Enjoying the great outdoors — whether through hunting, fishing or simply taking in the beauty of one of our many nature and wildlife preserves — is part of Utah’s heritage and legacy. Protecting that legacy is something Utahans take seriously, which is why I was particularly grateful to see Sen. Mitt Romney play such a critical leadership role in passing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
In addition to investing in long-overdue upgrades and improvements to our national system of roads, highways and bridges, the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure bill will also allocate much-needed funds to protect and preserve our natural infrastructure, including our waterways and wildlife habitats. These investments will go a long way in helping ensure Utah maintains its outdoor heritage and legacy for generations to come.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act represents the largest investment in our national infrastructure and waterways in decades, much of which directly benefit Utah’s sportsmen and women, outdoors enthusiasts and recreationalists. That includes tens of billions of dollars to clean up Superfund sites like the Jacobs Smelter Superfund Site in Stockton, reclaim and remediate abandoned mines, restore forest and watershed areas, remove or repair aging dams and make several other improvements that will enhance environmental protection efforts throughout Utah and across the country.
Additionally, the infrastructure bill includes over $80 billion in water infrastructure investments, the bulk of which will help ensure access to clean, safe drinking water for rural and urban communities alike. These water infrastructure investments also include hundreds of millions of dollars for programs like WaterSMART, which focuses on waterway reclamation and conservation as well as natural infrastructure preservation. Hundreds of millions more will go to enhancing watershed management efforts, restoring, and protecting aquatic ecosystems, and implementing the Colorado River Basin Drought Contingency Plan.
Moreover, there is great potential for some of the infrastructure funding Utah receives from the bill to go toward other critical outdoors initiatives, like protecting critical wildlife migration corridors to help ensure fish and wildlife can migrate to their different habitat areas freely and safely throughout the state. For example, many are aware of the wildlife overpass at the top of Parley’s Canyon over I-80. This is a great example of future successful highway infrastructure projects benefiting wildlife. All these efforts will help keep the great outdoors great here in the Beehive State and throughout the country.
Overall, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a strong, commonsense bill that gives Utah the tools we need to protect and preserve our proud outdoor heritage and legacy for future generations of Utahans. Sen. Romney deserves credit for helping to craft and pass this much-needed bipartisan solution to address America’s core infrastructure needs.
Bill Christensen
Bill Christensen is the retired regional director of Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and currently serves on the board of Utah Chapter of the National Wildlife Federation.
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