Funding for water and wildlife conservation in Utah now on Trump's list of budget cuts

Yahoo

09-05-2025

The Provo River Delta is pictured on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
The Trump administration is recommending Congress cut hundreds of millions out of the government's budget that helps fund the Central Utah Project, a massive system of water infrastructure and habitat restoration projects.
It's just one line item in the administration's 46-page discretionary budget request, which slashes funding for a number of programs and agencies while boosting federal dollars for defense and border security.
According to the White House, the Department of the Interior's budget provides about $1.2 billion to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Central Utah Project. Of that, the White House is proposing a $609 million cut.
Described as the 'most comprehensive federal water resource development project' in the state, the Central Utah Project is a web of reservoirs, pipelines and river systems that transports Colorado River water from eastern Utah to the Wasatch Front, where it's tasked for municipal and industrial use, irrigation, hydroelectric power, fish and wildlife, conservation and recreation.
But reservoirs and pipelines disrupt wildlife and vegetation, and sometimes come at the expense of hunting, fishing and other types of recreation — so a portion of the funding for the project has been used to offset those impacts. Now, the Trump administration wants the project to solely focus on water infrastructure.
According to the budget proposal, the money allocated to the project funds programs that 'have nothing to do with building and maintaining water infrastructure, such as habitat restoration.'
'Instead, the Budget focuses Reclamation and the Central Utah Project on their core missions of maintaining assets that provide safe, reliable, and efficient management of water resources throughout the western United States,' the proposal reads.
The request doesn't specify any habitat restoration project in particular, and it's likely the request would also impact other bureau projects in the West.
In Utah, that funding helped restore wetlands and riparian areas along the Provo and Duchesne rivers, improve recreation access for hunters, anglers and boaters, and have contributed to the resurgence of the June Sucker, a fish native to Utah Lake that was once near extinction.
'It's tough to say at this point how that all trickles down to Utah and to our project, but we're making plans and adjustments,' said Michael Mills, executive director of the Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission. 'It's a difficult spot we're in, we don't really have any more details than what is included in that budget proposal.'
Mills' commission was formed in the 1990s after Congress passed the Central Utah Project Completion Act. The commission works to offset the environmental impact of large water infrastructure projects — for instance, when the Jordanelle Reservoir was created in 1993, the commission worked to restore a lower section of the Provo River to make up for the section that was flooded, and conserved land in Wasatch County for elk herds that were displaced.
Since its inception, the commission has worked with federal, state and local governments, universities, nonprofits and the Ute tribe on a number of ecosystem and wildlife conservation projects.
One of the most recent is the Provo River Delta Restoration and the June Sucker Recovery Implementation Program on Utah Lake.
The June Sucker was nearly extinct in the 1980s — if it didn't have a lifespan of nearly 40 years, some ecologists say the species would have disappeared. But a few hundred held on, and as the species was listed as endangered, the June Sucker Recovery Implementation Program took shape.
Farmers and water users in the basin worked to conserve water to increase Provo River flows, and a collaborative effort to restore the river's delta in Provo began. The delta has undergone a complete transformation — now there's a boat ramp, hiking trails and a thriving ecosystem. On any given day, you can find scores of birds, fish and other wildlife at the delta, including the June Sucker. This year, scientists estimated the fish's population to be 80,000.
All of that was made possible by the federal revenue stream now on the chopping block.
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'A lot of people think the federal government is all about overreach and regulation. But what we see with the June Sucker program is that federal coordination brought resources, it brought a lot of funding, and it gave a mechanism for different stakeholders to be heard,' said Ben Abbott, associate professor of environmental science and sustainability at Brigham Young University.
'Yes, it was about this endemic fish that only lives on Utah Lake, but it ended up improving water quality and creating better public access and having a lot of unexpected benefits,' he said.
The proposed budget cut makes Abbot and others nervous that projects like the June Sucker restoration won't be possible in the future. The Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission is currently working on a restoration project on the Duchesne River in eastern Utah that, if federal funding is pulled, could be impacted.
Plus, operation and maintenance for completed projects could suffer. Federal funding pays for snow and garbage removal, bathroom maintenance, fencing, general upkeep and ongoing conservation.
'Obviously, I think the work we do is very important, and I enjoy doing it. But if our elected officials are saying there's other priorities out there, we pivot to try to accommodate those priorities,' Mills said.
The president's budget recommendations are just that — recommendations. Congress has the final say when it comes to federal spending, and experts say that many of Trump's proposed cuts won't get a green light.
But it provides insight into the Trump administration's priorities. Since taking office, the administration, in partnership with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has cut budgets for federal agencies and laid off federal workers in an attempt to streamline the government and cut waste.
The budget proposal reflects that same sentiment, with a proposed $163 billion in cuts to non-defense discretionary spending. That includes more than $15 billion in funds allocated under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; $1.3 billion for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to study climate change; nearly $1 billion for the National Park Service to operate the park system, build new infrastructure, preserve historic sites, and offer preservation and recreation grants; and $721 million slated for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Program.
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