SALT LAKE CITY — Fido is going to have to be content going on a Sunday drive with people parents somewhere other than key Wasatch Front canyons that are part of the watershed after a legislative committee deferred action on a lawmaker’s proposal.
Rep. Cheryl Acton, R- West Jordan, was running HB245 to allow dogs in vehicles up Wasatch canyons as long as they never got out of the car and remained with a licensed driver.
The measure died Monday in the Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee after several opponents testified against the bill, and committee members voted to move to another item on the agenda.
Acton said the bill was less about the watershed and more about personal freedom, plus trusting people to abide by the law.
“It is off-putting to new residents of the area and visitors,” she said. “I believe we need to trust people to obey the law.”
But several people testified that it is already hard enough to police the canyons and people to protect the watershed, and this bill would have just added to the task.
Laura Briefer, executive director of the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities, said people would not understand the risk to the watershed should the bill pass.
“They will be lulled into a false sense of security,” she said, adding it is the intensity of the use of the canyons that causes concerns.
The canyons along the Wasatch Front, she added, receive more visitors a year than Yellowstone National Park.