and coordinated efforts to protect and conserve riparian and other natural lands around the Jordan River and Great Salt Lake for both human and wildlife welfare. We’ll present brief case studies with some hits and missed opportunities, as we continue ways to increase coordination and cooperation around our shared conservation efforts.