Expansive and expensive: A first look at Summit County’s largest open-space purchase

SUMMIT COUNTY — The 910 Cattle Ranch, over 8,500 acres of Wasatch range, is set to be the county's largest-ever open space purchase.

The property stands in stark contrast to the other side of the old Jeremy Ranch just off of I-80, now a beautifully manicured valley of golfing greens and big-windowed houses. The paved road stops abruptly. The engineered grass is left behind, and all that is left is a sort of wilderness.

A winding two-track ATV route leads out past an equipment barn and residence, curving around a stand of aspen trees where a dilapidated stone house sits. It's an old homestead, quarried with stone from the valley, used by the Jeremy family as shelter while grazing sheep in summers from the 1860s onward.

Jess Kirby, the director of Summit County's lands and natural resources office, said much history winds alongside the East Canyon Creek, a major tributary to the Weber River that runs into the Great Salt Lake.

During a special Summit County Council session in August 2023, the purchase of the ranch was approved. The deal was a nonrefundable $15 million payment to reserve the option to buy the 8,588 acres for an additional $40 million.

Now, Summit County is waiting for a $40 million grant to come through, which has already been awarded by the Forest Legacy Program in May. The funds are expected by the summer of 2025, but the county will be making a 4.5% interest payment, or $1.8 million a year, until it can purchase the property outright.

Officials managing the land gave KSL.com one of the first media tours of the sprawling, landscape-scale ranch.

Along the water's edge, a group of sandhill cranes tiptoed through marshy banks where the Donner party and the U.S. cavalry came through, where the Mormon Trail merged with the California Oregon Trail. The dirt road bisecting the land was populated recently with dog walkers and runners.

Five miles of trail looped up one valley and down another. Cattle were herded out of the creek and up the path by a ranch hand and his pack of dogs. The animals awkwardly jogged away from the four-wheeler on narrow trails, ducking into the thickets.

When David Bernolfo sought to purchase the land in the 1980s, from a failing bank during the savings and loan crisis, he rode in on horseback leading a pack animal to do some investment research.

"I spent four days on the ranch, night and day. I rode the perimeter of the ranch, and I rode every drainage," he told KSL.com. "So I knew a lot about it. I knew how many cattle I could ride, I knew where all the water was, I knew where the problems were, I knew where all the trails were."

Bernolfo ended up buying the property for "a couple hundred an acre," and spent the early years living on the ranch full-time, building the existing structures out of metal pipe.

"I would stay there all year so that I could weld when I got home," he said. "I'd go down to my office in Salt Lake and do my work there, drive back up to the ranch at maybe 4 or 5 o'clock and then weld until midnight." Construction took three years.

Bernolfo envisioned a ski resort and housing going onto the ranch and began the process of developing the property in the 1990s. But Summit County's development code changed in the early 2000s, and Bernolfo said, "The guys I had hired to do the work made some tremendous mistakes. And as a result of all that we got down-zoned."

Instead of continuing to pursue the build, Bernolfo had a change of heart. "Then I thought, I'm getting older and a development didn't seem like the right thing anymore," though he had offers from "quite a few developers."

He said he is most proud of his efforts to make the ranch a wildlife sanctuary — "the enormity of the wildlife that is on that ranch." The money received from the purchase of the property is going into his memorial foundation, which will donate to a number of charities in the state.

"I'm 80 years old, I've got other funds and I don't need the money," Bernolfo explained simply. "I've been lucky in my life. I've been lucky in business, and I've done well. I think it's kind of the American character to give back."

The county is now taking a slow and measured approach to public access while officials try to understand the asset they have purchased.

Many different "roundtables" have been or will be held with experts from disciplines such as wildlife, recreation, conservation, grazing, fire management and more. They have consultants conducting a thorough baseline assessment of the plants and animals.

Kirby, the county's lands and natural resources director, says they will take that snapshot to craft the conservation easement that will protect the property "in perpetuity, forever."

Many challenges have been identified on the property, according to Kirby, from competition among groves of trees to struggling riparian areas.

The stream is in "dire straits," Kirby said. A study from Utah State University students, investigating the feasibility of a trout fishery in the creek, found that lack of shade heats the water up, particulate pollution is high, and unrestricted grazing has caused a significant decline in vegetation along the wetlands of 50% since the 1970s.

The low water levels also are a concern. Kirby said they had to purchase water from the East Canyon watershed committee two years ago in order to keep flows up and sustain wildlife.

Conifers are beginning to choke out aspens, and yellow star thistle, a noxious weed "of high concern" to the county, was just found, posing danger to livestock and wildlife.

But the most pressing concern for Bernolfo and the county is the poaching that has plagued the ranch and the impending hunting season beginning on Aug. 17.

"We have a horrible poaching problem on this property," Kirby said, and she hopes that her team of around 25 volunteer "ambassadors" who keep tabs on the property will dissuade the practice. "We do want the poachers to know that we have people out there, and we have eyes on this property."

But according to Bernolfo, they are usually archers who know where the herds are and operate in remote areas by night. "These guys — they're in good shape, they're dedicated, they know what they're doing, and they have an advantage against the county or anybody else."

"It is not open season on the 910," Kirby said. The county is diverting a "significant amount of resources on this ranch to tackle the potential poachers," though they are not "exposing the details of how we are going to be monitoring."

Bernolfo calls the poaching issue his "biggest disappointment," and doubts that even the county's use of drones will be enough to stop them. While the land was purchased with public money, the deal explicitly prohibited hunting, so no one is entitled to the animals on the ranch.

"The hunters always go where the big animals are, and we've got them," Bernolfo said. "The elk know that it's a sanctuary. If you're on Alexander Ridge during the rifle season, two or three days before the hunt starts, you can see elk just streaming into the ranch."