In 2001, the city of Payson purchased land at the base of Payson Canyon to protect the watershed, habitat, and for recreational opportunities. The land consisted of 480 acres and became known to locals as Forebay, due to the canal water that runs through the area.
This past month, Payson teamed up with the city of Lehi to protect the area in perpetuity for open space for the public to use.
“We bought the property many years ago and through the years, the public has created trails with input from the city and surrounding properties,” said community services director Karl Teemant. “We bought it originally for its preservation and conservation and we’ve done that for 25 years and made it into a recreation destination.”
One recreationalist who has been crucial in not only creating trails in the area, but working with city officials through the process, is Carey Pierce, who said that early on, he saw the vision.
“I had some experience building trails up at Sundance, and I saw the potential in Payson,” Pierce said. “I talked to the city and they said yes, that I could start building trails. It was just a one-man show, so my trail building was extremely slow, but it started to grow. Every year, I would just build a little more and a little more, and it just kept growing.”
Pierce started building trails in 2003, and little-by-little, people started to take notice.
“I think it coincided with the growth in the county,” Pierce said. “Early on, it was just kind of a local place that we always had that was fun to use. We built the trails and it was fun and it was just us and everybody we knew up there. Over time, the trails have gotten busier and the county’s gotten more populated.”
As the county grew in numbers, Pierce said that not only did he see more people on the trails, but he saw neighboring areas trying to fight for their open spaces. He knew that there was something special about the Forebay area, and he wanted to do everything he could to preserve it.
“I really want to save and protect this spot because I could see what was happening,”he said. “Since the city put the land in surplus property, we started acting. We got the Friends of Forebay (committee), and it’s been a slow journey, but ultimately, that’s OK because the outcome is really all I wanted — which was protection for the long term.”
Protecting the area for the long term took more than building trails and working with city officials. It took showing those officials that the land was important to the community, the economy and the general ecosystem. It also took cities working together toward accountability.
Doing so also took a lot of time, money and resources, which Teemant said has been worth it.
“Over the last number of years, the thought process has been, ‘How can we get this into a permanent protection that wouldn’t allow it to change, because those things happen” Teemant said. “The conservation easement came up and we created a Forebay management plan that we adopted through the National Park Services study and then created a Forebay committee which is appointed by the city.”
As the plans moved forward, a parking lot was built, and Payson city started to look at how other cities were putting together their conservation easements.
In 2024, the city of Lehi had put together a 900-acre conservation easement in the Traverse Mountain area, and Payson officials took notice and started getting advice.
“We had Lehi come and visit with their management team, including Kim Struthers and Todd Munger, and decided that we liked the format of their easement,” Teemant said. “We started the process of our attorney writing our conservation easement and noted things that were valuable to preserve and the purpose of it all and then we needed an easement holder.”
Teemant explained that an easement holder keeps the city accountable to the terms of the easement.
“Lehi holds the easement and there are natural and recreational values attached to it,” he said. “The area is available for recreational purposes and for water conveyance. It’s a settling bay of water and we use that for irrigation, and there’s a power plant. The name Forebay is the bay of water before the powerplant. There’s different elements of the easement that say that these are allowed uses, and then there are things that aren’t allowable like developments and we can’t decrease the size of the property.
“Lehi holds Payson accountable by making sure the city is abiding by the easement and protecting the land the way it says it will,” he added. “If we end up going against it, Lehi will voice their opinion and say, ‘Hey, you’re breaking your easement.’ It gives two public bodies needing to vote to make a change.”
Teemant said that there are no plans to make any changes to the area — except for adding recreational trails.
“We added a hiking and biking trail called Apple Tree Springs last year,” he said. “This year, we’re going to add another loop toward the back and the city council with the Forebay committee has approved a bike skills park to be in the base near the canyon. We’re searching for funding, but the plan is to build that to help people develop their skills in mountain biking. It would allow more people of all abilities to come and hone their skills.”
As a city representative, Teemant said that having the easement shows the “value” they see in Forebay.
“For the city as a whole, the decision from our city council to move forward with the easement, shows that, ‘Hey, we value this part of the community and we want future generations to be able to have access to that as well.”
Teemant and Peirce alike, said that the conservation easement has been a long time coming, and they’re glad it is finally a reality.
“We’ve owned the property for 25 years with the intent to preserve and conserve,” Teemant said. “It’s been a slow process, but now the easement is in place. Forebay is a beloved escape for residents and visitors — a protected and guaranteed place to hike, bike, breathe and connect with nature. It’s a place that supports physical, mental and emotional health for the community of today and for the future.”
“We got it,” Pierce said. “I couldn’t be happier just to know that it’s protected and safe.”
