Preserving Farmland and Water to Help Protect Great Salt Lake

This press launch was initially posted on the Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust website on December 2, 2025. The Belief is co-managed by Nationwide Audubon Society and The Nature Conservancy.

SALT LAKE CITY—Organizations devoted to conservation of land and water have come along with a farm in Huntsville, Utah, in a groundbreaking partnership to ship water to the Nice Salt Lake.

Nationwide Audubon Society and The Nature Conservancy, as co-leaders of the Nice Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Belief, Summit Land Conservancy, and the historic Huntsville Abbey Farm, have collaborated to lease roughly 635 acre-feet of water yearly for Nice Salt Lake, pending approval from useful resource managers. 

“One of these partnership is a kind of mutually useful concepts that simply is sensible,” mentioned Invoice White, proprietor of the Huntsville Abbey Farm. “We’re not dropping any farming or manufacturing. As a substitute, we’re using the land extra effectively by switching our much less productive fields to dry farming strategies which permits us to maintain the land in manufacturing and ship that saved water to assist Nice Salt Lake.”

The Huntsville Abbey Farm, a beloved landmark, was as soon as house to the Abbey of Our Woman of the Holy Trinity, a Trappist Cistercian monastery established in 1947. For greater than 70 years, monks not solely ran the monastery however supported themselves by farming the land and conserving bees. White got here into possession after the monastery closed in 2017, and he continues to maintain the farm in manufacturing immediately.

In 2022, Summit Land Conservancy, in partnership with Ogden Valley Land Belief, accomplished a everlasting conservation easement on 1,050 acres of the Historic Monastery Farm, guaranteeing the farm will stay open for agricultural use.

“When Summit Land Conservancy saves farms and ranches throughout the Wasatch Again, we’re saving the watershed for the Nice Salt Lake,” explains Cheryl Fox, Chief Government Officer of Summit Land Conservancy. “Water is now accessible to return to the lake, fairly than being diverted to a subdivision, due to our companions, together with Invoice White, the USDA Pure Sources Conservation Service, Ogden Valley Land Belief, and plenty of particular person donors.”

The Nice Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Belief, together with its companions, the Utah Divisions of Forestry, Fireplace and State Lands and Wildlife Sources, has been securing new and current water flows for Nice Salt Lake over the previous three years. The Belief’s involvement was the ultimate piece within the puzzle to actualize this water transaction for the lake.

“That is an modern venture that preserves farmland and delivers water to profit Nice Salt Lake,” mentioned Marcelle Shoop, Government Director of the Nice Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Belief. “The foresight of Invoice White and the Summit Land Conservancy, and their willingness to pilot new concepts in partnership with the Belief, and the Utah Divisions of Wildlife Sources and Forestry, Fireplace and State Lands, illustrates the significance of broad collaboration to fulfill the challenges going through the Lake and communities.”

That venture is also made potential by way of partnership with the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, which administers water provides all through the Weber River watershed, together with the Ogden River. Utilizing the in depth monitoring and supply infrastructure managed by the District, the water leased by way of this program might be tracked and measured because it reaches essential habitats throughout the Nice Salt Lake boundary. Coordination with the District on initiatives like this ensures that water is delivered precisely the place it’s wanted.

As Nice Salt Lake dwindled to file lows lately, the agricultural neighborhood has confronted mounting strain on its water consumption and has been seemed to as potential companions in addressing challenges to Nice Salt Lake.

“Farmers care simply as a lot about Nice Salt Lake as anybody, and we’re doing our half to assist preserve water within the lake,” mentioned White, who had the preliminary thought to dedicate his saved water to Nice Salt Lake.

“Conservation easements like this won’t work for each farm, however investing in options that preserve farmers farming and in addition ship water to the lake can encourage others throughout the agricultural sector to lean into inventive partnerships and implement new concepts,” mentioned Spencer Gibbons, Chief Government Officer of the Utah Farm Bureau.

The change software for the water transaction remains to be pending and is anticipated to be authorized in 2026.

“We’re grateful to see continued progress as we work collectively to guard and protect the lake,” Nice Salt Lake Commissioner Brian Steed mentioned. “Each contribution, massive or small, performs an essential half in our ongoing efforts to assist the lake.”

B-roll and pictures accessible to the media upon request.

Media Contacts:

Shaela Adams, Nice Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Belief
shaela.adams@audubon.org; 801-809-5805

Caitlin Willard, Summit Land Conservancy
caitlin@wesaveland.org; 435-649-9884