Utah reps seek nearly 300 acres of federal land to close Bonneville Shoreline Trail gap
Sep 23, 2025, 10:01 PM | Updated: 10:02 pm
A Bonneville Shoreline Trail sign in Salt Lake City is pictured on Sunday, March 7, 2021. A Draper hiking trail connected to the Bonneville Shoreline trail, closed by a wildfire, will soon reopen. (Annie Barker/Deseret News)
(Annie Barker/Deseret News)
FRUIT HEIGHTS — A pair of Utah congressional representatives unveiled a new proposal to transfer close to 300 acres of U.S. Forest Service land, which they say will help add to the planned vision of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.
Reps. Blake Moore and Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, introduced the Fruit Heights Land Conveyance Act of 2025 on Monday, a bill that calls for approximately 296 acres of undesignated federal land within the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest to be conveyed to the city of Fruit Heights in Davis County. It would allow for the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and “provide additional recreational opportunities for Utahns,” the representatives explained.
“Hiking and biking trails have always been a major component of recreation and community events along the Wasatch Front. Unfortunately, federal red tape has made it impossible for necessary trail maintenance to move forward and for the construction of new trails connecting the existing trail network,” Moore said in a statement. “The Fruit Heights Land Conveyance Act will allow the city to make these improvements and increase recreational access for Utahns.”
While the trail runs mostly continuously from I-84 to Farmington, there is a gap near Fruit Heights. A trail to close that gap is listed as a future trail construction site on the official trail map, but city leaders say they haven’t been able to reach an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service on the land needed to make it happen.
The Fruit Heights Land Conveyance Act of 2025 would transfer a long and narrow sliver of federal land next to Fruit Heights over to the city, so it can close the gap and “improve and expand” hiking and biking trails in the area. This, the sponsors say, would increase public access in the outdoors.
The legislation includes “a reserved easement” for the Bonneville Shoreline Trail to ensure that the land is used for public access. If approved, Fruit Heights would be responsible for all conveyance costs and must use the land for public purposes, or give the land back to the federal government if it violates that measure.
Fruit Heights and Farmington’s mayors both endorsed the measure on Monday.
“(It) will allow our community to build hiking and biking trails and complete the final section of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail in Davis County,” said Fruit Heights Mayor John Pohlman in a statement. “These completed trails will be a benefit to our community and our state for decades to come.”
The measure must still go through a legislative process in Washington, D.C., before the sale is finalized. However, it could be the latest addition to the trail that has grown since its first sections opened in the 1990s.
A 2.85-mile segment opened in Cache County last year. The ultimate goal is a trail that runs from the Utah-Idaho border to central Utah on a path that follows the old shores of the prehistoric Lake Bonneville, according to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail Committee.
