Another 100 acres of Weber River farmland could be saved if the Summit Land Conservancy can raise $450,000 in the next couple of months.
The property, known as Marchant Meadows in Peoa, is considered heritage agricultural land. It’s been in the Marchant family for six generations and now the family is selling. It’s been on the market for a couple of years and its acreage that the Summit Land Conservancy has had its eyes on. Once the family decided to lower the price to keep it as open space, the conservancy moved.
Summit Land Conservancy Director Cheryl Fox says this will be a fee title purchase – the sales price is not being disclosed – but she says it’s less than the asking price and a conservation easement will eventually be put on the acreage.
“When we can buy a conservation easement, it has to work for the family - which means generally the family has to have somebody in the next generation, the up-and-coming generation, who is interested in continuing the farming and ranching agribusiness of the family,” Fox said. “But that doesn't happen all the time and sometimes you know, beautiful farms and ranches, people aren't available or willing or able to continue in farming and ranching and that was the case with this property.”
The property lies on Woodenshoe Lane, along the Weber River in Peoa. Fox says it’s an iconic property – and ecologically critical for maintaining the water quality in the Weber River. She says they hope they don’t have to subdivide it to be able to pay for it.
“Our goal is to create a 106 acre, almost 107 acres, public access natural preserve so there is no existing building on the property,” she said. “And this is one of the reasons why this property has been so high on our list of things to try to save. It has two braids of the Weber River it has a lot of wet, swampy land. It could be developed - it would be a little bit difficult to develop it because you have to figure out where you could set your sight your houses.”
With a scheduled closing date of Oct. 30, the organization has an ongoing fundraising campaign.
“We need to bring a pretty good amount of money to the table in order to close on this and then we will get a loan to finish it and then we will sell,” Fox said. “Once the Summit Land Conservancy owns it, the Summit Land Conservancy will actually sell a conservation easement to the federal government as a way of making sure that it is permanently protected in the long run and also as a way of that’s how we will pay off our loan. So, we need to raise about $450,000 from the community. We are also writing grants. We have gotten already support from the eastern Summit County agricultural preservation committee, ASAP.”
The Conservancy has a $65,000 challenge grant from the Peoa community. Other donations are accepted at wesaveland.org.
The Conservancy is also working on putting a conservation easement on the 1,000-acre Huntsville monastery, as well as a parcel in Midway, two parcels along the Provo River, and two large ranches in eastern Summit County.
Another 100 acres of Weber River farmland could be saved if the Summit Land Conservancy can raise $450,000 in the next couple of months.
The property, known as Marchant Meadows in Peoa, is considered heritage agricultural land. It’s been in the Marchant family for six generations and now the family is selling. It’s been on the market for a couple of years and its acreage that the Summit Land Conservancy has had its eyes on. Once the family decided to lower the price to keep it as open space, the conservancy moved.
Summit Land Conservancy Director Cheryl Fox says this will be a fee title purchase – the sales price is not being disclosed – but she says it’s less than the asking price and a conservation easement will eventually be put on the acreage.
“When we can buy a conservation easement, it has to work for the family - which means generally the family has to have somebody in the next generation, the up-and-coming generation, who is interested in continuing the farming and ranching agribusiness of the family,” Fox said. “But that doesn't happen all the time and sometimes you know, beautiful farms and ranches, people aren't available or willing or able to continue in farming and ranching and that was the case with this property.”
The property lies on Woodenshoe Lane, along the Weber River in Peoa. Fox says it’s an iconic property – and ecologically critical for maintaining the water quality in the Weber River. She says they hope they don’t have to subdivide it to be able to pay for it.
“Our goal is to create a 106 acre, almost 107 acres, public access natural preserve so there is no existing building on the property,” she said. “And this is one of the reasons why this property has been so high on our list of things to try to save. It has two braids of the Weber River it has a lot of wet, swampy land. It could be developed - it would be a little bit difficult to develop it because you have to figure out where you could set your sight your houses.”
With a scheduled closing date of Oct. 30, the organization has an ongoing fundraising campaign.
“We need to bring a pretty good amount of money to the table in order to close on this and then we will get a loan to finish it and then we will sell,” Fox said. “Once the Summit Land Conservancy owns it, the Summit Land Conservancy will actually sell a conservation easement to the federal government as a way of making sure that it is permanently protected in the long run and also as a way of that’s how we will pay off our loan. So, we need to raise about $450,000 from the community. We are also writing grants. We have gotten already support from the eastern Summit County agricultural preservation committee, ASAP.”
The Conservancy has a $65,000 challenge grant from the Peoa community. Other donations are accepted at wesaveland.org.
The Conservancy is also working on putting a conservation easement on the 1,000-acre Huntsville monastery, as well as a parcel in Midway, two parcels along the Provo River, and two large ranches in eastern Summit County.
