Stephen Shelley
Silver Lake Summer Home Association President
American Fork Canyon, Utah
June 6, 2015
I’m Stephen Shelley. I am the president of the Silver Lake Summer Home Association in American Fork Canyon. My role as a summer home association president is to conduct the business of the association. I maintain, or see that the water system is maintained, I see that the water samples are taken. Basically I am the liaison with the Forest Service on our permitted ground.
(Actual meeting) OK, future of the canyon. In April, first part of April I got a letter from the Forest Service that said this American Fork Canyon Vision Group was having a meeting in Cedar Hills, and I looked at it, and ok, what is this, is it like Save Our Canyons in Salt Lake? I don’t know. It was after my tax season so I’ve got time, I’ll go ahead and go. I went to the meeting as my sister Karen did, Steve (Moosman) was going to go, he couldn’t make it. But when we got there we started listening to what was going on and it was people, this survey group for lack of a better term. Trying to tell people, OK this is what we are envisioning for the canyon for the future and they were talking about different things they can do and it came out that Snowbird wants to do more up in Mineral Basin, their talking trams, their talking lodges, all kinds of things
(Karen) Depending on which group you were in, there was very little information that was given out about Snowbird, and what they wanted to do.
(Stephen) Right, When Karen got there, she went with my other sister Pat and she saw the parking lot and said OK, Subaru’s, ski racks, OK, this is all about Snowbird. She walked in and she knew a couple of people there from when she worked at Timpanogos Cave that also worked at Timpanogos Cave in the summer but they worked Snowbird in the winter. It pretty much came down to it’s all about what’s going to happen in the future to basically to benefit…and to me it’s to benefit Snowbird and that group of people.
(Interview)
We would hope that the government entities, the local, the county and the state, the business people that are proposing these things would have an open meeting and invite all of us to the table to see what is actually going to be proposed, what is going to happen and what may happen. We would invite hikers, picnickers’, hunters, fishermen, anybody who uses the canyon, four-wheelers, bicyclist, anybody, anybody should be able to come and find out what is going on.
If I had to ask the people at Snowbird one question, the question I would ask them would be “Why do you have to have it all?” You have more than enough in Little Cottonwood Canyon. This canyon needs to be protected. Come to the table, join us, help us preserve this. It’s the last canyon on the Wasatch Front that people can go and enjoy a variety of activities.
If I had a question to ask the AFCanyon Vision people, I would ask them “Why haven’t you been more forthcoming about meetings and being open and telling the public really what is at stake?”
If I could ask the Forest Service something I would ask them “If this was allowed to proceed, what other uses are going to be lost? What multiple uses are going to be gone?”
It’s a process that everybody needs to be involved in not just the people behind the scenes like the way government works. It is a multiple use canyon and it needs to stay a multiple use canyon. It’s a very unique place. It’s a place not like any other in the world.
The Mountain Accord in Salt Lake County has created some discord, not only in Salt Lake County but also in Utah County. The people in Salt Lake County should be as concerned about what is happening in American Fork Canyon as we are because my understanding is more than fifty percent of the use of this canyon is from people from Salt Lake County.
In closing let me say that let me ask anybody that hasn’t been up American Fork Canyon, to come up American Fork Canyon and enjoy it. See what we will lose if we lose it