SALT LAKE CITY — The USDA Forest Service announced last week that it was funding a Forest Legacy project in Carbon County. The 1,344-acre Nine Mile Canyon Conservation Project will receive $750,000 from the federal Forest Legacy Program. The funding for this project, which is part of a larger nationwide $80 million investment, will establish a conservation easement to protect crucial wildlife habitat, forest resources and water resources for downstream users.
The Nine Mile Canyon Conservation Project is located 20 miles northeast of Price, Utah, within the rugged and archaeologically rich Book Cliffs region and connects a network of public lands. The property shares a border of approximately six miles of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the State of Utah. The project is located within 10 miles of five existing Forest Legacy projects totaling 11,348 acres.
“This project is an example of how state and federal partnerships keep working forests working while protecting Utah’s natural resources and cultural heritage,” said Natalie Conlin, Forest Legacy Program Manager for the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands. “Protection through Forest Legacy will ensure active forest management continues and important wildlife, watershed and cultural resource values are protected in perpetuity”.
At an elevation of 9,000 feet, the property provides critical watershed protection for downstream agricultural and municipal users in the nation’s second-driest state. The land contains two miles of perennial streams and four miles of intermittent streams. These valley-bottom waters flow directly into Willow Creek, a major tributary of the Green River, which feeds into the Upper Colorado River Basin.
The property is 94% forested, featuring diverse stands of Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine and aspen. This high-elevation oasis provides crucial summer range and migration corridors for big game species like elk, mule deer and black bears, while its sagebrush plateaus support the greater sage-grouse, a species of greatest conservation need.
This private property has been actively managed by the same family since the 1940s. Now in their 70s, the landowners sought a conservation easement to prevent future subdivision of the tract, protecting it from cabin and second-home development pressures generated by the rapidly expanding Wasatch Front metropolitan area.
Under the terms of the conservation easement, the land will remain in private hands and continue active, sustainable timber management. Forest management will reduce hazardous fuel loads and minimize the risk of catastrophic wildfires, with harvested timber contributing to local mills. The property is also enrolled in a Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit, ensuring that permitted public hunters will continue to have access to these lands.
The total cost of the Nine Mile Canyon Conservation Project is $1 million. The $750,000 federal grant, funded through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, is matched by a $250,000 non-federal cost share commitment.
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