Chapter One: Land

Summary

Brian Steed

Over past decades, our relationship with the land has been changing. As Utah has become increasingly urbanized, with demographic trends indicating a sustained move away from rural/agricultural life, our attitudes and opinions about management of Utah’s lands have become more diverse.

Many in our state treasure landscapes more for their ecological and recreational amenities than for their raw natural resource benefits. Agriculture is still highly valued but is often praised equally as a source of open space, as well as its economic importance. These changes create interesting management challenges.

One example of of a land management challenge is our efforts in wildfire mitigation. Over the last five years, we’ve been largely spared from disaster fires, but it could take significant mangagement of our open spaces to maintain that trend.

Local populations away from the urban centers often feel like they do not have sufficient influence over the decisions made by the state or federal government impacting the landscapes in their regions. Similarly, local economic needs are often much more reliant on actively using the land, rather than recreating on or occasionally visiting it.

As we make land-use decisions, we must understand these differing viewpoints and trade-offs. When it comes to wildfire, extractive industry, and urban community management, among other issues, we can work to create solutions that maximize benefits from the things we value most. In the following sections, we explore some of the recent insights on how we can improve landscape conditions, increase recreational opportunities, and allow continued, yet wiser, resource use across Utah.

Sections