Contact your county council member! June 5, 2017

Hello Wasatch Backcountry Alliance Enthusiasts!

With yesterday’s disappointing news of The US’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, perhaps it’s a good reminder of the importance of The People standing up for what they believe in and continuing to ask our leaders to provide leadership. Now’s your chance.

Hopefully you have been aware of the efforts to protect Bonanza Flat, and we hope that you have provided your own leadership by contributing to the fund to purchase it. It’s been a complex fundraising effort, but at this point The Community is still $2.6 million short of purchasing this land. We will undoubtedly send out another email soon to beg for more money, but this time…..we need some ACTION!

Many local jurisdictions have come forward with substantial commitments to the effort: Park City jumpstarted it with a $25M bond, Summit County, Salt Lake City, Wasatch County (which stands to forego substantial sales tax dollars from the hotels planned for the site; even they support preservation!), and others (even the Emigration Canyon community council) but the Salt Lake County Council voted 5-4 a couple of months ago to contribute NOTHING to the preservation of Bonanza Flat, despite the proximity of Bonanza Flat to the county line and the fact that many SLCO residents recreate in that area. However, as we are now down to the last 2 weeks, the community – which includes SLCO Mayor Ben McAdams – is applying significant pressure on the SLCO council to reconsider this option. And we too need to pressure the Salt Lake County Council members to contribute!

The SLCO council is meeting on Tuesday, June 6 and they have felt enough heat that they have decided to revisit funding Bonanza Flat, which is very encouraging. So now we need to push them over into actually contributing county funds.

So it’s important to contact them before Tuesday! If you don’t know who your councilman is (understandable), here’s the link to the map: https://slco.org/surveyor/Council/map.htm

and here is the link to their photos, which in turn has links to their email addresses and phone numbers: http://slco.org/council/

Whether by email or phone message, include your own comments as to why you think Bonanza is not only worth protecting, but why it’s important to Salt Lake County residents since it’s literally only hundreds of yards from the county line.
If you live in one of the districts represented by a Republican your email/call is particularly important! Especially if you live in Cottonwood Heights, East Sandy, Draper, or Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, calling Councilman Max Burdick is key.

Additionally, Republican council member Richard Snelgrove is an At Large member meaning that he represents EVERYONE in the county. Call council member Snelgrove and politely ask that he support contributing county funds to protecting Bonanza Flats. Also note that Mr Snelgrove announced this week that he will be seeking to be elected to become mayor of Murray, so if you live in Murray (or have friends who do) let him know how his decision on Tuesday will affect your/your friends’ vote.

For a refresher of information and some interesting info on how local businesses are also mounting up here is an article that was in the Salt Lake Tribune this week:
http://www.sltrib.com/home/5346793-155/businesses-race-to-bonanza-flats-rescue

Collectively we have made a big dent in the $38M needed (for a parcel that is worth substantially more than that on the open market) but being $2.6M short is a lot, and the SLCO council can go far towards changing that. It’s up to them – and YOU – to show some leadership and recognize that SLCO residents stand to benefit dramatically from this parcel.

We will be in touch again soon with another push for last minute donations (if you just can’t wait for the last minute, here is the link to donate now: https://wasatchbackcountryalliance.org/news/save-bonanza-flats/) and we have another Big Issue looming very soon that will also require some member action.

Thanks again for your help!

The Wasatch Backcountry Alliance Board of Directors