SALT LAKE CITY — For some people, being in nature is good for the soul. That includes locals like David Horn and Cameron Lyman, who enjoy taking their dogs out for a walk near Parleys Creek.
“People from all walks of life, all interests take advantage of it at various times. It’s part of our heritage, part of the wealth we have,” said David.
It just so happens that the creek was previously a riverscape restoration site for Sageland Collaborative. The non-profit organization works to better the environment through several projects, with some of those projects focused on stream and river restoration.
Sageland Collaborative’s executive director, Janice Gardner, is a certified wildlife biologist. She explained how, for the past six years, the group has worked with private landowners, partners at state agencies, volunteers, and federal agencies to help heal degraded streams.
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“We’ve been doing these low-tech methods that help heal our streams, and this creates benefits for our downstream users and helps heal our streams for water quality, water supply, and wildlife habitat,” Gardner said.
Now, those projects are on hold because of changes within the federal government.
“We currently, and so many of the people in our restoration community, we have contracts that are frozen, and our work is impacted,” she said.
Sageland works on stream restoration sites all over the Great Salt Lake and Weber River watersheds. Those projects in particular will be the ones deeply affected by the cuts.
“To think that that could go away and get worse over time is definitely not the direction I’d like to see things go,” said resident Cameron Lyman.
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Although Sageland funding is currently frozen, Gardner said working with federal agencies is key to their organization.
“We are committed to realizing positive outcomes for our rivers despite these contracts being frozen, but it does hurt,” she admitted. “We also are trying to fill the void of some of our federal partners that are losing their jobs, and it just means that we’re asking for a lot more from our community.”
Sageland is already taking volunteers for its spring and summer projects.
