Utah Water Project

Utah exemplifies the challenges facing many states across the Intermountain West: explosive growth and limited water supplies. Utah ranks among the driest (second) and fastest growing (fourth) states in the nation, with demographers expecting an additional one million new residents by 2020. At risk is a remarkable assemblage of fish and wildlife. The same snow that makes possible Utah's world class skiing feeds a myriad of alpine streams, which, in turn, feed larger rivers like the Green, the Bear, the Provo, the Weber, and the Sevier. There are more than 14,000 miles of perennial streams in Utah, and those streams provide habitat for Bonneville, Colorado River, Lahontan and Yellowstone cutthroat trout as well as other native species.

When Mormon settlers arrived, the cutthroat trout in Utah Lake were so large and abundant that settlers harvested them with pitchforks, and, in those lean, early years, many settlers survived on salted barrels of Bonneville cutthroat trout and June sucker, another native fish. Those days are gone, but the prospects for restoring some measure of that lost habitat, and for protecting the rich natural heritage that remains, have never been greater.

Building Political Will

Restoring Stream Flows in Key River Basins

Defending Instream Flows

For more information contact:

Utah Water Project
443 S 225 E
Centerville, UT 84014
(801) 294-5624

Tim Hawkes, Director
Contact Tim Hawkes

Paul Burnett, Coordinator, Weber River Native Fish Program
Contact Paul Burnett

Philip Jensen, Uinta Project Manager
Contact Philip Jensen 

Utah Trout Unlimited website

Utah Water Project Press Archive