Utah Open Lands Conservation Association Inc

Utah Open Lands' Stewardship Division is responsible for monitoring and ensuring compliance with conservation easements on all protected lands, a portfolio that has continued to grow over the past 33-34 years. Through comprehensive monitoring reports, we assess current conditions and track the long-term trajectory of conservation values to safeguard these landscapes in perpetuity. In collaboration with state and local agencies, as well as private landowners, Utah Open Lands continues to develop and implement management protocols for Bonanza Flat and the adjacent 3,120-acre 45-Star Preserve-both vital conservation areas experiencing increasing public visitation. Additionally, in partnership with Park City, Utah Open Lands has facilitated the "Transit to Trails" ride-share shuttle program, designed to mitigate traffic congestion, reduce the number of passenger vehicles, and alleviate parking limitations in these high-use areas. Due to its success and strong community support, this program will continue in the coming year.

EDUCATION and OUTREACH: Utah Open Lands is committed to working with landowners and communities interested in ensuring the protection of the lands they love; from working landscapes, ecological refuges, to heritage values and the 'sense of place' as described by Wallace Stegner's vision of quality of life. This year the organization provided leadership and presentations to town and county councils and local community meetings. Utah Open Lands continued with our annual Gaining Ground | Trying Times Symposium hosted by the University of Utah's SJ Quinney School of Law in an effort to educate elected officials, state and local agencies, students, landowners, attorney, appraisers and other conservation professionals. The presentation provides information from IRS representatives, appraisers, Utah Open Lands staff and board members, and conservation specialists and attorneys, in order to review land trust requirements, laws and recent legal cases affecting land trusts, local conservation and professional scholarship.