Residents Partner with The Nature Conservancy to Protect Critical Lands in Boulder, Utah

Six Boulder residents donate conservation easements to The Nature Conservancy, ensuring their properties will remain undeveloped.

BOULDER, UT — February 6, 2008 — The Nature Conservancy recently announced the donation of conservation easements on six key properties, spanning more than 400 acres in the Deer Creek watershed in Boulder, Utah. The easement donations were made by Boulder residents, and will help protect key riparian habitat from development. Deer Creek supports native fish and neotropical songbirds, and serves as a vital water source and migration corridor for wildlife in the adjacent Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Dixie National Forest.

“Protection offered through these easements will directly contribute to the overall health and function of the downstream watershed,” said Linda Whitham, the Conservancy’s Central Canyonlands Program Manager. “All of the private parcels are sandwiched between the existing protected areas of the National Forest and the Monument, making them a vital link within the network of natural habitats.”

The first donation came from Tom Hoyt, who worked with the Conservancy to secure an easement protecting his 200-acre property on Deer Creek in 2006. After Hoyt’s donation, nearby property owners—a diverse mix of new and long-time residents—began talking about the importance of protecting their own lands.

"I have always felt a personal connection to the wildness of this region," said Scott Brodie, a 9-year resident of Boulder and one of the easement donors. "For me, protecting this land with a conservation easement is a way to prevent some of our community's special natural areas from being chopped up into more pieces in the future."

Through the easement donations, Brodie and his neighbors will continue to own the land, but a legally-binding contract will protect the properties from development in perpetuity. The Conservancy will monitor the easements annually to ensure compliance and measure their conservation effectiveness. The easement donations from Brodie and his five neighbors, including the original donation from Tom Hoyt, are valued at more than $1.5 million.

“We are deeply grateful to all of these generous and far-sighted Boulder landowners,” said Dave Livermore, the Conservancy’s Utah State Director. “It’s really inspiring to see local residents step forward to protect their community’s lands and waters. Their actions will have a significant ecological impact and will benefit generations of Utahns to come.”

The Conservancy had already identified the Boulder region as an important ecological area, but a recently completed scientific survey revealed even more conservation potential in the Deer Creek watershed. A team of scientists discovered more than 300 species of plants, over 40 families of insects and a diversity of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals in Deer Creek. In addition, scientists determined the area could provide habitat for at-risk species such as Ute's Ladies Tresses and Colorado cutthroat trout.

“We’re really excited about the potential for conservation within Deer Creek,” said Keith Schulz, a Regional Vegetation Ecologist with NatureServe, a national non-profit organization devoted to conservation science. “These properties are excellent examples of Colorado Plateau biodiversity with a variety of plant communities ranging from sparsely vegetated slickrock to lush hanging gardens and riparian forest.”

Perhaps most importantly, the science team concluded that compared to many other Western waterways that are already severely impacted by invasive weeds, the Deer Creek corridor still has large portions of viable native vegetation. This unusual scenario gives managers and conservation stakeholders a rare opportunity to act now to sustain Deer Creek’s unique systems and use them as a foundation to restore at-risk species.

Tucked in the fertile valley at the foot of Garfield County’s Boulder Mountain, the pastoral Boulder community is a gateway to the some of our state’s most spectacular landscapes, including the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. The region is also an important home for mule deer, elk, mountain lion and bear, peregrine falcon, goshawks, and both golden and bald eagles.

“The Conservancy’s goal is to help protect Boulder’s rare and significant natural areas,” said Whitham. “We are thrilled to work with residents, landowners, agency partners and other conservation groups to help ensure that Boulder remains a special place for future generations.”

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The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.