Community project to revive Vineyard wetlands put on hold

A community project to revive Vineyard wetlands was halted because of Lake Restorations Solutions moving forward on the Utah Lake islands project.

The Walkara Way project is led by Jacob Holdaway, who has dedicated more than 20 years of his life to creating a public park called Walkara Way with donated lands from Vineyard residents. 

Holdaway joined more than 25 different government entities to organize the Walkara Way project. It holds a special place in his heart because his family history is tied in with Vineyard, where he grew up. 

“I remember how Utah Lake looked before,” Holdaway said. “I remember going to scout camps on the lakeshore and enjoying the wildlife. Now it’s completely different.” 

Utah Lake is the largest freshwater lake in Utah, covering 148 square miles. It is a state park where people can fish, swim, go boating or camp. More than 100,000 people visited the park last year.

Many of the privately owned wetlands were abandoned with the decline of agriculture and farming in the area and are now overgrown, allowing mosquitoes to flourish. 

There is no public access to these wetlands, which are owned by residents, and they are not well taken care of, Holdaway said.

The Walkara Way project would create a park for public use and create a border fence. It would introduce cattle and livestock to remove vegetation sustainably and help with the mosquito problem. The project would also repair the old field drains to create a healthy ecosystem in the wetlands for birds, Holdaway said.

Named after the Timpanogos tribe leader Walkara, the goal of the project is to restore the wetlands to a healthier state and allow the public to use the land. 

“I think it’s always a great thing to have additional green space available to people,” said Adam Johnson, a BYU graduate student and assistant director of Conserve Utah Valley. “It’s got lots of proven benefits — green space leads to happier communities and more recreational areas for people. This would be a huge win to be able to have all that land protected.”

The project has been in the works for a long time, but Vineyard City and Holdaway hit a roadblock in the development of Walkara Way about a month ago. Holdaway and other Vineyard residents learned through public records requests that Lake Restorations Solutions wants to buy the wetlands on the east side of the lake for their Utah Lake islands project. 

“It caught me by surprise and was something that was only discussed behind closed doors,” Holdaway said. “There was no transparency with Vineyard City and Lake Restorations Solutions.” 

Lake Restorations Solutions plans to create islands on Utah Lake to restore the lake by dredging up sediment from the bottom of the lake. The project has been met with lots of controversy, including a BYU plant and wildlife professor Ben Abbott getting sued for defamation because he has been outspoken in opposing Lake Restorations Solutions.

The project has been put on hold as Holdaway and other leaders of the project struggle to figure out how to move forward. 

On March 1, Vineyard City announced an update of the Walkara Way project: “As a priority for Vineyard and surrounding communities, the project solidified and received funding from the state legislature. The momentum of this project continues to move forward.” 

“This area creates 600 acres of conserved open space,” said Vineyard City, “The Walkara Way proposal was met with rapid success and approvals, with multiple entities championing the process.”

Even as the future of Walkara Way is uncertain, Vineyard residents continue fighting to preserve the public land. 

“Utah Lake is everybody’s responsibility because it influences us all. Talk to your legislators, read the news. Every one of those little things that you do to educate yourself makes a massive difference. We need everybody on board in order to slay Goliath,” Johnson said.