The goal of the Lower Bear River Action Plan is to foster collaboration and cooperative actions that create a healthy watershed for the community’s livelihood.
The area of land that drains into the Bear River spans an enormous area of 7,400 square miles and is referred to as its watershed. The watershed originates in Utah’s Uinta Mountains and terminates in the Great Salt Lake. On its course back and forth across three states – Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho – the Bear River supplies vital services to our community. Agriculture, industry, and municipalities all rely on the Bear River’s water.
The watershed is also home to high-value cultural assets, recreation, and natural resources like fisheries and waterfowl.
A team of stakeholders in the Lower Bear River Watershed (defined as the area below the Utah/Idaho border) has been collaborating for over 20 years. Bound by a desire to improve the ecological conditions of the watershed, they developed the 2009 Lower Bear River Conservation Action Plan. With the 10-year anniversary of this Plan in 2019, the group reflected on the impact of their actions. Collaboration for the Future is based on an assessment of stakeholders and the existing group, and situation analysis workshopping with the team.
Lower Bear Collaboration for the Future Summary
August 2022
Details the public process activities of phone surveys, an outreach event (webinar), and situation analysis for watershed planning.
Lower Bear River Watershed Action Plan
November 2022
We used the goals and objectives in existing public plans as a foundation for this Plan so we can better support our partners and government agencies who are entrusted to implement respective plans and manage public resources. Participants in the Plan Implementation Team are included. We added metrics to document Priority Actions outcomes.
Bear River List of Plans Goals and Objectives
August 2022
A master list that transparently shows each agency or organizational watershed plan objectives, goals, and strategies available in 2021. There are five spreadsheets that document how we incorporated these into our Action Plan. The final outcome is a crosswalk of objectives and selected plans included here and in the Lower Bear River Watershed Action Plan.
Lower Bear River Action Plan Tracking and Recommendations
November 2022
This is the way we will track the progress of our Plan. It has the same information as the Lower Bear River Watershed Action Plan but in a spreadsheet, easy-access form. It also includes Priority Actions which we aim to review and update annually.
Plans and Objectives with Links
November 2022
Online easy access to documents used to create this crosswalk of objectives and selected plans.