Protecting Wasatch Watersheds & Wildlands
From alpine ridgelines to foothill benches, from aspen groves glowing gold in October to powder-filled couloirs in January, the Wasatch Range is a patchwork quilt stitched together by different landowners, agencies, and communities. Some parcels are fiercely protected, others are vulnerable. Some are managed for watershed health, others for dispersed recreation, lift-access skiing, wildlife habitat, grazing, mining, or development. Understanding who manages what and why is at the heart of protecting this range. For over 50 years, Save Our Canyons has remained committed to protecting wildlands – both public and private – from harmful developments that impact watershed, wildlife, and dispersed recreation.
This patchwork is both the Wasatch’s strength and its vulnerability. When coordinated management works, the mountains thrive. When decisions are siloed, we risk fragmentation of habitat, of access, and of community voice.
While we strongly support “Wilderness” and public lands, we must also recognize that this area has been inhabited, settled, and used for millenia. What we refer to here as wildlands are traditional homelands of several Indigenous groups, including the Timponogos Nation and Northwest Band of the Shoshone Nation, along with other interrelated Ute and Shoshone groups. Despite feeling more “wild” than the developed valleys below, The Wasatch Mountains have a long, deep, meaningful history with the people who have called them home since time immemorial. It is only because of the displacement of Indigenous peoples that these lands are now managed as public or private.
In future planning for these places we encourage incorporation of Indigenous perspective, history, and inclusion into management policies. Local Inter-Tribal Coalitions provide a blueprint co-management from parks and monuments across the region. This type of collaborative approach would strongly benefit the Wasatch as well.
Who Owns and Manages Lands in the Wasatch
The United States of America
The majority of the Wasatch Range sits within the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache (UWC) National Forest, managed by the United States Forest Service (USFS) and guided by the 2003 Wasatch-Cache Forest Plan. These public lands are owned by all United States citizens, and managed for multiple use. Over 323,000 acres of these lands are managed as Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs) by the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, an important layer of protection that is currently at risk of rescission.
In Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, Millcreek Canyon, American Fork Canyon, and beyond, the USFS plays a central role in shaping how we access and experience the mountains. Much of Save Our Canyons’ advocacy, from transportation planning to development review, engages directly with USFS plans and processes.
When Save Our Canyons was founded in 1972, our primary goal was to expand the protections of these public lands, leading to federal Wilderness designations for the Lone Peak Wilderness, Twin Peaks Wilderness, and Mount Olympus Wilderness.
These lands, managed by the Forest Service, offer the highest level of federal protection from development and mechanized use. We continue advocating for additional Wilderness designation, and stewarding these areas through our Wasatch Stewardship Program.
A small percentage of federal public lands in the Wasatch are also managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
The State of Utah
The State of Utah has jurisdiction over a small percentage of land in the Wasatch Mountains. Utah State Parks are managed primarily for recreation purposes, the largest in the range being Wasatch Mountain State Park, comprising most public access points in the Heber Valley. Most reservoirs in and adjacent to the range are also state parks. A wave of recent state legislation has intended to expand State Park management onto certain federal lands. While we remain fundamentally opposed to state encroachment into USFS land management authority, we also support more resources to manage visitor use in the Wasatch, and are open to discussion on collaborative approaches that do not transfer land or management authority.
State Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) are also present in the Wasatch, the most prominent being Timpanogos WMA. Because these lands are managed for game populations to support hunting and fishing, non-consumptive recreationists must obtain a free access permit to enter WMAs.
State Institutional and Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) lands also comprise a small portion of the range. These parcels are leased, sold, or managed to generate revenue for the state, a small percentage of which (5%) goes to public schools.
Local Governments
Counties and municipalities also play a significant role in ownership, management, and zoning of lands in the Wasatch Range. For example, an effort led by Park City and Utah Open Lands, supported by Save Our Canyons and others, facilitated the protection of Bonanza Flat in 2020. In addition to protecting this coveted zone for wildlife and dispersed recreation, this conservation easement makes any proposed ski lift connection between Park City and the Cottonwood Canyons much more challenging.
The communities at the heads of the Cottonwood Canyons, Brighton and Alta, are incorporated municipalities. Through town councils, mayors, planning commissions, general plans, and strategic visions, these towns utilize a system of checks and balances to enact and enforce land-use code within their jurisdictions.
Municipal code is an important layer of protection for parts of the Wasatch that lie within town boundaries, and we support efforts of these communities to improve code to maintain scenic nature and historic character that brought residents there in the first place. An example of this was the Town of Brighton passing an ordinance in November 2025 blocking a contentious parking lot plan from Solitude Resort.
Salt Lake City Public Utilities (SLCPU) manages protected watershed areas to keep our drinking water clean for millions of residents across the Salt Lake Valley. In addition to conserving specific parcels of land, SLCPU exercises extra-jurisdictional authority on lands in the Wasatch to protect water resources. These protections are present in Little Cottonwood Canyon and Big Cottonwood Canyon, along with portions of Parley’s Canyon and City Creek Canyon.
While Salt Lake County (SLCo) does not own or manage much land in the Wasatch, they have zoning jurisdiction over a large portion of private unincorporated lands in the Central Wasatch range. The Foothills and Canyon Overlay Zone (FCOZ) strikes a balance between private land-owner rights, the ecosystem, and the general public. This zone has several requirements for proposed developments enforcing protections for the watershed and wildlands.
Save Our Canyons actively partners with counties and municipalities to advocate for sound policies and projects that preserve wildlands and protect watersheds in perpetuity.
Private Land Owners
The remaining lands are owned by private entities – ski resorts, residents, and private investors. Some of these lands are managed for public access, whereas some are off-limits. Some parcels have conservation easements, protecting them from commercialization, while others remain at-risk of large-scale resort or mining developments.
The Work Ahead
The Wasatch Range is not one park with one rulebook. It is a shared landscape governed by overlapping priorities: conservation, recreation, revenue generation, water protection, habitat preservation, and economic growth. Save Our Canyons works diligently with the various land managers and owners, advocating for strong protections to ensure biodiversity, water quality, dispersed recreation, and the rustic character of this range are preserved in perpetuity.
Take Action!
Donating today helps to financially support our ongoing work protecting Wasatch watersheds and wildlands.
