Utah’s Cottonwood canyons provide Salt Lake Valley residents with two precious resources: drinking water from snowmelt and outdoor recreation in an alpine setting just minutes from home.
These two interests are locked in perpetual conflict as more visitors crowd Little and Big Cottonwood canyons, requiring a careful balancing act that Wasatch Front cities, ski resorts and environmentalists are looking to secure in federal legislation that would designate an 80,000-acre preserve spanning the two popular canyons along with Mill Creek Canyon to the north.
A centerpiece of the proposed bill is language authorizing the U.S. Forest Service to swap land at the base areas of four ski resorts for old mining claims the resorts own higher up.