Along the Jordan River » Stashing his bicycle beneath a tree and slinging a camera around his neck, Chris McCandless seems less like a developer than an environmentalist.

He points out hoof prints in the mud, coaxes a reporter into a run to catch a glimpse of a passing buck and pauses to admire a pair of Canada geese lifting off the Jordan River.

His footsteps lead through Salt Lake County's latest sliver of publicly purchased open land -- about 22 acres of riverfront property that McCandless once considered for residential development. He's not thinking about houses anymore; real estate is too soft.

Instead, the developer and Sandy councilman wants to create a wilderness preserve with an equestrian trail, a paved extension of the Jordan River Parkway and plenty of green space.

"This is the most critical land planning we can possibly muster," says McCandless, stopping near a bend in the Jordan River. "This will survive me and you, our children and our children's children."

This month, McCandless sold that scenic swath to the county and donated four other parcels farther south to extend the Jordan River Parkway about a mile. The price tag: $3.7 million (paid out of a voter-approved $48 million bond for parks and open space).

But the county's open-space coffers are drying up these days, signaling an end to a bond that officials have tapped to buy an expansive Rose Canyon wilderness in the Oquirrh Mountains, a rugged Killyon's Canyon property teeming with Bonneville cutthroat trout and a more controversial parcel near Little Willow Canyon, which provides a much-needed access along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.

The County Council began working out its final deals Tuesday, mulling a list of recommended land purchases that would nearly deplete the $6 million remaining in the open-space fund.

It gave the go-ahead for buying 63 acres near Solitude Ski Resort and 52 acres in Mill Creek Canyon with access to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Together, those projects will cost about $2.6 million.

But officials continue to weigh whether to seek additional parcels that would preserve access to the Bonneville trail, secure a conservation easement near Salt Lake City's Wasatch Hollow Park and protect green space along the Jordan River.

As the final bond projects are picked, the council seems collectively regretful that one part of the county didn't get more attention: The Jordan River.

"We're all disappointed that there hasn't been more done along the Jordan River," Councilman Joe Hatch said. "That's got to be the focus."

Two weeks ago it was the focus as McCandless pitched the preservation of his properties. While it may have reflected good business sense in today's economy, it also reflected McCandless' love affair with the central-valley waterway that snakes from the Great Salt Lake to Utah Lake.

"I really would like to ride a bicycle from lake to lake before I die."

jstettler@sltrib.com