Summit County needs to decide what grazing looks like on a $55 million, 8,600-acre property north of Jeremy Ranch, if it wants grazing to continue.
Before becoming county-owned open space in January, the 910 Cattle Ranch had a cattle operation leasing it — and it still does.
“If we are to keep the grazing on the property, we really have to change the way that it's been managed over the years,” County Lands and Natural Resources Director Jess Kirby said.
According to Kirby, the county’s “grazing management plan” is one of seven parts of the wider “resource management plan” the state of Utah must approve.
“Once that's approved, then we can start opening it up to the public,” she said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” April 29. “But not until then.”
While Kirby’s office works on long-term grazing guidelines, the current lessee can keep cattle on the property for one more year.
But the lack of snow this winter is already raising questions about whether the 910 has enough vegetation.
“I'm very grateful that our lessee is open and willing to have those conversations with us, because we're going to have to change the way we graze the property this year,” Kirby added, assuming grazing can happen at all. “We're talking about getting [the cattle] in early, taking them out in the middle of the summer, bringing them in late fall.”
Some of the long-term changes up for consideration include managing where cows can go. The 910 has been open range, and Kirby says cattle have tended to congregate in East Canyon Creek, which can erode both the shore and the water quality.
Preventing that means moving water around so cows don’t need to sit in the creek. Kirby says the county is also looking into “geofencing” the herd with technology that resembles e-collars for dogs.
“It's very expensive,” Kirby said of geofencing. “There's a lot of grants out there, but you have to partner with the lessee to do that, and so it's a long term commitment. And then you have to train the cows.”
With so much planning required by the 910’s conservation easement, the ranch may not open to the public until 2028, Kirby said.
Her office is scheduled to present recreation options to the Summit County Council May 20.
Recreation is another one of the seven areas of the resource management plan.
Others include noxious weeds, forest stewardship, vegetation monitoring, wildlife and a baseline account of current conditions.
