Salt Lake City — Utah's Watershed Restoration Initiative works to improve and restore high-priority watersheds and habitats throughout the state. During this past fiscal year — between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024 — a whopping total of 168,882 acres were improved across Utah through this unique and innovative program.
Created in 2006, this Utah Department of Natural Resources partnership-based program focuses on:
- Improving watershed health and biological diversity
- Increasing water quality and yield
- Improving opportunities for sustainable uses of natural resources, including restoring fish and wildlife habitats
As one of the initiative's founding partners, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources plays a key role in planning, overseeing and implementing regional restoration projects.
"These proactive projects to improve wildlife habitat and watershed health throughout the state are crucial, not only for our fish and wildlife species, but also for the residents of Utah," Utah's Watershed Restoration Initiative Program Director Tyler Thompson said. "It takes a great deal of coordination and funding to make these projects possible, and we are very grateful to our many partners and their continued support of wildlife conservation and improving water quality."
Between 2023-24, Utah's Watershed Restoration Initiative completed a lot of habitat restoration work, including:
- Restoring 168,882 acres across Utah, including 23,245 acres burned by wildfires.
- Mixing and spreading 442,572 pounds of seed on various landscapes (including those burned by fires) across Utah.
- Completing a total of 148 habitat restoration projects.
- Improving 119 miles of streams.
- Creating an estimated 835 jobs in the state.
Over $48 million in funding was invested by more than 80 partners to pay for the different restoration projects. Part of the funding for these projects comes from the DWR Habitat Council, which is funded by a portion of revenue from the fees that customers pay for licenses, permits, stamps and certificates of registration. Other funding partners include the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, conservation groups and many other non-government organizations.
Habitat work through Utah's Watershed Restoration Initiative includes:
- Aerial seeding after a wildfire.
- Removing encroaching trees for sagebrush preservation and rangeland fire management.
- Prescribed fires to reduce fire fuels in an area (which reduces the risk of a catastrophic wildfire) and to enhance the aspen habitat used by many wildlife species.
- Stream restoration through various techniques, including an innovative method of building artificial beaver dams. This unique dam-mimicking technique was conceptualized in Utah and decreases erosion, raises river levels and even improves water quality.
- Planting shrubs and sagebrush to provide feed and shelter for mule deer, sage-grouse and other wildlife species.
Since 2006, this program has improved nearly 2.7 million acres of Utah's landscapes through more than 2,800 restoration projects. Visit the WRI website to see where these projects have taken place across the state.
