Staples began talking with Wilkey in 2004 after being introduced by Mark Wetzel, the CEO of Utah’s largest golf course management company, Vanguard Golf. And to be honest, that’s not even the half of it, because you obviously don’t build thousand-acre golf resorts on land this precious without a great deal of confrontation from parties eager to ensure no one ever lays a finger, foot or ATV on it.Īnother key figure in the process that secured Wilkey the necessary license to build the golf course, appease the environmentalists, and ensure all the development team’s various responsibilities were met was Andy Staples, principal of the Golf Resource Group founded in Lehi in 2003. I told you it was a complex and convoluted story. “My group now sub-leases land from the city, which it leases from the BLM,” says Wilkey, whose part in helping the BLM establish the tortoise colony was critical, and who was obliged to pay something between $1 million and $2 million to complete the dig and clean up afterwards. In order to obtain the rights to develop, Wilkey was also required to undertake an archaeological dig to ensure no ancient artifacts would be affected. In exchange, Wilkey received enough land to build the resort he was planning, but with it came a stipulation from the city of Hurricane that part be used for Recreation and Public Purpose (R&PP). Wilkey, who had done much to promote the region to Japanese tourists before moving into commercial development, had purchased several hundred acres of condemned land, then traded it with the BLM to help it secure sufficient acreage for the tortoise sanctuary. Administered by Washington County in conjunction with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Utah Department of Natural Resources (DNR), State of Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the reserve has enabled tortoise populations to stabilize, even thrive. In 1996, the 62,000-acre Red Cliffs Desert Reserve was established in southern Utah to provide federal protection for the species. Get our content ad-free by becoming a GNN member for $2/month! Poor old Morafkai wound up with Upper Respiratory Tract Disease and Cutaneous Dyskeratosis (which causes discolored lesions on the animal’s shell) that put it on the endangered list. The tortoise, native to the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, had been plodding along happily for millions of years, avoiding dangerous exchanges with dinosaurs in its formative days, before Homo sapiens and their gluttonous plans for urban expansion shrunk its habitat drastically and introduced all sorts of contaminants. George, which everyone who enjoys great golf in magnificent surroundings should play at least once in their life. Gopherus agassizii and Gopherus morafkai may not have designed the course nor financed its construction, but without them it’s unlikely developer David Wilkey would ever have acquired the land on which to build this amazing layout 18 miles east of the city of St. in Hurricane, Utah probably wouldn’t exist were it not for the Desert Tortoise. It’s a complex and convoluted story, but almost certainly true – Sand Hollow G.C.
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