COSAC-June 1, 2026

Yeah. Okay. So I think you're ready. Okay. I think we're done.

Good to go? It's just like church. Everybody's on the back row.

Okay. Welcome, everyone, to the June 1 COSAC meeting. We appreciate you being here, and look forward to hearing from you. We are looking to approve our agenda and minutes. Any changes to the agenda, Lisa, from what's been posted? Nope. K. Good to go. And then anybody see anything with the minutes? Do you have any questions or corrections with? Nope. Okay. Then without objection, then we'll adopt the agenda and approve the minutes the minutes from May 4, May 11, and May 18. So thank you. Let's just jump right into the Birch Canyon weed and seed evaluation for round Do you want to give us a quick overview since everybody wasn't able to come to the site visit and that sort of thing? Would you like to give us a quick summary? Okay.

So Birch Canyon Weed and Feed is a 5.5 acre parcel in Smithfield. It is bisected by the Birch Canyon Road as well as the Birch Creek. And, the purpose or the interest for placing this in the in a conservation easement is basically to, protect, the area for wildlife and the nature that exists there. It's also there's also an interest to keep it open for those who care about this kind of preservation. Based on the evaluation and the points that I received, the score for this parcel is 51.5 points, and that is equal to 345 total out of 700 possible points. For the protects for the protection of scenic vistas, it got a total of 40 with an average of 5.71. Preserve open lands near Valley Gateways, got a total of 10 with an average of 1.43. Maintains agriculture, total 20 points with an average of 2.86. Maintains waterways, totaled 69 with an average of 9.86, and maintains wildlife habitat, total of 83, with an average at 11.86, allows public access, that's 82, with an average of 11.71. And distinguishing factors, is a total of 41 with an average of 5.86.

Lisa, can I ask a question that would affect, my scoring on it? Okay. First of all, on the public access, I do believe that there's a trail through it that is gonna stay there. Right?

The road itself. The road itself. Yeah. It's it's because of your access

to Forest River. It's County Road. Yeah. County Road. So I guess it would be there. But

So we asked him specifically we asked the property owner what he would allow when it came to public access. And correct me if I'm wrong, he really likes the idea of people coming to the property, looking at the plants, enjoying the it's kind of a little meadow with the creek on one side and the hill on the other. He said he was open to the idea of a trail, not open to mountain bikers using that trail. So a foot traffic trail. I don't know about any other types of users like horses. We could clarify, I suppose. The upper on the hillside is the old canal cut where now there's a pipeline buried up on there. And I suppose can I read somewhere, Lisa, where it was mentioned that that could be a potential Trail as well? Trail. You know, we've got property owners on the north of that that I'm sorry, to the east of that, that my opinion would be that that would be a very hard thing to get. But, you know, properties change hands over time. It is also bordering the the county's new purchase Yes. On the West. Completely bordering on Complete yeah. On on the South of it. Yeah. On North. It's also on the West. The Southwest

County property is to the South. Yes. That yeah. Oh, yeah. It's on the North. Yeah. We're saying the same thing. Sorry. My apologies. That's okay.

So we're hoping that the, you know, Landis could correct us, if I'm wrong, that, you know, that there may be a a future trail connection there on that piece of land. Hopefully, that would be a Bonneville shoreline trail piece.

Which one of On the county's piece. On the county's piece.

And so his is it's kind of a a weird triangular shape. So I wonder how much really public access I scored it lower than the average because it's just a little pocket of land, and there may be people that really wanna look at it. It's a beautiful piece of land, and he's done a ton of work to maintain it and to plant new things and to get rid of old things, and they've loved the land. A lot of restoration. Yes. Yeah. So that's my 2¢.

Is that county land? Is that part that the county wants to keep? Or I know there there's some parts that they

may not wanna keep. I would assume so, but I would assume so just because it's the mountainous Mhmm. Part of the Yeah. Property.

We had a closed session where we talked about that a little bit. So I can't really give you details, but I could you after the meeting. Yeah. Thanks.

So my question on distinguishing fact factors, I think one, that that access to county is a dis to the county owned land is a distinguishing factor, the adjacency. Mhmm. The other one that was more important to me was he talked about it. He didn't really care about the finances of it. So it sounded like

Well, I would I would I wouldn't say it that way. I would say that's not a driving factor for them.

Okay. So it it it does You shouldn't say he doesn't care. Well, I thought it was I thought it was like I would I would donate this or something like that. I thought there was something that They're anticipating

a a substantial donation aspect to it. Yes. Correct. But he he would describe it as the monetary aspect to it is not a driving factor for them. They're not looking for this for money. But they would like to make sure that there's money available to continue the work, the restoration work that he's doing and, making sure the property is. And really funding

to, you know, they were very concerned about oversight in the future and and who would enforce these easements. Mhmm. And very concerned about that type of thing.

In what way?

In that, they were worried that those types of things would fall away in the future and who's gonna be, you know, having the oversight and making sure that the terms of the easement were con continuously fulfilled. And they wanted the money when they started we started talking about the potential for funding, that was, one of their several chief concerns was to fund that type of future type of oversight. So whoever holds the easement.

So I was explaining to them, the Bear River Land Conservancy, for example, would put a a insurance policy on it protecting it into the future legally? I don't just

just I don't know that. ERLC

is involved or interested in this project. But Could be a way that we do that with them. Well Yeah. Yeah. We introduced some of the ideas of some of these other partners. They were not interested, to be clear, that Cache County would hold the easement. There was some trust issues there.

K. But we have some all we have some partners that could do that. Mhmm. And Yep. And answer the question as far as I would think so. I mean, I think, you know, these are folks that aren't came into this not necessarily familiar with the process and that sort of thing. So they're learning as they go as well.

And But they could avoid if if they're not looking for a bunch of these others, which I don't know that they qualify with the size.

Right. Other funding sources. Exactly. Yeah. Right. So so this could be a project where the county is fund funding a larger proportion than we would if there were other partners involved. True. Or the same amount and Could yeah. Yeah. Depending on their interest in their level of donation, that sort of thing. Yeah. Which we would find out in round two, more of the particulars.

And the reason I asked that is depending for example, if they're not going after outside outside funding and they're okay with the percentage that we would normally do, I would take my distinguishing factors up quite a bit based on that. Yeah. Yeah.

And yeah. Go ahead, Claire. Question on development. It's zoned a 10. Yes. And it's five acres, so they could have one house. Correct. One building or house or whatever. It could not be commercial.

Correct.

Would an easement ever restrict them from building that house?

Yes. K. Unless they intentionally set aside part of the property Yeah. Outside of the easement, like I think if they did that, then the easement

would Yeah. Not have many limitations, basically. Right. Yeah. So the easement would be True. True. You won't build a house here on five acres, and it'll stay open. And And I think

I don't think have to have

have a house. Yeah. So Yeah. If we had that, we would have a lot of applicants, I think. Yeah. If it's a if it's a

Right. It's it's it's kinda minimal size for green belt status too. So

Its development value aside from market value is not going to be high, so it might be one that think it's gonna be a huge Might be one that's worthwhile even with a lower score.

Oh, yeah. And that for me, I mean, I think you look at the score here comp and compared to some of the others that we scored. You know, there's there's a good number of projects that have scored less that we've had success on, actually. Yeah. So I don't tend to dwell too much on the score, but I'm also thinking of these other things that you guys have brought up, which is probably a lower price point for the project. And we're adding on to conservation property or open space property.

And so That would be a stage two assessment and all of that. Correct. Yeah. Correct.

It to add to the uniqueness, it is within wholly within one of our canyons, You know, most of our other canyons are, you know, DWR and Forest Service and and some others, DNR. And so this is a canyon that is largely privately owned, on both sides of the road. And so this is kind of a unique way to kind of grab a little land that is really not going to be available in any in many of the other canyons. Yeah. Not grab the land. Preserve the land.

I I I think by these You're as interested if it wasn't, like, a continuous piece within the other piece.

With the county. No. I I think that does make stand make it stand out for me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You you know, and for what it's worth, it is an import you know, there's public access through it, and so that's a good thing too. It gives us an opportunity People are nice. To talk about.

Is it a county road? Mhmm. Yes. Yes. So there is guaranteed drive through it. Absolutely. Yes. Maybe not park and look at it. 16 foot wide

road at its widest. There's really

not any parking. There are smaller spaces Little pull outs. That you can kind of park. Yeah. Yeah.

Other questions or thoughts? Kendra, you have anything to

say about this one? I just appreciate that they are willing to allow public access. I know that it might not be mountain bikes, but the fact that they are willing to allow it. Because I've talked to several people that have been discouraged by the number of properties we've approved that don't allow public access. So I think this is important for the public to see that there is one that they can enjoy.

That's very good point, Kendra. Yep. Good.

Anything else? I don't see Kayo here, so we won't see if he has anything. Does anybody have any comments on this particular application? K. So I think what makes the most sense to me is that we would if you all agree, we would entertain a a motion to recommend approval to the county council for moving this to phase two approval phase one approval. And And we can continue to work with the applicant on phase two specifics, and when they're ready, they can come back and we can talk through those. Seem reasonable?

Yeah. I think Reservations

or

I think it would help the council if we just highlighted maybe some of the features we're talking about public access and

Adjacency.

Mhmm. Yeah. And canyon things. And that the value of it would be contingent on the terms of all of that. Yeah.

Yeah. Definitely. So value to the county. Assuming this goes if we were to approve it, we'll get it on the council's next agenda that is available. Usually, it's the next meeting or within the next two anyway, and I'll make a presentation and I'll make sure that we highlight those points for the council. K. Anything else? Would someone like to make a motion then?

I'll I'll make the motion that it moves to, the next the the preliminary approval and be brought before the the county council.

K. Recommendation for approval to the county council. Is there a second? I'll second it. K. So we have a motion to second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? K. If you think of anything after the meeting today, please don't hesitate to reach out and I'll be sure to include it in our discussion with the council. I think this is an an example of a project that we have to have a discussion with the council and get their advice on how we should handle these. We have a lot of these small projects that are worthy and also aren't gonna attract other funding. Right. And they may be low cost, you know, compared to other big projects. So Chris, I think I defer with you on

one aspect is that we how big of a chunk we take in doing that. If others aren't participating, I think it's a little unfair to some of those others for us to take too big of a bite of those. I think it'll be a little up to the landowner to take of those, I think it'll be a little up to the landowner to to step up if they are interested in in doing that on some of that. So

I think you're right. We probably do differ on that. I think that the county has already purchased property with no participation and then with low participation from other, you know, as part of those projects from other funding sources. Yes. Yes. The we should I I don't think we should restrict ourselves to, like, only funding projects where we come up with 25, you know, or 30%. And that's it. I think that should be the lion's share of our projects for sure. But I think, again, it's just these small projects that, you know, as it may turn out, when we get more information, perhaps there'd be they will be financially appealing, you know, and contain large land donation. But I don't wanna I wouldn't wanna tie our hands, I guess, is kinda how I feel. I I I don't feel like we should tie our hands. I

just wanna be careful in terms of, you know, someone having to go through a three year process, and they're willing to do that. And others that are we make it really easy for them. Yeah.

I have a question for Lisa. Have we heard back from the property owner since the site

visit? Yes. He did call once, and he wanted to see what the consensus was or, you know, what how the commission felt. So My interpretation

of of our communication with him was it was kind of questionable even whether they wanted to make it work. So I'm I'm happy to hear that he's still interested. I'd hate to kind of waste the time with the council if the applicant wasn't

you know, changed their mind. No. My impression is that they they have never approached this kind of process before or even considered it, but they think that this might be a way to perpetuate the preservation of their property.

Good. So Okay.

I do think that five acres I mean, like having Bear River Land Conservancy or something hold it is a good a good way to do it. Yeah. It's how there may be some level where their interest is just not there.

That. True. Yeah. Or any any of the organizations, I think. Even I mean, I had suggested to them that Division of Wildlife Resources might be the logical easement holder on this project. But, again, it's it's very small. So but there are other conservation lands in the vicinity, you know, in the mountain vicinity and

Especially if we tried it if the county one went under, which we would like it to be a conservation easement Yes. That that could that might be easier for them to hold.

Yeah. Okay. So moving on, our next item is the Willow Ranch round one application. And, Lisa, I don't know if, like, in our packets, if you also have the maps in your presentation here. No. Not not on the PowerPoint, but Okay. In your Yeah. I mean, we have them in front of us, and so that's helpful. Okay.

Yeah. I'll remember that next time. Just as background, the Willow Ranch is located at the eastern foothills of the Willesville Range in Mendon, and the ranch has been in the family since the area was settled over a hundred and fifty years ago. There are two parcels roughly divided by the road at north seven thousand west, and the lower parcel would not include the homestead. The owners are interested in preserving the farmland for the benefit of posterity. The upper parcel has an intermittent stream running through it, and there are several beaver analogs that have been placed in it to encourage moisture detention and habitat restoration. The gallery of large crack willows and box elder trees near the road were planted by the pioneers and run along irrigation ditches used to irrigate the fields in their time. There are plans to raise cattle on the upper portion, and the application for funding is in the coordination, with, Utah agricultural agricultural land trust or UALT. As for the scoring, based on seven responses, the average points are 58, four zero six over 700. Protecting scenic vistas gained a total of 59 points with an average of 8.43. Preserving open lands near Valley Gateways was a total of 47 with an average of 6.71. Maintaining agriculture got a total of 77, which is 11 over 15, and maintains waterways a total of 64 with an average of 9.14. Maintains wildlife habitat, 67, average 9.57, allows public access total of 56 with an average of eight, and distinguishing factors total of 36 with an average of 5.14.

K. Anything else you wanna say about that one?

Well, the owners are here. Yes. I see. The bakers.

Okay. Let's see. One thing I wanna point out, you guys, that I realized since we went and visited this site. You see on your map there, it says West Center Street. That is Center Street from, if I'm not mistaken, Center Street in Logan. And so you can stand under the arch in downtown and you look straight west in down Center Street, the street tree lined street, and the land that you see in the mountains framed by the trees down the street is is part partly this property, which is pretty cool. So a neat neat perspective, and I encourage you all to visit Center Street sometime, whether it's out here near Minden or in Logan and take a look at the property. It's pretty neat.

Can't know it's closed, but

For a few days. I noticed that. Yeah.

Any questions? It may be easier to stand in the middle of the street. That's true. Yeah. I would like to hear

from those that were able to go to the site visit Yeah. What you guys thought. Give us a quick overview. Go ahead, Kendra.

Give your thoughts.

I appreciate it. It's so close to some other ones that we've approved, so you're starting to get a little pocket out there, which is really nice. They've done a lot of work to provide some good wildlife habitat, including beavers, which, of course, with my background, I appreciate. It was part of the conversation was public access, which I think they were willing to do, but there's just not really a good way to do it. So that's just I mean, the interest is there, a matter of making that work. But it's also, I think, important to note that it is so close to the forest lands because you are creating a nice, like, wildlife corridor there along a water source that is important for several different different species.

Yeah. I I agree with all of that. It's there are stunning views from this location. There is a county road that splits splits the parcels. And so folks who drive through there will certainly receive the immediate benefit there of the foreground views. But as I was trying to describe, I think this does make up the backdrop for even from Highway 30, you can you can see these properties. Sure. And but, you know, that's kind of the background for your view from the highway, but it's still part of that. So it it certainly has value. And I think I think the score is reflective, you know, when you compare other projects that are closer to the gateways and that sort of thing versus just backdrop Foothill areas. It was it seems to be scored appropriately, I would say.

It seems quite high scored relative to Cooper's property. Okay. What what aspects do you think drove that or just a different

Do you think? Yeah.

I know we have good forest access, you know, with the Mendon. What is that called? Deep Canyon access parking lot and trailhead that's going in. As a technical question, if there are two blocks of parcels that only connect with a corner, can you access that property to go to the other property?

I was wondering if the same thing. I think mister Baker could actually

mention some of the access aspects to for his property. But come come on up here to the microphone, Ken. Thank you. We'll have you state your name if you don't mind. And then chime in with anything you want the committee to know about. Oh, okay.

Thank you. Okay. So in the very southwest corner, we do connect to the National Forest. Along that, the western boundary is a proprietary right of way. And what the other landowner has had to do is move his fence to the east to allow a gate that goes directly from our property into the national forest. Good. And then he's, you know, kind of angled it back again. So basically, it does have a gate that goes from our property into the national forest. Probably goes through a little bit of his land, but that is what they have done.

Is that an easement then?

Or No. I think it's proprietary. It's historic. I many years ago, I had to try to figure out whether it was a county road or not or would be, and it wasn't. But it is used by the local community. They do cattle drives on it. People have hiked up there. Hunters sometimes will use it. Those types of things.

We kinda walked along that fence line, and there's The south fence line. Somewhat dilapidated. Yes. The Western West. Western. Mhmm. Somewhat dilapidated, but there are two fences. So there's a narrow corridor through there. It's not developed or anything like that, but it's Yeah. And I identified.

I I put in a new permanent electric fence along a surveyed property line that we had on that western end, and it has I don't know if you could even see it, but I have my cursor on it. Yeah. That's that's where it is. And it keeps going to the north and then it goes down another little road. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it goes down that West Summit. The proprietary right of way did go down that way, which is where those down halfway down. There. And goes to the east. Private road. Yeah. That's a private road. They say it's a private road, but I have it as a legal proprietary road that we've been able to use for over a hundred and fifty years. So I think we could get into a legal problem over that if if they wanted to cut it off. Cattle drives do go along the western fence line, but then they keep going straight. And I have no idea how they get to the Yonks property, which I don't know. Along that western. Yeah. I know how they do that.

So maybe the way I would describe it is there there's a prescriptive corridor through there. It's just there's nothing developed. Okay. And I think Kent has said they might be open to, you know, allowing the access to continue or for public access, that sort of thing. Yeah.

That would be accessed then from the the road to the federal land, basically.

And that's a question, like, how he only has control over his property, and so where where does it go beyond that? We would if we were to put a trail in, we might have to follow the stream that goes through our property up to the national forest, which But if you're running cattle, you probably don't eat. Well That's not good way to have a trail. Right? Yeah. And that's the you we have an a permanent electric fence. I don't think hikers would really appreciate that as much. Given that we might only be doing grazing because it's dry land for maybe six to eight weeks of the year and then allowing it to recover. It would be a short period, but it's going to be grazing land. And where the stream gully will be kind of revegetated. And probably the fencing would go around the gully, which is what I'm planning and have done already. So if the trail fall out the gully, it would probably work.

So I think that, you know, this is another situation where there's not necessarily public trails planned in the area or connected to They're not. Stake in the just be nice.

If there's not where if there's not trails, where does the Bonneville Shoreline proposal go here?

Alright. We don't have

Yeah. I I believe that the state's plan shows shows the the a trail going because it is Bonneville's shoreline.

Yeah. There will be one, hopefully, there's something

Well, I I did see a plan in 2004 that put it along the road that goes right through our farm and along it, but but it's not set yet. So so

I guess what I wanna do is make sure that an easement doesn't forbid the Bonneville shoreline should develop in the future.

Or another trail just Yeah. From east to west even. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. The the we don't forbid trails in the Yeah. Conservation easement.

Yeah.

And maybe that we shore shore up the ability to do that in the process.

And I think the most likely scenario is the trail gets developed along the road if if That's what's gonna be met. Part of the

county plan. And that's in the state plan? Yeah. It's on the road?

Yep. Right now. Yeah. Like Landis said, I think they just haven't invested time and energy into because I think the the plan is actually to put

it

out of the sim like, similar to the other.

Yeah. Except this plan doesn't have they wouldn't done the work there yet, I guess, versus the East Side Of The valley.

Yeah.

Kent, what else would you like to tell us about your project or share with the committee?

Well, I I think it's it's such a beautiful site. It has a lot of biodiversity, animals, wildlife seem to use it. We had three deer in our front yard today, which is right in the middle of it. And it's something that my family has wanted to keep. Well, we need to get some money out of it, of course, for some of the family members, but we wanna preserve it as ag land because especially the lower field is extremely prime land. The upper field is a one or the upper pasture that we're trying to develop has a lot of natural features. It has right now, it's got water running in the upper reaches of it. It's it is really something that we have treasured for over one hundred and fifty years, and we didn't wanna see it developed completely into housing. We wanted to leave it more as it is and have really dedicated farmers come in and ranchers and take it over and manage it into the future. And they can't do that unless we get a conservation easement, because they can't afford to pay development prices for the land. So this is the fit that I wanted to find. Yes? I think they we have installed and spent a lot of money putting in water tanks for the animals, and we have a spring development that feeds into those water tanks in the upper field upper pasture. And so that has all been funded and and put in. And so and, you know, we also use those water tanks for wildlife. We had to put little ramps in it so that the animals that fall into the tank can crawl out. You know? Those types of things have all been done. Well, using that, so you can trail through it or something. If that were

Yeah. An important thing. I mean, that's not against what we would like to do. It's just that they have gone this direction with the cattle.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And and I would look at cattle raising as somebody that cares enough about maintaining the pasture that they wanna maintain it over into the future, which is what we really want. You want somebody who will manage the land for some, you know, agricultural use and then allows the public still have access. I think that's a win win, especially I mean, I don't think the county wants to manage, was it, 46 acres of dry land, whatever.

Right.

But if a if a rancher is doing it and a part of his conservation plan is to maintain some of the plantings that we've done, like in the gully, where we have some new plantings that are coming up. I think that is a good way forward. So

Great. By the way, I I did answer my question on the Bonneville shoreline. It is the there's a kind of a proposed, and it it goes in the forest service. It's up on the forest service property. So That's kind of what I thought would happen. Yeah. I I wasn't sure where, like, they could and couldn't do it through there, based on what was, how it was, what if where if there was any wilderness or anything, but it's it's through that right now. So quite a bit above your property, actually. Yeah.

Great. Any other questions or comments for the applicant?

We talked about access to the forest service property. I think if there were that gate, right away there, I think the question of those single point intersections is in the courts right now or in the legislature or something to whether one property owner can step over Right. The boundary because his body is actually over the other gut's property. Right. And it's being wrangled out. I don't know how it would come out, but apparently, it's not an issue here. Yeah. That's why I think that it's been historically used to for access. That makes it different. And

the historical fence is now about 20 feet south of where the real corner is so that they can put in a gate. I think we might be in good shape in this Yeah. Department.

Good. Okay. Any, any other thoughts? Okay. Thanks, Kent. We appreciate it. We appreciate your interest. Hey, folks. What would you like to do? I would love to see us recommend to the county council round one approval, and let's see. Let's work out the details in phase two. I think it's a pretty good project.

I would say, like, the first one would be maybe with the note about the the access and the other things that raised the score. Yeah. Because they'll have the scoring details. Yes.

Well, if there's nothing else, would somebody like to make a motion?

I will, this time, move that we recommend round one approval or forwarding to the county council and with

yeah. K. We have a motion. Is there a second?

I'll second.

K. We have a motion to second. Is there any further discussion? K. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? K. So we'll next step is we'll make a presentation for the council to make a a recommendation of approval, and we'll go from there.

Is that something I go to? Or

You're certainly welcome to and encouraged to. You won't have to make a presentation or anything like that. They may have questions though, so it'd be great to have you there. It'll it'll be scheduled to to be determined. And they'll let us know. Yeah. Lisa will let you know. Right? Yes. Yeah. Any Angie, is it likely to be on the next council? Or Probably be on the twenty third. Probably the twenty third.

I won't be here. K. But Angie will come from me. That sounds great.

And I'll certainly plan on making the presentation to the council. Okay. The next couple items were for, I think, just for updates. Did you have something in particular you wanted to say about these, Lisa?

So both Poulsen Family Valley View Farm and Hatjay Ranch were approved unanimously by county council. So they are now round two. And

I don't know if And they're both working with UALT? Is that right? Started,

but and we're in the process while this was going on. Had Jay is just beginning.

Yeah. So So that's a new development, I would say. Yeah. Developed. Yeah. Because they were

Yep. It it sounded like at at least mister Paulson was or not mister mister Wilcox was gonna move.

Mister Olson.

No. No. On Paulson family Oh, okay. Is Wilcox. Right? Yes. I think initially, he was gonna pursue it himself because he's more familiar with projects he's worked on, easements on other property of his, but it sounded like they've engaged UALT to help them. So the these are great. I think the council was very excited about these projects.

Thanks for sharing the article.

Oh, yes. Very much appreciated. I think the other thing on the hat, Jay, if there's an opportunity at some point, remind me of his name. Mister Olson. Mister Olson. He expressed interest in that purchase of land. And And if that could be both I drove through that, like, you know, coming over the valley. That piece of land is also on the highway Mhmm. That was just to the

east side side of the property. To the east of it. Yep. That combined with

it even increases the value considerably more. And if if, you know I don't know if there could be a, like like, that he has that under contract when we fund or something like that, or an auction on it or something. That would be a real win to,

I can't remember, it's like a 140 acres or something, It's not small. Mhmm. But

that would make a a real it it would change the whole thing as you came around that corner because you're looking right at it right before you turn towards his house. Yep. So and I'm I'm not saying we'd make a contingent on it, but if we if we could I think the thing to do is get get them funded. Right? Well, yeah. But but funded so that they have the resources to Yeah. But I would I would vote a little more aggressively on the amount if that was Yeah. If that were the case because of how much more it would add on on highway property. Yeah. And there's not a lot of opportunities through there, so to do to do that big of a win.

True.

Do we know what where that Is that I don't I don't know which one you're referring to. K. You can to zoom out a little bit.

Woah. Too much.

K. Go down down. Yeah. Hat j. I think it's a Kent Peterson piece.

Oh, this? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And I thought it I thought it went all the way to 6,400 and maybe I'm wrong there. I left in my mind, it was to the 6,400 there. So maybe it's not as big as I thought it was, but still a big win. Yeah. And, would be worth additional funds, in order to add add that.

Can you go back to the parcel viewer? Sure. Just scroll northward along the highway there. So one of the right there. Oh, that parcel right where you had your cursor over, they use right through there from west to east. No. On the east side of the highway. All secured. Correct. Those properties, I think, are coming before the planning permission for a subdivision.

Both of them. It's right between

right between these two projects, basically. Is that right? Do I have that right? Yeah. So ten ten acre lots. So yeah. So the pressure's on that, you know, we've we've gotta build on what landowners have already shown interest in this area about. Let's see. Next item on the agenda was public comment. Is there any public comment today? Come on up. Please state your name.

Great. So good afternoon, committee members. My name is Blair String. I'm with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. I didn't have anything specific to comment on today. I just wanted to voice my support and appreciation for the conversations you all have had today. We're very interested in wild places and wild things, so it's great to see the county thinking about stuff like that and and stuff that I think meets our mission as well. Just two other things I wanted to mention, and we've been initiating conversations with several members in the in the county. Landis is one of them. Just to talk about open spaces and ways that we can partnership. So those, conversations are fairly preliminary, but we're looking forward to where we can go and resources we may be able to contribute to, helping with some of these things that y'all talked about here in Cache Valley. And lastly, I wanna talk about our dear committee that we put together. We have several here in our region and one of them specifically here in Cash Valley, it's made up of largely of members of our citizens of Cash Valley who are talking about mule deer and ways that we can help mule their populations. And, and again, I think there's a lot of interest in work that we could potentially partner on to meet those needs as well as some of the things that you've talked about today. So, we do have resources available, we have some funding and other things that I think we may be able to fit well into some of the things that, you've talked about with conservation easements and purchases and things like that. So we look forward to where those conversations may go and, again, just appreciate all of your hard work on this committee.

What can you tell us about can you tell us anything more about some of those funding opportunities or and and maybe also touch on just DWR's interest in in holding easements and that sort of thing. Certainly. Yeah. Yeah. So we have quite a few different funding sources available.

Most of our agency is funded by Pittman Robertson money, and that comes primarily from license sales and equipment sales and things like that. It's a tax on sporting goods equipment. It's a pretty good match. It's a three to one match. And so if we can get 25% of the funds that aren't federal funds, we can use those money. Obviously, our our primary focus is on wildlife habitat, and so it has to have a pretty good wildlife component and not as much recreation. But I think there are ways for us to, you know, carve out space for recreation. Obviously, trails and things like that are utilized by hunters and anglers as well as all the other recreations out there. So there's those funding. We have a large program called conservation needs or conservation permits that where we sell permits, which is a big chunk of money that comes in each year. A lot of that goes to conservation groups, and they are constantly looking for projects that will benefit wildlife. We also have many other forms of funding available, and I think they would pair really well with money the county has and many of our other partners, like department of outdoor rec and and things like that. Great. Great. Thank you. Tell us your name again. Blair Stringham. So I'm our northern region supervisor. I'm based out of our Ogden office and cover everything in Northern Utah.

Thank you. Thank you for coming. Yep. Thank you.

Anything else? Okay. Other business. Before we jump into Seneca's work with the GIS, I wanted to mention a couple of things. I've talked with Jeremy Christiansen at the Utah Department of Ag. He leads conservation projects. We've met him. He's he's been here before. And he's interested in in joining in on this conversation about the Green Belt rollback funds and and how they can be used to preserve open spaces. So he is working statewide on this with individual counties. We're fairly unique because we have a funding program in place. And so I think, he's anxious to join in on the conversation that we're trying to get scheduled with the county council about, some of the next steps and some of the some of the challenges we face, for example, on some of these small parcel projects and Mhmm. And funding proportionality and that's what I'm seeing, getting some guidance. So we tried to get a workshop time slot count scheduled with the council at their last meeting, but it was already filled. So I think staff is still working on trying to get us on the next agenda for a workshop before the next council meeting. Any insight on that at this point? No. Angie, I don't know if you know anything. Yeah. I thought Keegan was going to reach out, but he mentioned your name. Yeah. He gets cleared out and just talked. Staff will talk to Andrew. K. I'm sorry. I cut you off, Lisa. No. It's okay. I will talk to Andrew. Okay. That sounds great. So hopefully, we'll get that and let everyone know, and then we can prepare for a robust discussion. And Jeremy is interested in joining us and and bringing the state's perspective on that, so that would be great. The other thing he let me know about, which I don't know many if the news is out or whatever, but it turns out that NRCS funded the Silva project. Oh. So the one out in Trenton that we went and visited. I don't know if you guys remember. So Yeah. They are and we hadn't heard from them in, you know, a year, year and a half ish, or something like that. And so I wasn't sure anything was happening with it, but turns out they have been working on it. They got funding from NRCS, so they'll be tidying up their phase two package and bringing it to us soon. So that is likely to be more of a traditional matching program with the counties being a portion, maybe 25% plus or minus, I would think. So pretty

good news there. The And that was you all coordinating. Correct?

Nope. That's UDAF. Oh, UDAF. Yes. Yes. You're right. So and, you know, that that's the that's a project that scored low in our scoring, but that's just because it's primarily awesome farmland. To and to me best farmland. To me,

that meets the Green Belt a little bit more. I don't know what the can't like, if we could earmark that. I I mean, I think that's a little harder to to then go back to tax holders to go and get I I think, for example, starting Canyon, taxpayers get that and they want that. This one might be a little harder. So if it was Greenbelt and we reserve some money for more of those flagship ones that the public sees. I don't know. Yeah. But I I think we ought you know, it should get funded, but I think it's it matches the green belt type funding a little bit more.

K. So that's an FYI on that. It sounds like the Harris Farm project didn't get funded this go around, so they'll be trying again for that.

That one's a little more important to us. I think, from the visibility

of it. Definitely. And public access. I will say that the mitigation aspects for that, so they're taking part of that land along the Cub River, that did get funded. So that will be in an NRCS grant. But the farmland part is still pending approval or it will have to apply again. That's the latest from Jeremy. So any other questions on that? I had a chance to meet with staff, GIS staff, and planning staff about a month ago, and Seneca has been putting together some excellent information for us. There's a kind of a representative map on there. But how would you like to go Seneca, is this something you're gonna present to the committee? So this is kind of following up on our request to get a better handle of where these projects are at, how they relate to existing conservation easements, and that sort of thing. And then Seneca even went further and has put the relevant information about each of these projects and their status and that sort of thing as part of this GIS story map.

So take it away. So for right now, we're gonna try and get it in the public parcel viewer that you guys are used to. It's just a little bit behind technology, so it takes us a little time to get more things in there. For right now, if you go to our JS page under the interactive web maps and scroll down, here we actually created this agricultural and sensitive lands viewer kind of based on some feedback of COSAC members of this. This is the stuff they wanna see kind of root together. So currently, it's in here. It's open space projects. Chris had identified these categories to kind of put them in for now as county purchased. They've come in for a free app. Round one approved, round two approved, and trail applications. So in this map, if you zoom in and see these colors let's turn off some of this so we can easier. This one was a county purchase. So if you click on any of them, there should be, like, application date, your decisions, the requested amount, any other things. You've got bond, cost per acre, any other amounts from these different organizations, the total funding, any comments about it. And then there also is attachments. So anything like this one just has a deed that when they bought it let's find one of these. It's Alcorn's a good one. There's Alcorn Ranch. So we've got their application for whatever we could find and then also the ordinances that the county council passed. So if you wanna see if there's a dollar amounts, the dates, all of that is also in there. And then just for, like, a bonus,

because we have been For bonus points.

We personally have been like, what does round one, round two mean? What does it so we thought maybe the public was also a little unsure. So we have a story map. The first part just kind of what open spaces, and then we break it down. So this is pre apps. These are only pre apps, and then it will go through the first round, kind of explain what that is. It has a scoring sheet linked. So they can look at the scores, the pop ups, do the same thing in here. They can also see the score when it was approved and all those packets and ordinances.

That's amazing.

Then we also have the ones that the county just bought that didn't go through COSAC, the trail easement, with the trail scoring sheet. We have just a fun little graphic of the process. Then this one is all the stages altogether along with the conservation easements. Conservation easements also have a pop up with the deed. So if you wanna know what that conservation easement language is, is it for a trail? Is it for far ground? You can find that out there.

And and can I just ask a quick question on that? So we had talked about the committee members, you may recall, last year, we had a table, that staff was able to generate of all the existing easements. And then we know that, it maybe didn't capture some of the newer ones in the last few years, that sort of thing. And so I assume that's still the case. Right? Like, we may not have That's whatever the recorder has found is what we found. If it's been purchased and it doesn't have, like, a conservation easement on it, then it's not in there. Right. So if it was just

the Bear River Land Trust bought it, we don't know about that necessarily. K. So I do have some other totals with that. Oh, great. So we have the completed ones. We can put a press release or if you guys have pictures to kind of show what they bought and what, like, the public is going to be able to do on it. A little bit more broken down. We've got some funding totals. So the bond money that we can tell has been spent was 5,900,000. What's been committed, so it's been in, like, the round two approved by the county, Cache County Council. And we did also as you grow a little bit more and get more easements going, we did make a dashboard. You can see that that much money that you spent out of your 20,000,000. This is your total acreage. I know you said 20,000. We haven't been able to find that last 3,000 Those are where it's coming from. Yeah. Those are the ones that aren't getting captured right now. So, yeah, that's They're probably easements that have closed within the last twelve months Okay. Is what I would say. K. So, yeah, once we find those, that will update based on the layer. And then also there's a breakdown of you've got 1,028 acres in county purchase. You got 785 in pre application, so on.

Those are cool metrics.

So they'll update as you move them through.

Yeah. I feel like we want like from zero to I know. I just said So it's kinda like a 100 in, like, a meeting?

Exactly. No. So so so yeah. And her and the other staff I know that worked on this

Yes. Could've been all of it. Above and beyond. Yeah. So it's really cool. This is handy. Yeah. Just trying to trying to digest right where where what just happened.

But, yeah, it's all on our GIS page. Look at it. Tell us if we messed stuff up. But we wanted something a little more simply broke down for people besides just it's in the layer list because they might not know what that means.

And it looks like cold water is not on there.

Cold water.

That doesn't ring a bell. The D Ranch cold water, the ah, it's it's massive. Right. Like But it's one of the more recent ones. Right? Gabe just Gabe just said there's not an easement yet. I I mean, they it got approved on everything. He said there's not an easement on it. Okay. But, I mean, I don't know the size, but I think it doubles our size that we have.

I think it's the gap between the 17,000 and over 20. Okay. Oh, well, I I can't remember. Is it bigger than that? I thought it was 3,000 acres.

But Yeah. Yeah. It's huge. It's huge one of When it gets finalized, that'll be great. Yeah.

Okay. Any anything else you wanted to share with us?

That's it. If you guys have questions or want things changed, just let us know. So this was just their shot at it. This is their

first attempt. I'd say it's pretty good. So, yeah, get familiar with it and play around with it and and come back with some feedback for Seneca and the other folks.

This is incredible.

Yeah. Thanks so much. Pretty neat stuff. You know, one of the purposes of the tool, and I think it shows effectively that what I'm kinda proud of is if you look at the overall map and you see that we got projects all over the county. Yeah. And some of these projects tie into existing easements or certainly are nearby and that sort of thing. So I'm very pleased with, you know I I know there are specific areas we all wanna see conserve, but the fact that there's interest from across the county, I think, is shows the level of interest from landowners in this program, and we've got a lot of projects yet to come, I think. So k. Next on the agenda. Tell us about the table of the county fair you've arranged.

Well, we have a 10 by 10 well, 10 foot by 10 foot space, and we are borrowing the canopy from the trail group, and we might be able to collaborate with some of the other organizations such as you all and maybe the Fair River Land Conservancy for the three days of this fair. It would be bay basically, for anybody who approaches the table, we can give them some more information, clarify any questions or concerns they might have.

Promotion. Yes. Promotion. And so if you're around and can help out, I think we would like to try to tag team tabling or, you know, showing up at the table to help educate folks during the fair. So maybe at our July meeting, we can talk a little bit more about that and Makes sense. I'll send out

an email, maybe a sign up sheet. That's Again, I won't be here, but Angie

For the next meeting, you mean? Yeah. That would be great. Yeah. If you can provide time slots and stuff like that. Yep. Folks can sign up for different times. K. That'd be great.

I'm guessing the committee members could fill in a bit, but I know it's a lot of hours. So there might need to be somebody more full time. I don't know. Working with another group, it's probably takes a dozen people or more to Cover out of the four hour shifts or something to cover everything. For sure. For sure.

I'll try and be there most of the time. Yeah. Is it adjacent to other county displays? Or I really don't know how they are distributing the the spaces yet. K. I will find out. Maybe somebody could cover

more than one or something? Yeah.

Yeah. Let's strategize. Okay. Anything else on that? Landis, I'll our usual ask Landis if there's any news or updates on trail stuff.

We have our first

Great. Do you foresee any new applications coming together? Great. Well, we appreciate you being here because we always have trail questions on these projects and stuff. So so thanks thanks for being here. Okay. Anything else from committee members or staff or audience members? Anything? Okay. If there's nothing else without objection, we will Lisa.