This year, the Utah Department of Natural Resources is celebrating 20 years of its Watershed Restoration Initiative and nearly 3 million acres of wildland restoration across the state. In a state with over 35 million acres of public land, they hope to continue to grow this year and into the future.
Allison Whittaker is the habitat conservation coordinator with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
“In fiscal year 2025, we restored 144,433 acres of habitat across Utah,” she said, while describing the initiative's latest accomplishments. The program brings together agencies, landowners, and conservation groups to tackle large scale ecosystem problems.
“We focus on whole ecosystem problems across land ownership boundaries. Our first value is watershed health and biological diversity," Whittaker said. "Second is water quality and yield. And the third is opportunities for sustainable uses of natural resources.”
Over time, that approach has added up. Since the program began in 2006, the initiative has completed nearly three million acres of restoration work statewide.
Whitaker said one of their biggest accomplishments has been restoration for sage grouse. A species in decline due to habitat loss, sage grouse depend on wide open sagebrush landscapes, but decades of fire suppression have allowed pinyon and juniper trees to encroach, creating perches for predators and crowding out native plants.
“We’ve done a lot of work to reduce that encroaching pinyon and juniper, creating these big seas of sagebrush for the sage grouse,” Whittaker said.
In addition to wildlife, the program's projects also improve vegetation, reduce erosion, and enhance stream health across the state. As the program enters its 20th year, Whittaker said its future looks steady, even amid federal political uncertainty.
“Our base funding comes from the state, and the state is committed to this program,” she said.
And with millions of acres still in need of restoration, she expects the work to continue.
“There are 35 million acres of public land in Utah," she said. "Many of which need some form of restoration, so our program will just continue to grow.”
