Despite encroaching development and the lure of big dollars, these parcels of land will remain unchanged indefinitely with the help of state grants approved Wednesday.

The Utah Quality Growth Commission handed out $3.2 million in taxpayer-funded grants, the most awarded in the seven-year history of the LeRay McAllister Open Space Conservation Fund.

Recipients will match the money with federal dollars and private donations to either purchase land or buy the development rights in the form of conservation easements. Either way, the objective is to preserve the lands in their current state.

The commission struggled with which projects to fund. Of the 27 projects for which funds were sought, 10 got nothing and only one - the Zollinger Farm - received the full amount requested. The Zollinger Farm outside Logan has operated as a family orchard for more than 100 years and still produces fruit, although the main crops now are plants and trees sold to nurseries.

The commission spent $300,000 for the state's share of an easement to keep the popular Cache County farm out of the hands of developers.

"It means a great deal to our family," said Ron Zollinger, who is still working the land his grandfather bought in 1904. "Trying to take a farm from one generation to the next nowadays, especially when you have urban encroachment, is difficult."

Zollinger's son Jacob is next in line to oversee the 90 acres, and he won't have to worry about the homes being built ever closer to his apple trees.

Other grants were awarded to preserve Perkins Flat in Emigration Canyon, which was identified as the Mormon pioneers' last camp before they entered the Salt Lake Valley; the town of Francis, in Summit County, which will use the funds to protect foothills surrounding the town; and Draper, which will combine the state money with $7 million from the city to conserve 1,035 acres. That is described by the commission as the largest available open space in Salt Lake County.

The McAllister Open Space fund receives almost all of its money directly from the Legislature. The fund started with about $3 million to dole out in 1999, but that dipped to less than $500,000 when a recession hit Utah in 2002. With the funding going back up, Quality Growth Commission Chairman Dan Lofgren said he expected the pent-up demand. Some of this year's grant recipients will probably come back next year to seek additional funds, Lofgren said, but he expects the number of grant requests to decline.

But he said that doesn't mean there isn't a demand for more money into the McAllister Fund. The commission would have needed more than $10 million to fully fund all qualified projects.

mcanham@sltrib.com

Open Space Conservation Fund

First six fiscal years:

* $9.8 million

* 45 projects

* 33,000 acres

Fiscal 2006:

* $3.2 million

* 13 projects

* 15,800 acres

Source: Utah Quality Growth Commission