More than $660,000 — that’s how much Utah Open Lands has raised toward the $2 million matching grant awarded anonymously to the nonprofit in March.
Utah Open Lands Executive Director Wendy Fisher said it’s all a matter of leveraging funding. The community is what makes open lands conservation possible, she said. It’s part of why Utah Open Lands has worked so aggressively to utilize funding that taxpayers have put forward in open space bonds by Midway City and Wasatch County — because Fisher wants to put the community’s money to good use.
Already, more than 25,000 acres of open space and working lands have been protected with help from Utah Open Lands. That includes finalized projects in Midway like the Albert Kohler Legacy Farm (102 acres), the Gardner Legacy Open Land (43 acres) and Mountain Spa, also known as Ameyalli (42 acres). The projects have all utilized the $5 million open space bonds Midway City voters approved in 2018 and again in 2024.
In-progress projects include the Lundin Farm (119 acres), the Cristian Mitchel Kissel property (44 acres) and the Heart of Midway (17 acres).
These projects have been protected through conservation easements. A conservation easement is an encumbrance on land for the purpose of preserving areas in scenic, natural or open conditions.
Fisher said the $2 million matching grant can be applied to in-progress and future projects.
“Our goal is really to highlight the protection of what we’re calling our Heartland of the Heber Valley campaign,” Fisher said. “There are a number of landowners that are interested in our ability to serve those landowners and really protect this agricultural heritage that is fundamental to the Heber Valley.”
But that depends on Utah Open Lands’ ability to raise funding for the $2 million matching grant. Fisher said the organization hopes to complete its goal by the end of the year.
“The funding and the leveraging are also a testament to how valuable these open agricultural landscapes are, when you think about what they provide for water, air and just our sense of well-being,” Fisher said.
Wasatch County Councilor Erik Rowland has been a vocal proponent of open space conservation, especially throughout the Heber Valley Corridor bypass route public comment period. He sits on the Wasatch County Open Lands Board. Rowland said that Wasatch County must stay ahead when it comes to protecting open space.
“Not a lot of communities have a Wendy Fisher, and without her, we would be decades behind in open land,” Rowland said.
He said that Wasatch County lost 50,000 acres of open space from 2012 to 2022.
“The trend is we’re losing open space,” Rowland said, adding that the county must step in and protect open land whenever possible.
Rowland said the clear example of open space in Wasatch County is the Heber Valley’s North Fields.
“It has come to represent what we feel in the county is an important resource and what we want to preserve,” Rowland said. “It seems to be the one thing that has unified us as a community.”
Courtland Nelson is the chair of the Midway City Open Space Advisory Committee. He has been working to preserve open space for most of his life. He was working toward the preservation of open lands when the Snake Creek conservation easement came to fruition in 1995.
“We really didn’t know what we were doing (back then),” Nelson said. “It is a learning curve that we were on.”
Since then, Nelson said he is pleased to see the community efforts put forward to conserve land in Wasatch County. Plus, the work done by Utah Open Lands and the nonprofit Preserve Midway.
“We are anxious to have more partners with Preserve Midway,” Nelson said.
Rowland said there can be a perception that open space is “value lost if there’s a green field that’s untouchable.”
“There’s a question of ‘Why have open space if it’s tied up in conservation or if I can’t even access it?’” Rowland said.
But Rowland added that open space is one of the best tools in the county’s “toolbox” to help with “smart growth.”
“Untouchable land is a line in the sand for community leaders to say, ‘OK, how do we solve this problem by not using open space?’” Rowland said.
And Fisher said conservation can lead to a net gain for the county.
“I like to say: Cows don’t go to school,” Fisher said.
That’s to say that taxpayer services like law enforcement and education are not necessary for open space land. And Fisher has argued against the idea that conservation easements only benefit wealthy landowners.
“We need to start looking at the fact that developers will come in, walk away with a profit and the community ends up paying for that,” Fisher said.
She said that it’s required for landowners to make at least a 20% to 25% contribution when establishing a conservation easement.
“If any funding is going to be spent, the landowner has to have skin in the game,” Fisher said.
Utah Open Lands will continue to work toward matching the $2 million anonymous donor’s grant throughout 2026. Fisher said every dollar raised will go toward protecting open land in Wasatch County.