House Resolution 5718, introduced by then-Congressman Jason Chaffetz in 2016, proposed the creation of a new federal land designation – a National Conservation and Recreation Area. The objectives were to balance the need to protect the Wasatch Front’s drinking water, while preserving recreational opportunities, enhance access to the Central Wasatch and accommodate future growth.
Six years later, the bill is still stalled in Congress. A Co-Director for the Central Wasatch Commission - which both Park City and Summit County belong to - Lindsey Nielsen says moving anything through the congressional level takes time, and lots of patience. They’re hopeful the draft bill can eventually get through which would resolve decades of conflict over how the Central Wasatch mountains are used and enjoyed.
“The bill as it stands right now is in pretty good shape,” Nielsen said. “It's in decent shape. If the time is right with our federal delegation to move it, I think the commissioners will be making some decisions about what they want to do in this 2023 Congress around the bill very soon. But staff just remains hopeful and willing and ready to do the work when our commissioners get this through.”
When first drafted, the bill set out to swap federal forest service lands for privately owned Cottonwood Canyon ski resorts. But that proved to be impossible to achieve. So, in the current version of the bill, those land exchanges have been removed but the goal to create a central Wasatch National Conservation and Recreation Area remains.
The regulations governing that area would specify where and how future development would be limited, create new wilderness lands, and add to existing wilderness areas that have been agreed upon by the parties involved.
It would also create a new White Pine Watershed Protection Area and contains provisions for the development of a Mountain Transportation System and removes the permit areas of the Cottonwood ski areas from the national designation.
Additionally, the CWC is working on regional mountain transportation. CWC Co-Director Blake Perez says they are not taking a stand regarding the controversial UDOT-recommended solution of building a gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon. They focused on the Wasatch Front and Back and came up with core values for such a transportation system.
“They include consideration of a visitor use capacity, watershed protection, traffic demand management, parking and bus strategies, year-round transit service, and how these investments can provide long term protection of critical areas through federal legislation, Perez said. “That was our filter. The board, the CWC board did not come out for or against. We evaluated what UDOT has proposed through those pillars. Where is there opportunity for improvement? And that's what the CWC submitted comments on.”
Nielsen encourages those who enjoy the central Wasatch to check out the environmental dashboard that has been published. Lots of work has gone into amassing all the existing data for the five environmental indicators into one place.
“It's usable, and it's fun,” Nielsen said. “It has things like historical trends for vehicle counts at various state data stations across throughout these mountains in the Wasatch Front and the Wasatch Back. It has all of this species of animal that you will find both in the Wasatch front and in the Wasatch back. It has a cache of information for where the fault lines in the mountains exist, it will tell you who owns which parcels of land in these mountains. It's just like you said, an encyclopedia for these mountains.”
Coming in 2023, the CWC will roll out some of the findings of a visitor study, including who’s visiting the central Wasatch, where they’re coming from and the impacts they have on the watershed and economy. The trails portion of this study is expected to be released in early 2023.
