And, if they fail, the much larger population of Utah's urban dwellers are likely to find themselves living in an unrelenting snarl of concrete, bad air, scarce water and nasty food.
A hopeful sign that the necessary alliance is forming is the $43 million Utah Living Lands and Waters Campaign, rolled out Tuesday by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., led by the Nature Conservancy and backed by Utah's Department of Agriculture and Food.
The idea is to match $25 million in privately raised money with $18 million in state funds. That would support the environmentally friendly stewardship of private land, particularly in eight sensitive watersheds and ecosystems, before it is all gobbled up by the state's juggernaut development interests.
The state's share would primarily take the form of keeping a promise it made years ago by forming, but never fully funding, the LeRay McAllister Open Space Fund.
For far too long, the tillers of soil and the huggers of trees have labored under the delusion that their interests are in conflict. The Utah farm lobby was a strong voice in opposition to 2004's failed $150 million open space preservation referendum.
But both farmers and environmentalists are starting to realize that they need each other. Conservation activists can raise money and exert political pressure to preserve farmland that not only provides fresh, healthy food, but is a darn sight more ecologically sound than so many acres of concrete and sewers.
The problem, as Utah Agriculture Commissioner Leonard Blackham notes, is making sustainable agriculture pay for those who practice it. There are many approaches to that problem, including the Ag Department's Utah's Own marketing program.
The idea stressed by the Living Lands and Waters Campaign is buying conservation easements from Utah farmers and ranchers, supplying them with a necessary infusion of capital without forcing them to sell or subdivide their family land.
That not only keeps a family farm in business, it also protects watersheds, wetlands, wildlife habitat and air quality for miles and miles around.
Everybody wins. So let's do it.
