Twelve ranching families who have worked the East Hoytsville Range for generations voted unanimously to protect their land from development forever.
Summit Land Conservancy announced Friday, July 24, 2026, that it has permanently conserved 2,800 acres of the North Summit working ranch through a voluntary conservation easement. The deal extinguishes all future development rights on the property while allowing cattle operations to continue.
"The East Hoytsville Range Company is made up of 12 shareholders and their families, so getting everyone to agree on something is no small task," said Kent Pace, president of East Hoytsville Range. "But when it came to placing a conservation easement on this land and ensuring our beautiful range would never be developed, the decision was 100% unanimous."
The East Hoytsville Range Company was formed in 1938 to run livestock. The families first approached Summit Land Conservancy nearly 20 years ago about protecting the ranch, making the easement almost two decades in the making, according to Summit Land Conservancy CEO Cheryl Fox.
What the land protects
The 2,800 acres include large expanses of sagebrush, scrub oak, and native rangeland that provide habitat for elk, mule deer, moose, black bear, snowshoe hare, ruffed grouse, and migratory birds. The property lies within a state-designated Greater Sage-grouse Priority Habitat Management Area.
The ranch also safeguards water. Springs, seasonal streams, and Spring Canyon Creek flow through the property before joining the Weber River. A culinary spring on the ranch supplies drinking water to the Hoytsville community.
Funding and federal hurdles
The easement was funded by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service's Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, Summit County's Open Space Advisory Committee, and Summit Land Conservancy donors. Fox said Congressman Blake Moore's office helped resolve administrative hurdles that had delayed the federally funded project from closing.
First phase of a bigger vision
The 2,800-acre easement is the first phase of a two-phase project. A future easement could protect an additional 3,900 acres, bringing the East Hoytsville Range project to nearly 6,700 acres, according to the conservancy. Owners of neighboring ranches are also pursuing conservation easements. Should those projects close, the connected protected area would exceed 12,500 acres in North Summit, the conservancy said.
Fox called the property "the first phase of what we hope will become one of the largest connected conservation landscapes in North Summit," noting that development pressure is moving east from Park City and along the Interstate 80 corridor.
For the Future campaign
The East Hoytsville Range easement is the 16th project completed under Summit Land Conservancy's For the Future campaign, launched in May 2023 with a goal of raising $20 million over five years. Together, those 16 projects have permanently protected 15,215 acres, bringing the conservancy's total preserved lands to 28,392 acres across northern Utah.
By April 2024, the conservancy had secured more than $59 million from local, state, and federal sources, with each individual dollar donated leveraged roughly 20 times, Fox said in April 2024.
Residents who want to learn more or support the campaign can find information at wesaveland.org/forthefuture.
