Cache Open Space Advisory Committee Meeting – 09-22-2025

Thank you. Welcome to our September 22 meeting. We appreciate you being here, and we look forward to hearing from those who are here to have a conversation with us.

My name is Deborah Van Noy. I'm a found I'm the founder and board member of Utah Agricultural Land Trust.

Hang on just a second.

Sure.

Yeah. That's where I can hear this.

Well, should I just turn turn off the microphone? Yeah. Just try to turn off the microphone. See this button? Okay. This The echo. I'm founder and board member of Utah Agriculture. You all was founded in March 2023. And I'm gonna tell share a a story with you. And it's not a long story, but it's it's poignant to our to our organization. We were founded following my attendance at the Texas agriculture Texas Land Conservation Conference held in Austin in March 2023. I had gone to Texas to learn. During, my earlier research, I had discovered that Texas has about 35 to 40 land trusts that are protecting public and private land throughout the state. And I felt that, if if they had that many land trusts in the state, they must know what they're doing. So I jumped at the opportunity to go to Texas and just learn. So I got on a plane and flew to Texas, and and on the last day of the conference, I met Chad Ellis, CEO of Texas Agricultural Land Trust, and I shared with him that I was a little bit frustrated about the pace of agricultural land protection in Utah. And his reply was, start a land trust dedicated to agriculture. We'll mentor you. He said, we are doing this very thing in South Dakota with the South Dakota Agricultural Land Trust. And I was I was taken aback. I did not get on a plane to go to Texas and plan to start my own land trust. But I I thought about it, I researched nonprofits, and and starting an organization, and operating a land trust. And as I flew home, I was talking myself into the idea of starting a land trust, and and that was two and a half years ago now. Since then, Ualt has built an organization with, eight very capable board members and one staff person. We've taken office space at the Joan Simpkins Building on 10th West. We've submitted eight applications to NRCS, six applications to Libre McCallister, UDAF for Libre McCallister funding, and And we look forward to working with cash open space, on applications for local funding as well. And we have been awarded $3,400,000 in funding for a project in West Provo, which we hope to close during the next twelve months. I wanna share with you, the Talt organizational video. It expresses, our work and this work of protecting land better than any medium that I have sound. And when you're listening, listen to the phrase listen for the phrase, it's up to us. And then also listen for the percentage of privately held land in Texas. It's double the privately held land in Utah. And you just scroll down to the video. There you go.

It's something you live. It's something you experience with fame. It's stewardship. All in respect. It's appreciation even in the hardest periods of drought. Land defines us as Texans whether you own a piece or not. For centuries, land, whether sweeping vistas, untamed marshes, airbrush lands, or towering ponds. The land and body of frontier spirit, the can do attitude, rugged individualism that centuries later makes us who we are. The land changes, people change. Over time, families grow and needs change. The value of land rises, so do the pressures to break it up. Again and again, wildlife habitat suffers. Our watersheds and rivers decline. Scenic vistas and wide open spaces disappear. Plants are replaced by pavement. Today, we're winning a race we don't wanna win. Don't wanna win. Texas loses her rural lands faster than any other state in our nation. So what to do? It's not up to the government to protect these lands. It's up to us, the landowners. In this vast state where 97% of the land is in private hands, it's the rancher, the hunter, the farmer, those individuals who already worked tirelessly to conserve our grasses, forests, rivers, and wetlands. It's these people who will save Texas' wide open spaces from disappearing. That's why the Texas Ag Land Trust came about. There wasn't anything quite like it. A group created by farmers and ranchers, for farmers and ranchers, and the hunters too. Land, a new approach, and who spoke the same language as the man or woman on the ground. It took on the ground. It took grit. It took trailblazers. It took people whose love of the land was so deep that they, like me, were begging to take action. Because if we didn't, what kind of Texas would our kids inherit? If we didn't, would future generations know the wide open spaces that we treasure today? And at first, we didn't know exactly how to go about it, but we knew why, and that was enough. We were there to help families perpetuate their legacy, modify their love of the land, and protect it forever for the benefit of all Texans. Fifteen years in, we've partnered with conservation minded landowners to protect hundreds of thousands of acres of Texas land. Their work ensures cleaner water, vibrant wildlife, and productive agricultural lands. Their work allows these resilient landscapes to withstand drought, fire, and flood. Today, Talt is the largest homegrown land trust in Texas, among the largest in the nation, thanks to people willing to do what was hard because they knew it was right. Talt has been carefully built by passionate people, grown through love and education, and it's constantly evolving, blessed with new leadership, with deep roots in Texas, strong values that embody our mission, and the drive to carry it forward. Sometimes, our greatest gifts aren't just right under our noses. They're beneath our feet. Let's protect the lasting legacy of Texas together. Thank you.

I I hope that gives you a flavor of Talt and what an outstanding organization it is. We are so grateful to be affiliated with Talt and have their leadership behind us as we grow our organization. I I now want to introduce Brian Nielson, our executive director. He's just going to say a few words, and then we're happy to address any questions you might have. Thanks.

So as Debbie said, I'm Brian Nielsen. I'm the the executive director of, Utah Agricultural Land Trust. I've been with Debbie and the board for about a year and a half, functioning in this role. I support the board in helping them, obviously with, funding applications and and, also helping, farmers and ranchers that are coming in and and, helping with the paperwork on getting these, these, conservation easements moving forward and hopefully helping, them accomplish their goals of preserving their land and keeping open space, open space. I actually, my involvement with this is, is I'm pretty passionate about what we're doing. I grew up on a farm in, in a dairy in, and, in Milad, Idaho. And, as I moved to Cache Valley, I've lived here for about thirty years, and Cache Valley today isn't what Cache Valley was thirty years ago for me, and I'm seeing it, expand into even Southeastern Idaho. So my passion for preserving open land and keeping open land open land and, and helping farmers maintain what they have, created for themselves and their family and their posterity is what motivates me and and why I do what I do. So thank you and looking forward to working with your organization and supporting us and and hopefully that is a mutual beneficial, you know, arrangement that we can work towards. Great. What was your name one more time? Brian Nielson. Brian Nielson. Yeah. B r y a n n I e l s e n. Thank you.

Thank you, Brian. Deborah, maybe you can just highlight for us just it sounds like you you made a number of applications to to the state and the federal agencies. It sounds like at least one project's come. It looks like it's gonna be funded or has been funded, that sort of thing. So Right. Is that

reflective of all the project funding you guys, your organization has been able to secure so far? Well, yes. This is a project in Provo, Mhmm. One of the fastest growing counties, probably the fastest growing county in Utah. It could end up being the hot one of the highest valued conservation easements per acre in the country. It is in West Provo, a beautiful area on the way to Utah Lake, so it's all open space. The Despain Ranch is there, and it is a protected area. This is simply 20 acres, but it's a 5,800,000 easement value. NRCS came in with the funding, but that funding requires a match. So they came in with 2.94, and then we raised, funding from Leroy McAllister and, state, Division of Natural resources, d n I. You you get awards from Lee Ray McAllister money? Yes. We've gotten an award from Lee Ray McAllister. And what we will do now, hopefully, nearing our final run around the track, is going to Utah County for green Belt rollback tax money. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We're hoping. And and we we do have a deadline of next October, so we've gotta really make this happen soon. But it's it's been exciting. It's been a very worthy cause. It's going to be a operation that will be a you pick, vegetable gardens, and then orchards, fruit orchards for you pick as well. And so it's really gonna involve community participation. The the applications we've got underway are also throughout Utah. We're not limiting ourselves to Cache Valley. We we can go to Sanpete and Millard County and the other counties as well. So we've got another one in Utah County. It's only three acres, but it's in the Palmyra area, Benjamin. If you if you're driving south, you can look back and kind of see a lot of open space there. Again, it's gonna have huge demand for development. So our belief was if we could protect three and a half acres, then surrounding landowners might be open to the idea of protection as well, and that would spread. Then we've got four applications here in Cache Valley. Three of them are in Hyde Park that are adjacent to trails that will be they are on the future general plan for Hyde Park, and that's exciting. And that is county land, but it abuts Hyde Park proper. And we've got we'd like to bring in applications for 334 acres in Cove and, 240 acres in Clarkston of dry farmland. Okay. So we've got a lot going on. We're our our belief, our sense is that the agricultural landowners are really, becoming more open to the idea of protecting the land even with NRCS money. There have been some, negative YouTube videos out there in recent years about, you know, you take government money and they're gonna dictate how you run your farm operation, and it is not true. Mhmm. It's not true. So they're they're they're becoming more open to the idea, and, of course, they're seeing the development just encroaching into their areas. So Yeah. It it sounds like you've had some success with smaller parcel projects because, in our experience,

you know, those the smaller projects aren't that attractive to NRCS or and sometimes Leaver and McAllister. Right? Looking for hundreds of acres, not 20 or three or Well, they came in on the 20 acres in Provo, in West Provo.

Yeah. And I would encourage any of you, if you're ever heading down that way and have an extra fifteen minutes, get off at university and go go west.

It's just beautiful. Yeah. So my question is, how do you how did you get them to fund 20 acres?

NRCS? Yeah. You know, I won't lie and and and not say that the Inflation Reduction Act money didn't have something to do with it. Yeah. The fire hose was pretty large at that point. Yeah. A year later, I'm not sure we would have gotten it. Right. That's really my impression. Right. That's really my impression. But the award stands, and we're grateful for that. And did that project also get UDAF funding? Yes. Lebrey McAllister. Okay. Yeah. Mhmm. 350,000. K. Yeah. Yeah. So we were grateful for that as well. So,

it sounds like like we we've got mister Cooper that's got 20 acres out there, and we just see him. We would like people that we can refer smaller parcels to. Mhmm. And it sounds like you might be able to We'd be we'd be delighted to talk to him. On. You bet. Yeah. I know, Gabe and Bear River Land Conservancy feel a little capped on their ability to do some of those,

right now. No. We'd be happy to talk to him. What we do typically is we invite the landowners to our office for a presentation. It's a general presentation about the whole concept and the legal foundation of of land, conservation easements in Utah. And there's IRS rules, there's state laws, we've got the Conservation Easement Act, and even local policies in place and and general plan efforts. So we want them to have a real understanding of what they're getting into if they enter this process. And it's not it's not free. It costs them a little bit of money. The appraisals are very expensive. They're very high level. But I will tell you this, I'm not sure if you are aware, but, UDAF has a program called ARDLS, and it is a program where our landowners can take out a loan for, it could be $30,000 and that will cover that $10,000 appraisal at the end of the deal. So we're not asking them for that appraisal early, but at the end, right before closing. That's critical for IRS approval and agreement that this is a a these are bona fide good numbers. The ARTL loan, which is very low interest, I think we're talking 12%, is provided to the landowner, and then at the closing of the deal, it's expected that the landowner is landowner is gonna pay off the loan. So he doesn't hold that loan, very long. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a great program for them because we they're not loaded. You know, our landowners in our ag landowners in Utah have second jobs often. They're working their land at night, this type of thing. But they would like to protect it and have that that opportunity to to benefit, financially benefit from a conservation easement too. Yeah. Great.

Debbie, would it benefit you and Brian to for us just to run over some of our process? Just Sure. Yeah. We like that. Based on some questions that you you had or I I saw earlier from you. Yeah. Let me just add to that. Like the next thing I was gonna say is how do you envision

working with Well, that this is that's a great question. I I shared that with Eric just briefly. You know, we we start with NRCS, and that's the the big money, and that requires a match. And then we we will take that application to Lea Ray McAllister. Simultaneously often, but but it it's stronger if we know that we're gonna get that n NCRS money, NRCS money. And then, within our, strategic plan for that landowner, then we come down to looking at cash open space money if they're a Cache Valley property. So you we might we might apply for a a, the same amount for leeway and cash open space, but it might be a little bit less. So you're us having access to cash open space, you're able to leverage, you know, big, awards coming in from larger entities. We're not asking a lot a huge amount from you, so that allows us to

protect more land, us and and you to protect more land in Cache Valley because we're we're leveraging the other awards as well. I mean, it sounds fantastic because that's what we would love to see from landowners is to come in to us with some of that federal or state funding already.

Yeah. And then and then though the opposite may be true as well, we know, like, with Leroy McAllister or whatever, if you the more people you can say already that you have a commitment from. And I think that's a chicken egg problem. Like, sometimes if you NRCS may like, you already have some match, especially if NRCS money gets more competitive down the road. Because there's gonna be less of it. Yeah. Because there's gonna be less of it. If you if you can say, well, we've already got matches and they're looking at a portfolio and the others don't have matches all lined up. I'm just saying we we've never been of the mindset that we wouldn't be, willing to be a first committer. The lead. Yeah. It would require NRCS. We're not gonna do do it without NRCS sometimes. Mhmm. You know? But it would be something to

Well, though, you know, as more applications come in through our the land trust community, this is an argument for UDAF to go to the legislature and say, there is such great demand out there, gentlemen and ladies, for for for funding for conservation easements on agriculture property. We're grateful that it's now recurring, the $1,000,000, thanks to Casey Snyder, but we we really think it should be increased. Yeah.

And to that point, the you mentioned the green belt money. Mhmm. And last we were kind of told was that we would the green belt money may come through the same application process, depending on what the council does themselves. But that, if and if that's the case, then Schedule funding sources. Yeah. Then then that would be helpful, I'm sure, to you as well. Yes. Yeah. But we have to talk about the pre app process. So there there is a document somewhere with the that just kinda shows the Yes. I've seen it. The table. Yeah. The table. So the pre app process is really where the you would come in with the landowner. We would talk about things like our our, you know, our trails on the master plan. Is this a landowner that's has there's some public access element. These are all things that are gonna be on the application, but it just kind of gives us a chance to make sure that you get everything you can on the application. Okay. If that makes sense. Sure. It just strengthens your I think it strengthens your application because you're you're not you're not blind in it. I mean, you can say no to some of those. That doesn't mean anything for the outcome, but it's just a chance for for that dialogue to take place. Right. Then the application process, we've tried to keep it it pretty simple on the front end. So that First round. First round. Limited investment from the Yeah. A limited investment, but it starts the commitment process where we sit where we recommend it to the council, and then the council says, yay nay. That really gives you a little stamp, like, if depending on where we are in the process for you to go to NRCS or simultaneously. And sometimes it depends on the timing of those application processes. Like, if you're way in front of NRCS, then maybe that's beneficial to have in front. If you're really pressing to get NRCS apps in, that may be more important than trying to get us on board beforehand. Your application process is

is not difficult. So And we're really looking at We appreciate that because NRCS is is. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, you know, it's a bear.

But yeah. No. It's not tough. And not but the NRCS process is beneficial to us because if you have NRCS money, that means you've checked a bunch of boxes we don't really worry about. Yeah. Yeah. Because of that. So and then the secondary kind of is that timing where you're going through the the appraisals and and the land getting checked and and that phase. So just to give you a sense for, Richmond went through the all all the way through the second phase as well. Yeah. And it's waiting on inner shift. Inner shift. I was gonna say it's somewhere right in there. Okay. So that that I think the front end really matters more than the back end for And we plan to bring our applications in on October 6. Exactly. Pre applications. Yeah. Right. And if you have applications done oh, I I meant I I missed this, and Justin's been hugely valuable on this, is site visits as well. And that is after the application. Right. Right. Okay. And we're fine to bring in we could be bringing in five applications on the sixth. Will we get it that kind of time to share? Yeah. We might not we probably aren't evaluating five applications on on that date, but that gives us a chance to look at them and

yeah. Yeah. That's fine. But is there paperwork involved in the pre application process, or is it just a a verbal no? Okay. Nothing. I might bring a map or something to put up on the screen. Alright. And, Andrew, you provided us maps of your

Oh, okay. Okay. Great.

Did the letters of Okay. Alright. Thank you. Uh-huh. Good.

Yep. So we've kinda seen where those those parcels are and, you know, there's there's some interesting projects there for sure. And, I think there's there's really nothing Okay. Nothing more required in the pre application. But if you have more information, feel free to

share that with us. I I just you know, the smile on my face, we actually took a tour of the Clarkston property in July at Safflower Bloom. I cannot describe to you the beauty and the fragrance of fresh safflower. I'm not sure if you've ever experienced it, but there is wonder in our valley. And and it's in the form of agriculture and the things that are going on out in out in our our agricultural communities. Yeah. So

Well, it's great it's great to have your organization advocating for landowners and and for helping folks through this process.

Thank you. I appreciate your time today. I

was going to say, I think you're filling a niche that we need more of. Yeah.

Other Committee members have questions or comments or anything? Thank you. Or Deborah? Okay. Thanks so much. Thank you very much. Mhmm. Thank you. I don't know if you the next thing on our our our list was the the five project, pre applications. I didn't know if you wanted to talk more about those at all at this point. Or have or have the landowners come in in October.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's up to you. I could I could say a few words about them.

Just very few. Makes sense to pull those maps up. Yeah. Angie? Do you prefer the parcel viewer or the maps that we've seen? If the parcel viewer shows the parcels, does it will it show them highlighted and stuff? Probably not. But, anyway, yeah, I think parcel viewer is great, especially if that's easiest.

We can kind of refer to our hard copies. Yeah, I won't take much of your time, but where will we start?

I

have Vivian's first Sure. And then Okay, we're going to go down the line. So I've got okay. That's the parcel view. This property sits its eastern border its western border sits next to recreational land in Richfield in Richmond City.

That's a baseball diamond. Can you back out just a tad bit? Yes. Okay.

So here's where the Flower Mill And Pepperidge Farm is. So it's property is there north

This is a different property.

K. That's on the west side of the highway. Yeah. The one on the East side, I think. Some of the East side properties, maybe.

If you scroll What is this?

Yeah. It looks like there's two on the east side of the highway and then the rest here, one on the Yeah. North. It was in the one time in the middle of the Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. You think this is it?

Oh, great. It's Just across

north of my house. Yeah. Is isn't it there's a and I have not there's a baseball diamond.

Softball. Right. Yeah. It was soccer about five, six acres there.

That corner. And Caspers is not too far. Right there. Okay. That's an interesting idea to have, recreational land right next to the property. And I don't know what that means for, you know, brainstorming about

Can can you slide up? I'm just wondering where the one we approved it No. The other direction. The Harris one? Harris one. Right south. A little bit west.

This one's all on the east side of the river. Harris is about a mile straight south.

Okay. About a mile? Yeah. Okay. That's a ways away. Harris. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So that's one point on the, Christiansen property that's kind of interesting, aside from the fact that it's a it's a large acreage. For for us,

what's interesting about it I mean, obviously, it's probably really good farmland you you would know best, but it's it's in our gateway. It's in our north gateway. Right? And that's anything before the Peppers Farm facility

is is pretty darn interesting to us for that reason. Good. Yeah. And it's got that recreation component on the west border of it too, I think. I'm in, Champion Farms. I I just made a pitch for that property by talking about the safflower fields in July. That is dry farmland, and the safflower is used for premium birdseed. It's not used for oil or kitchen use.

There's some These are non contiguous, so that's Right. Right. The second map. Mhmm. Okay.

For I I think what would be relevant for for this project would be to understand if there's other easement lands in the area or in the vicinity or some sort of intent or Yes. Additional, you know, like, through agricultural protection areas or something to that effect?

There is not, but the intent is there, I believe, among this landowner and others in that area.

Obviously, what's more most attractive to us are, like, the Christiansen project, you know, where the lands are contiguous and consolidated. Anybody would, would understand that, I think. And so, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they all have to be part of the project. It could be other projects that have happened in the past or will happen in the future. Right. Go ahead. Go ahead. Can can you zoom out just a little bit on that too for some of us who don't visit the West Side of the valley too. Very often.

So here's the Idaho border.

Okay. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Thank you.

So one of the properties is actually up in the hill. Going over to Trenton. There's names. I rode bike bikes here what they say.

Yeah. We only that only one parcel is marked because there's one up in the Yeah.

Yeah. That one looks like it's up in the hill. Here. And then there's one on the upper,

Northwest corner, and then there's one in the lower Yeah. Southwest corner. Yeah. If you gentlemen have this, and ladies, this is it. Okay. Most most of that's dry land farm out there? All dry land farm. Yep. All of it. Wheat and wheat wheat and safflower.

And the the Christiansen properties,

that's all gonna be irrigated. Right? Yeah. Irrigated and pasturing and wheat. Yes. It is coming off High Creek. Yeah. Yeah. Across the road.

Yeah.

Yeah. The bird seed. But it's easy to tell the white seed.

They got a well on the property or it's from irrigation.

On the Christenson? Yeah. Yeah. I think I've seen that well. Yeah. It's a big a big a big yeah. Big

Yeah. There's a motor there, and it's about 1,800 gallons a minute. They got pivots on the property. Yeah. For irrigation and hand line in some way on it. They border again Casper's on the West,

and it goes right into the river. So, Debbie, the corner strand wanna be a little bit harder.

Okay.

But I think, you know, depends on the the the context of the project too. Right? Like, if you're only looking for a 5% match or something like that, you know, it's very attractive. Or Yeah. Yeah. That's true. If we're if we're look if you're looking for a 100% of the funding, it's gonna be harder to

We kinda look for the public benefit as well as agriculture. Oh, my goodness. You know Anything that's close to the highway is high. Yeah. Right. Right. But I do believe that when this property gets protected,

we're gonna see more applications come in in that area, among the farmers in that area. And it is a beautiful area. I did not know how beautiful it is out there. Eric, if you cycle out there. Yes. It is beautiful. When someone said dry land out in Clark Clarkson, I didn't run to get out there. But once I got out there, it is picturesque, esque, beautiful. It's beautiful in every color, whether it's green, yellow from the safflower, or or or golden from the heat. It's just very, very tranquil. So

It's a neat place. Yeah. The next series of of projects, you know, in my head, I'm thinking this is a single project even though there may be multiple landowners. Yeah. When you point it out, because that made a big difference. They do touch each other Yes. In some way. Mhmm. Got a lot of older landowners out there and families,

and they gotta make have to make a decision. Speak to the future What they're gonna do? Trail plan.

One, the Mickle. Would you mind?

Clarkston.

Okay.

Oh, Clarkston. How how are you, kind of working the next three projects together? Well,

what makes them so compelling is Hyde Park's future trails plan goes on the northern end of of the Don Cora Bridge and the Southern end of Don Cora Bridge crossing Ashcroft. I don't know when those trails will be constructed, but we've got an expert Do we have that on the master plan,

Angie, that or or Landis that we could pull in?

There is a cash in

Yeah. That's why I'm wondering if

Our plan predates a lot of what Clark's been

doing. This isn't Clarkson. This I I I'm wondering though if because this is county property. I'm wondering Yes. It is.

Yeah. But Hyde Park City wants to run out through that land. Right?

It's it's in our annexation.

In our

oh, in Hyde Park's annexation. Okay. Thank you. I think there's two properties that are in Hyde Park as well. Yeah. Two of those parcels are already in the city. K.

The other ones are outside.

One is it

You you said this one and this are in Hyde Park. Yeah.

Yep. So where do those trails come from and go to?

Charles, can you address that? That's a future plan. Charles is from city from Hyde Park. That'd be great. Yeah.

So I'd probably be on the mic. I'm Charles Wheeler. I'm the Hyde Park Trails coordinator. The reason I came today was not for this. Just happened to be here. Great. I will be representing another property that's also in Hyde Park in the future, for application. But I was the mayor of Hyde Park for a while and on the city council for twenty years over parks and trails. And so I developed with Dayton Crites, who long time ago was on the trails board here and for the county and then with Carly Lynch. I've worked with Landis a little bit. And so that you know that I know what I'm doing, I built two miles of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail that exists in Hyde Park, and there's trails that have been built East Of Hyde Park, east of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. And I've been responsible for the construction of those trails, obtaining funding, land ownership, permissions, and have developed the Hyde Park City Master Trails Plan. So the part of the trail that, if you look at the road that's sort of in the middle, but to the right of the map, right by the cursor right now, that road goes in dead ends north. Can I run your cursor? I don't I don't think it matters. So, this road runs next to the Corbridge property, dead ends right there, but it's intended to go north into Smithfield and meet up with 10th East, I believe it is in Smithfield. And they have a trail coming out of Smithfield, that dead ends on the road that's East of Skyview

goes east from Skyview. So this is above Naomi Farms?

Yes. Part of it is part part of it is above Mount Naomi Farms. And so the the trail is intended to follow the road that would would go all the way to Smithfield past the development that is out there where they've exposed part of the gravel hill right above the cursor into the left of it, right in there. So it it would follow let me go back with your cursor again. The Hyde Park City Trails plan

comes And we farm's here, so it's this property.

I don't know how to get rid of it. Possibly, but it's this road. So the trail would one of our trails I'm sorry. I'm not very good at using this mouse. That's good. You don't Runs, and I'm moving it north, and I don't wanna figure out So this would all be visible from the trail. But, anyway, this this line right here, they they have a trail right there, and and this trail would come all the way back and meet this trail. There's also trails gonna be going up this ravine right here.

And we need to And they would they would access the new Bonneville Shoreline then? Yes.

And the the new Bonneville Shoreline Trail is shown right there going k. Along here. And it comes right down right down there, dead ends right there, right now. It will follow this road up here, and then it'll follow the power line right there going north, at least tentatively, from what I understand, from Scott Archibald with Sunrise Engineering that has is that correct? They have the contract for design of this part of the trail. There's also opportunity for this trail to go up this ravine and go east on the county land that has been recently purchased by county land chambers. From the chambers and Denny Shoop? Did did you guys get some Shoop property too or just the chambers? I think that Denny Shoop would be interested in in it, some of that upper property. The property that I will be talking with you about is property that's right in here, right along here, all the way down, in the future. But it's contiguous to some of these other properties. And, we haven't joined our application with the land trust here, but we're still in preliminary stages. I do have a map that if you guys wanna look at it with me today. But Hyde Park City trails do go near these properties or next to them, and

I was happy to share that with you. Was was the trail gonna be on both sides of that road? Or is it on one side of the road?

The Mickels do not want to have the trail on the east side by their property. The last time I talked to them Is is this the one that would on the new road that's continuing? It'll it'll be parallel to the new road between the canal and the road, the trail. And On what side? On the west side of the road above the canal. But on the east Is the the east side of the Okay. On the east side of the canal, but west side of the road. So the roads are gonna be very close at places. So really, what these proxies give is visual appeal to the trail

as opposed to access for a trail?

In part, some of them have access. And the one that I'll be bringing is completely access, which is its primary reason for being a attractive to the county, I think. But, they all have either adjacent directly or else there is some access.

Thank you.

Is it easy enough to use this? The cursor is located on one of the parcels in our application, and you see it next to the trail right here. K. The other application is here, so it's a little further down. It would give that visual open space look, but it is not along the trail. However, one is. And then Ashcroft is right over here, the third one. Again, there's your trail, and then Ashcroft is here.

Now I believe was it Mick? What was the name of the person that came in with the whole bunch of Mickel?

John Mickel? John Mickel? Yes.

I wonder if those if any of those properties butt up to this? John's does. John's does. That's the Mount Naomi.

where his nephews, Glenn and Robert sold to Derry. It'll be houses. House. So it's gone. It's gone.

Mhmm. We're

We know that. The thought is if if there's ever a break between Smithville and Hyde Park, or is it and and people walk out there a lot. They road bike out there. They important too.

Yeah. So there there's value to those those three properties as well from that standpoint. And I think that's it. Appenzell Farm, Appenzell Farm, and

KMB. Those are the three in Hyde Park. Yeah. Is it possible to roll Mickle into this whole conversation,

like, with you? Sure. Well, sure. Keith Keith or John? Yeah.

But his property butts this property here. It's the It's John Mickle.

So 0019 and 0022 are John's plus a little bit of

8001. That's the line.

But when he came to us, he he was showing quite a few different

property.

He's trying to do a roll up. Yeah. They they were to the West, weren't they? Yeah. So and the one about what were their retention fundings? So zero zero seven. One of one of the things that could be encouraged for Smithfield City and Hyde Park City to make sure as these properties that become houses, in connecting trails to properties that do go into conservation easement. And in Hyde Park City, when I was on the council mayor, we developed an ordinance that gave them trails of density, which meant that they were able to get a little more density by contributing trails that we couldn't connect with trails on the master plan. And then that would pay for the trail corridor across their property. Sometimes you have to convince them that a trail adds value to property, and you can see that, like, in lot, not a very big property. Well And that

help me with his name. Oh, friend, the Jack Jack Draxler. I mean, he was he's an appraiser, and he points that out all the time. And that that's one of the values I see of this trail that you're talking about here because and the connector up is all those homes need connectors if they're if they can ride from home and ride the Bonneville shoreline, which then gives them access to a ton of other stuff. So

And, you know, the the municipality can put pressure on the developer if they're gonna approve a project that, you know, let's let's do more for the public good. Yeah.

I think

easement right

That's the first one I've done.

I thought the one that he had was right on the highway.

You can add easements to this. I can't remember what touch what

from what I remember, but I think it's kinda hard. Yeah. We could turn on the easements.

Yeah.

this project. Yeah. It's it's all the same area. The Yeah. The area between Hyde Park and Smithfield. And then getting Probably got the biggest to

get Leeray McAllister or something when you're saying it's Are these farmed by different people? No. Just a little further down. Are these all farmed by different people or one person?

Quite that The projects that that are being talked about are different. People are farming. Up here. Yes. One is a father son, but they're not together. Those are separate applications. Okay. And then you Give you an idea. This is where the bond goes short. These separate applications. The size of his own area. You may wanna present it to us if it's single. But I just was gonna show you that the project I'll be bringing in is these wide areas. The areas that she's talking about are right in here. Mhmm.

And you said it abuts the new county property, doesn't it?

No. There's Nearby? It's nearby. Okay. The Denny Shoop land and the Burger Land is in between. Okay. And I'll see if I can't get Danny and the burgers to be interested. We could preserve a corridor that would go all the way from Smithfield to North Logan across that east bench if we moved down.

That's pretty exciting.

This is west of the properties that you've been showing.

That's the Sportsman's easement. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. The easements on there now.

Yeah. There's a green hatch.

So he was pointing to one kind of to the west of all this that was Right. Okay.

Can you pan over to the highway?

K.

That's this is an aspect that has of conservation easements in in Cache County, existing conservation easements that I would love to for us to just create a summary of what's already existing, Angie. A map would be help helpful and acreages or maybe more or less of an Excel spreadsheet that says, here's all the existing conservation easements in Cache County and the landowners and then the acreages and stuff. And then a a map. Obviously, we can use the online tool individually to go look at different projects, but I would love to have a summary of that as to help tell the story for the work that we're trying to do in the valley.

Part of the problem is the money that that's been spent won't show up as a conservation easement because there's no conservation easement on it. On the on new projects. Yeah. I'm just talking about what are we starting with? Well, I think yeah. Electric Hills and the Smithville property wouldn't even show up yet. That's right. Which highlights the need. But we can also highlight those as Yeah.

As not Open space projects that don't have a conservation either. Yeah. Let me know how I can help with that. I'll check with Carrie and our CIS to see if Yeah. If it he's you're welcome to put him in touch with me too. We could kinda talk through it. But I think just a very simple thing like that would would be great. He's been very helpful, and I appreciate your work. Yeah. Great.

Sounds good. How far is some of this from the recent purchase of by Cache County up in there?

Any distance?

Yeah. Well, you it's Dry Canyon. That's where they bought. Is it or we got any connection with this county property and all this stuff we're talking about?

Well

That's the properties you were mentioning.

That's on the mountain, he's getting older and doesn't really wanna run cattle up there anymore. So it's too much work. So he needs to do something with it. How big how many acres is it? And it joins the county. Square mile up there almost that joins the county. Joins the county. Uh-huh. The Burger property is down a little lower. It's actually more farmable, although it's dry land.

Yes. I think those are the parcels that they purchased.

I I didn't come prepared to just It's okay. Yeah. So I'm just going

Yeah. We've we've thrown you into it. Three years ago, you know,

and and talking with these people and

Yeah. And

it's now's the time it could happen.

Yeah. We appreciate the interest and the information and all the work you all are doing. And so we look forward to more applications from you guys.

Reagan,

Angie's pulled up the parcels that Cache County owns now. Those two large ones, three right there. Okay. Next to the Sportsman easement that's already exists. It's the Dry Canyon Road. Okay. And then if you zoom out a Titch, you can see the projects that he's talking about. Yeah.

Bella County's got their big foot in the big door up there right now. So

and you've got The Trigger Enterprises property is the one that that I'm working with now.

Okay. And south of the water tank. What's your relation?

I'm just going on

agriculture in America. I'm a consultant for Trigger Enterprises under two properties. Okay. Trigger Enterprises. Work with the developer that has been working with them also.

Yeah. But you're gonna see land change because of the age of the owners in the next five or ten years. They're all the older families chambers situation. You can go across America and you're gonna move some property with the easements on it or without it. So like you said, he's old and he's tired chasing the cows on the mountain. So So. Well, it's, it's tough country, you know. Anyway, that's just an observation of some of this property you're looking at is the age of the agricultural land held in America is over a lot of them over 70 years old, and it's gonna move. It's an opportunity because it only happens once in a 100 years. Yeah. So The church would buy it. We have 2,000 acres in most of presently on the market. It's all triggered by death in the last year. Yeah. And it's coming out of homestead ownership.

So just an observation. So No. That's that's important context. Okay. We'll move on to our next agenda item. So updates from committee members and and maybe and and certainly, I'm interested in any updates folks can give us, but I think let's use this for sure as a point to make sure that we get some homework stuff done by our next meeting in two weeks, so for the next meeting. So with that in mind, I know that some notes I had taken at our last meeting, some things we're gonna work on involved, a joint statement from the COSAC chair and the county executive, which I had listed myself as a responsible committee member on. And, of course, there's been a change at the executive committee level. You may have heard about it since our last meeting, and so I we we haven't made a lot of progress on that yet, but I'm looking forward to touching base with our new county executive to find out his interest in in participating in in this. I don't I don't know if you've had any conversations with George at all about COSAC or anything like that. No. First order of business with the budget. Yeah. We need to know that tomorrow. K. Yeah. There's From there? Yeah. There's a lot going on, so we'll see if we can squeeze in some time to have a chat with with mister Danes. The next item was a direct, mailing. So this is circling back on the the idea of a direct mailing. The council had asked us to, you know, bring together some information and make a proposal to them. And so we talked about, you know, generating a map, a list of properties, sort of the criteria that we used, as well as a letter, that we would send to landowners in that area. So I'm I'm where my mind was on that one was, similar to, like, the Sardine Canyon Gateway work, Eric, that you and Claire had been doing, and, just having a map of that area. And so then the property owns I know you this is stuff you've Done. Already done, And to the extent we'd wanna refine it or anything like that, great. An explanation of the criteria, and then a draft letter to landowners, which I know, Claire, you've worked on in the past. Yes. We've got three levels

of lists for that, and that could be easily just discussed. And that's for the gateway areas. For all gateway areas? No. For sorry. Or just Well, in the gateway I'm I'm referring to two gateway areas on the south, which one is the Sardine Canyon itself. Yeah. In the canyon. And then the other is the the the visual that you get as you come out of the canyon. Those were the two. I think on the one that came out, it also touched to that part between Hiram and Hiram Nibley, Providence area where there's that open space, that little opening that you see the Wellsville's from. But, yeah, the the other couple have not. But they would be easy to do. I mean, the now I'm kinda understanding the the, like, concept and stuff like that. Yeah. If there's another particular location, I can work with Carrie and I mean, Carrie and I worked, like, for fifteen minutes, and he had what I needed, and then I could then I could process it from there. Yeah.

So I think my suggestion, and see what you think about this, is is let's do one and run that by the council with the idea of this this would be a template, and we would look to apply it to the other gateway areas or whatever

emphasis we're looking to promote. Template of a map or template of a letter? All of the above. Okay. Yeah.

Right? Yeah. And we, Yeah. And so I know you guys have already done map work and and list of land owners and the criteria we used to come up with that list, as well as the draft letter. So what do you think you guys feel comfortable with at our next meeting, we'd be able to see a a presentation or something or example? Here's here's what we would propose to the council for consideration. Yeah. I think so. K. Sound okay with you? Fine. Yep. Okay. You seem reluctant.

I'm just smiling. I mean, in our business, we sell farm equipment. And if we're trying to sell piece of farm equipment to people, we have a list of a 100 potential customers. Yeah. The letter goes out the next afternoon. Right. Right. So Yeah. I I was just kinda smiling at this whole process. Yeah. Well, I I know that

using about Frustrated by the progress. I get that for sure. Yes. Because we gotta cycle through and yeah. Does that sound right to you, Keegan?

Yeah. Yeah. Probably won't be that. Submit that all at once, give it on an agenda. I can advocate for it based on what we've talked about. Advocate for it based on what we've talked about. Well and and a whole lot of pushback. So k. I I think we've got donors if you if you guys can't make it happen, which I don't think it's gonna be a big amount of money. Yeah. I think you already got the soft approval in that group meeting. Okay. Once it was explained to why I so so that that to me says, go and figure out what the other total properties are gonna be. That that means look at the other gateways. Sure. I mean, do it if you All all three or all four gateways, five or however there is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The the one the one thing is is, like, you you were mentioning that's gateway as you go into Richmond. And there's a lot of land owners from the From Richmond to To the state line. Yes. If Yeah. For sure. If that expands the gateway a lot, that's like Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Beyond what we've been talking about. A lot of land, but there's not a lot of owners Yeah. Up that highway. Like, about half a dozen. I know when we looked at it Yeah. Initially, that's what it was. Two or three miles, it literally is. Yeah. But then the question becomes is how far does the gate how how how wide is the gateway? Yeah. You see down in you see a lot of areas from there that matter. Sure. Yeah. So it'll it'll take a little bit of Yeah. The railroad track does block a lot of gateway there. And

I I think to the extent you guys are motivated and prepared to look at each of the gateways, and if you wanna bring them, you know, ready to go. Even estimate what it will like, even if we don't have final counts on certain gateways, we

add 10 or 10 or 15.

Right. Which I think I would ask that's three

that's $3.50

or whatever. If if if if Yeah. Yeah.

Gateway. We anticipate $300 per gateway. I would do every gateway in one shot. I wouldn't break it. If it's that, the mailer's like this big. I mean, really, it it Yeah. I think the first one was under $40. Yeah. I I so I would just Yeah. It'd be a lot easier to come up with just an estimated number of letters too rather than Yeah.

it's one of the points or whatever. Fairly generic. It doesn't have to be You're part of the Richmond gateway or something like that. Like, I think it could just be one letter it says.

Can we define the Petersburg gateway? I mean, what do people think of, like, on the Petersburg gateway?

From what I recall, the mapping you guys did when we had those conversations in the meetings, I think I think you guys have what

what we need for each of those gateway areas. From which Just just so I know what to go back to. You

came in with some maps for each of the gateway areas, and we talked about them. And we had highlighted all the parcels and stuff like that for each gateway.

I just can't remember like Petersberg. Where is that gateway boundary?

It's from the, basically from the crest down into the Color Reservoir

ish area. From the crest. From the county line. Yeah.

Right up on top. Yeah.

Okay. So it's it's when you when you sum before you go down to Beavers Dam Beaver Dam. That's the county line. Except coming this way. Yeah. Coming this way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Coming down. Yes. Coming down. Not coming. Exactly. Not coming down. Yeah. I remember

I remember your maps and k. Yeah.

So you're saying I've got maps? You've got maps. You've got maps. You you had lists of landowners even, that sort of stuff. I'm and I did. I definitely remember the Richmond The Richmond one in particular. Yeah. I remember pulling a few, but but yeah, we narrowed we had that as narrowed down to like three landowners that had a lot. Yeah. It wasn't very many. But but coming all the way to Richmond it's more as you hit Cove and

Yeah. Well, Christians says it'll take up a mile. How's that?

Yeah. I mean, that's Yeah. It's a great start. We have a draft of the letter. Right?

Yeah. I think we need a Is it in I I think we wanna look back at it and compare it to what look at that. Send it to Compare it to what Allison sent. Yeah.

That that'd be great. That would be fantastic. Alright. So the next one on the my list of notes was regarding the website, and I think Angie's taken care of quite a few of those things. And so you want to just touch, maybe just tell us what you have done, and what you're planning to do.

Pretty rudimentary still, but, yeah, we were able to get it changed from the executive's office to development services so we could have control and be able to update it. Currently,

you know, we've made sure we've got all the agendas,

all of the audio and links to the YouTube on it. We've done some, you know, just added some general information about the purpose, added some of the press releases about the acquisitions.

Hey. Real quick. Yep. I clicked on one of those links the other day. Nope. You were there. Code. The the one the the Cache County for the Hyde Park Smithfield one. This 500? Yes. It went to the Sherwood Hills. So there's a duplicate link there. Yep. Just a FYI. Sorry. I remembered that as you're showing us this. I was like, oh, yeah.

I saw something. And then, yeah, there's the application, the trails, and the open space, that process thing. And it looks like we need to update well, we first Monday of each month.

K. And then

tell us One thing that just comes to mind, I don't know. I I can't in my mind think about how to rearrange this, but I know Debbie is like, how do I figure out what the application and I think it was because it's kind of buried down here. I don't know. Maybe if we have either a table of content up or just the list of things on the page linked down to the ones below. So it says application application and application process, and it would just go right down to that area without, like, missing it.

Yeah. They were not my tech skills are in the past. Give it a round, and I can work with our IT department to help me. Yeah. Make them do it, Angie.

Tell us a little bit about

what else you had in mind to, or what you think needs, what else needs to be done here. I think the criteria that you guys have in place for evaluating would be important. Maybe some of those maps showing gateway areas. Yeah.

I think that will be very helpful for folks. My 2¢ worth on the are the agendas the full meeting packets?

They are not. Okay. So that's you could put the full packets in this section. The reason why I like that, it's it's

our best record of who who's come before us maps and all that stuff and evaluations. And that would be super helpful if if staff could

So add the packet. Work towards that. The

the bond? Yeah. Bond.

It's in one of the press or oh, the whole bond. The press release had quite a bit on that. Like the

Yeah. I didn't have the press release for, like, the Furman property or the Harris, but I can see if I can track down that information. I don't remember if there was a full press release, but June. Add those for the individual projects that we looked at.

For the bond.

Yeah. What we have for planning commission is we have a lot of that background information and the application and all that. And so I could work towards getting all of that in here as well. We usually do the applications by year, so we could have each of them listed and then a link to all those different documents.

Great. Awesome. Thank you.

Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for the update on that. Couple of other things. I'm mindful that we only have five minutes left. So other things that we had talked about that don't necessarily have committee members assigned to them or anything like that, and I don't think we've taken the discussions very far, but one of them was social media outreach, so Facebook and Instagram, radio interview, getting on some of the municipal newsletters about COSAC and the bond, working with partner organizations like UALT, and then letters of support, obviously, on projects as they come up. So that was kind of my my list of of items. I've got a action item to work on. Does anybody know of anything else on the list, or have an interest in any of the remaining remaining items? Thoughts,

feedback? Thought of as visual. I don't know if it's a good idea or not, but some fundraising groups do this, and this is kind of in reverse fund spending. If you had a thermometer, it shows the total amount and then a red line up to the amount that's committed. Right. And it gives an idea A summary of the urgency of it for people. You don't wanna wait too long, but also the scale.

So on the next agenda item is the topic on developing conservation funding strategies for small parcels. So this is kind of what we were talking about. And that's also something the council's interested in us bringing to them our ideas and to secure their support. So, Eric, you had you've spent time thinking about the small parcel projects. Yeah. And how can they what role can the county play? And so I do feel the council is expecting us to bring something to them in that regard. I think the presentation from Deborah Right. Was super helpful with that, and we'll see we'll look forward to seeing some of these other applications and finding more finding out more about who's funding these small parcel projects. Because

small parcels, and it's a fit. Yeah. For, again, that trail stuff. You know? Small parcels out along the highway here is pretty tough to sell. Yep. So in my mind. So

One One thing that caught my attention, we offered it, I guess, is 20 acres, dollars 8,500,000.0. So is that a small parcel or is it not? That's that's a lot easier to fund, probably because you pay for the paperwork pretty easily, but by making it more challenging to identify, like, just a flat rate. You know, the county will pay x dollars per acre or something like that.

We got the gentleman here that's been working it all his life, you know, with this Hyde Park Smithfield deal. Yep. I mean, that's a real asset. He knows the history up there. He knows the landowners. Yep.

Just maybe for the last agenda item here, I'll mention that I was invited to give a presentation on Wednesday at the Box Elder Summit, which is similar to the Cash Summit here about what we're doing in in Cache County for preserving open space. And this is where as as I was putting this presentation together, Angie, I was thinking, like, it'd be nice to be able to give a rundown of easements in the in the county because, Claire, you would know this since we worked together twenty years ago. But on the you know, in my experience, and I haven't been here as long as others, but the real effort for open space preservation kind of got going in earnest with the formation of the Ag Advisory Board back in the early two thousands. And, the work was that was done at that time, and coming up with the toolbox and the list of tools, one of which was the purchase of development rights program, which we are now, you know, twenty years later, twenty plus years later, working to implement with the bond passage and that sort of thing. So it's a it's a great story. A lot of lot of hard work by a lot of people over the years. And so I'm gonna be talking about that on Wednesday a little bit. And what this committee is doing more recently, the the program that that we came up with, that we talked about today, and then the application process, and, hopefully, folks over in Box Elder County, you'll get interested and start doing some stuff over there.

Heather, quick question. Landis, do do how is it going with the money that was approved for trails? So nothing's been closed or offered

at this point? No. You never still have to pay these events.

And and so offers won't be made until the easements. Who do they make the donation to to get a tax break? For the shoreline trail there? Yeah. Okay.

K. Any other comments or business to discuss? K. Great. Well, without objection, we'll stand adjourned, and appreciate your time and comments. Great discussion today.