Summit Land Conservancy awarded $22.4 million for Kamas Meadows preservation

Kamas Photo: Michele Roepke // TownLift

Summit Land Conservancy's project was one of just 81 selected to receive funding nationwide

SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — The Summit Land Conservancy was awarded over $22.4 million on Tuesday through the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program.

The funds will be used to preserve and protect wetlands, agricultural lands and soil within the Kamas Meadows area.

“The Summit Land Conservancy is honored to be the organization for this critical federal funding to help save the Kamas Valley,” said Cheryl Fox, Summit Land Conservancy CEO. “Together with our partners at the NRCS, Summit County, landowners and many individual supporters, we now have the opportunity to truly save this essential natural resource for the future.”

According to a press release from the USDA, Summit Land Conservancy’s project will use targeted funding to protect multiple properties in the Kamas Valley, and work to preserve and protect agricultural and environmental resources through conservation easements, improve the Kamas Meadows’ resistance to climate change, and protect and maintain water quality and flow through the Weber River basin.

The nonprofit will now begin working with partners to identify key properties to be protected.

Summit Land Conservancy’s project was one of 81 selected nationwide to receive a portion of the $1.1 billion in Regional Conservation Partnership Program funding that will be awarded in 2023.

“RCPP not only provides an opportunity to work hand in hand with our partners in conservation like Summit Land Conservancy, it allows us to use tools like conservation easements to treat resource concerns in a way that is mutually beneficial to the community,” said Emily Fife, NRCS State Conservationist for Utah.