Conserving well-managed working agricultural lands prevents conVERSION TO ALTERNATIVE USES SUCH AS DEVELOPMENT, THAT POSE GREATER THREATS TO WATER QUALITY AND AND QUANTITY.

Over the last 175 years, human water consumption has dramatically reduced water levels in Great Salt Lake. Today, the lake's ecosystem is approaching a tipping point. If the lake continues to decline, the consequences will be felt across the region and beyond. Fortunately, there are solutions. A combination of conservation, policy changes, and innovative water management strategies can help restore the lake to healthier levels.

While agriculture is one of the largest water users in Utah, it also presents one of the greatest opportunities to benefit Great Salt Lake. Through innovative water leasing agreements, farmers can voluntarily lease a portion of their water rights for environmental purposes while continuing to farm the land. These partnerships help keep working farms in production, support local food systems, and send much-needed water downstream to Great Salt Lake.

For decades, many agricultural producers faced a difficult reality: using less water could put their water rights at risk. Today, new state policies are helping change that equation. Farmers and ranchers can now voluntarily lease water for environmental purposes while maintaining their water rights, creating opportunities to keep working lands in production and send water downstream to Great Salt Lake. These market-based agreements are emerging as an important tool for balancing agricultural viability with the long-term health of the lake.

Summit Land Conservancy works with farmers and ranchers all across Northern Utah using market-based tools to protect their land from development. As a leading land trust in the state, we have an important role to play in advancing agricultural water leasing, an innovative approach that keeps farms in production while delivering water to Great Salt Lake.

The working lands of the Wasatch Back also sequester carbon and provide habitat to a wide variety of wildlife. When kept in a natural state, these landscapes filter water and provide space for rivers to flood. Development along rivers is detrimental to water quality. Roads, pipes, and the infrastructure of development fragment habitats as well as the hydrological geology that supplies clean water.

Our part in the Great Salt Lake effort is to support landowners and the people of northern utah in preserving the land, so that we can also conserve the water.

water leasing in action

“IT’S TIME TO THINK BEYOND OUR OWN FENCES.”

–Jesse Braatz, Changing a Landscape to a Lifescape: The Humboldt Ranch