Decker Lake Project.
NHH-UT is working with Get Healthy Utah, Healthy West Valley, and Salt Lake County to understand how people use Decker Lake, and increase the accessible health benefits of the space.
About the Project.
The goal of this project is to understand the multiple ways that people use Decker Lake Park. We are interested in how Decker Lake Park visitors and people who live or work in West Valley City but do not use Decker Lake Park perceive the health-related values of the space, and barriers to accessing those values.
We are interested in studying what kinds of experiences people want to have, and what people are experiencing day-to-day at Decker Lake Park. Many improvements to the park have been proposed, and some are already underway. It is important to create these improvements with current or potential park users in mind, and your experience and opinion matters!
Meet Maggie.
Maggie is a second-year graduate student in the Environmental Humanities program at the University of Utah, thrilled to be joining Nature and Human Health-Utah as the program’s first graduate fellow. She comes to Utah from Chicago, where her earliest connections to nature happened along shorelines and shady spaces in the city’s beaches and parks. Maggie has used her time in graduate school to pursue a deep interest in urban ecology and study how humans connect to plants, animals, and each other in places that have a high degree of human design or disturbance. She is interested in how urban parks and public lands can foster meaningful connections between humans and nonhumans, support species richness, and positively impact human health!
About Decker Lake.
Decker Lake Park is a 52-acre urban park on the east side of West Valley City. It has grassy areas and small hills, a walking path around a large pond with bushes, reeds, and trees, and lies along the Crosstowne trail, which connects Magna Copper Park to the Jordan River. Decker Lake is also visited by many migratory birds- 184 species have been recorded through community science on Ebird!
Stakeholders Involved.
There are two active improvement projects at Decker Lake:
A project to increase physical activity and connection to nature by installing new interpretive signage about wildlife and way finding at Decker Lake. The grant team (a collaboration between Get Healthy Utah, Healthy West Valley, and other agency and nonprofit organizations) also works on trash cleanup events, alongside organizations like Keep Decker Lake Beautiful.
Day-to-day management of Decker Lake and the administration of additional recreational and infrastructure improvements is managed by Salt Lake County.
Project Report
A report outlining recommendations for Salt Lake County and West Valley City will provide insight for park management and engagement activities. Survey results will shape the report and ensure future changes move the park towards being the most accessible, comfortable, and connected place it can be.
Decker Lake PSA
A public resource that communicates the health benefits of spending time in urban nature, how to achieve those benefits in the space of Decker Lake, and ideas for engagement. Emphasis placed on a particular area of human health will be determined by the survey results.
We’ll be sharing this PSA in late April and early May at events at Decker Lake and around West Valley City- stay tuned for more!
Project Outcomes.
Support the project by taking the survey below.
Questions?
Contact Maggie at maggie.scholle@utah.edu.