Environews

Environnews: Public comments sought on Central Wasatch plan

By Amy Brunvand

The Central Wasatch Commission (CWC) has released a new public discussion draft of the Central Wasatch National Conservation and Recreation Area Act (NCRA) which could help protect nearly 80,000 acres of National Forest lands near Salt Lake City.

The Central Wasatch NCRA is a locally driven, consensus-based land use plan that balances conservation and water­shed protection with development for ski areas, private property, recreation and traffic. Coordinated local planning for the Wasatch Mountains began in 2014 with Mountain Accord; CWC is an interlocal agency formed from that process to carry out a future vision of canyon stewardship.

In order to take effect, the Central Wasatch NCRA bill would need to be passed by the U.S. Congress. A previous version of the bill was introduced in 2016 by Congressman Jason Chaffetz and co-sponsored by Mia Love and Chris Stewart but it never became law.

CWC public discussion documents: cwc.utah.gov/legislation-and-federal-designation. Public comments due by September 19. comment@cwc.utah.gov

This article is a snippet from the larger column: Environews, that appeared in the September 2019 print issue. Read the full article here.

This article was originally published on September 4, 2019.