Trees, please: It's just a little patch of woods, a couple of acres in size, hard against Wasatch Hollow Park in Salt Lake City. But a stream runs through it, birds and the bees flit through the trees, more than 100 species of plants and animals call the east-side grove home. A developer wants to build houses, people houses, on the property. Neighbors, however, are opposed, and want the land to be used as a nature center. That sounds like a better idea. The Salt Lake City Council should make it happen. There are tens of thousands of homes in the Salt Lake Valley. But there aren't many little patches of woods left. We need to save the ones we can.

Company town: When the Legislature approved House Bill 466, giving unincorporated areas of between 100 and 1,000 full-time residents the absolute right to incorporate as long the signers of the incorporation petition own land amounting to more than half of the tract's property value, it handed Ruby's Inn in Garfield County the ruby slippers. All the owners Rod Syrett and his seven siblings had to do was file some paperwork, click their heels, and the 2,000-acre resort at the entrance of Bryce Canyon National Park became Utah's newest town, a company town, Bryce Canyon City. That's good news for Syrett, who, as mayor of the fledgling community, will be Bryce Canyon City's equivalent of the great and powerful Wizard of Oz. He'll rule over 138 employees who live at the resort, and a compliant City Council composed of workers likely to side with the mayor, aka, the boss. And it's good news for the inn, which will keep about $300,000 in annual sales tax receipts to improve amenities at the hotel, campground, restaurant and shopping complex. But it's bad news for the residents of Garfield County, who face a tax increase thanks to a misguided law that allows businesses to become towns, and transfer taxes from legitimate local governments to themselves.