L1: Snapshot Land Metrics
Snapshot metrics related to land in the state of Utah, including public land owners and operating farms and farmed acres.
SARDINE CANYON OVERLOOK, WELLSVILLE MOUNTAINS | KORI KURTZEBORN
Brian Steed
Since the founding of the Institute in 2021, the annual Report to the Governor and Legislature on Utah’s Land, Water, and Air has been our flagship project. The report synthesizes research efforts and highlights the beauty of Utah’s diverse landscapes and ecology. Our purpose is to provide unique information on a host of land, water, air, and special topics.
In approaching our report this year, we found an additional purpose: providing a curated report of land, water, and air metrics. This special report compiles numerous public datasets detailing topics from mining extractions to harmful algae blooms and relates them to various geographic and political boundaries. It is our intention to update with current data from the same sources in subsequent reports, continuing to refine communication and collect additional sources.
Often the biggest challenge in approaching an issue is understanding the data around it. Finding, synthesizing, and communicating these metrics is challenging and time consuming. We hope to increase data visibility and provide tools for understanding each of these metrics. The metrics detailed in the following sections are publicly available, provided and managed by several state and federal agencies including: Utah Department of Natural Resources, Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, Bureau of Land Management, and Environmental Protection Agency. Thank you to the researchers, managers, and staff who work to provide this data.