They provide water to 400,000 people. Nearly a half-million skiers visit the four Cottonwood Canyon resorts annually, with even more enjoying Park City’s megaresorts on the Wasatch Back. Hikers, mountain bikers, climbers, campers, picnickers and anglers use the area. Private cabin owners consider their property a piece of heaven. Simply taking a Sunday drive to enjoy the autumn leaves or grabbing a meal at a canyon restaurant is an annual ritual for hundreds.
Yet these canyons are currently facing some of the biggest changes since the mining boom of the late 1800s greatly altered their natural state.
Jeff Niemeyer, Salt Lake City’s public-utilities director, put together a map of proposed and rumored ski-resort expansion and Interconnect plans, a sobering exercise that prompted concern from his boss, Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker.
The mayor said the map shows that all of the terrain near the top of the Wasatch Canyons not currently within ski areas’ boundaries would be consumed by the resorts.
The Salt Lake City mayor is proposing a grand canyons master plan that may take as long as three years to put together. It would involve Salt Lake and Summit counties, the U.S. Forest Service, the Utah Transit Authority, the state’s congressional delegation, ski-resort owners, private landowners and, of course, the public.
He admits that people might be skeptical that such a grand plan might work or have enough teeth to be effective. But the Salt Lake City mayor said that without such a plan, there will be disjointed proposals for new lifts or expansion such as the SkiLink between The Canyons in Park City and Solitude in Big Cottonwood Canyon without an idea as to the cumulative effects of these developments. Salt Lake Tribune
