Although the upper portion of the Red Butte Creek’s watershed is a protected natural area, the creek’s lower reaches—which run through the center of the University of Utah—have faced over a century of degradation, diversion, and neglect. In collaboration with the Global Change and Sustainability Center and the Sustainability Office, the Center for Ecological Planning and Design led the development of a Strategic Vision for the Red Butte Creek, which proposes a draft strategy to revitalize the creek and its watershed and turn it into a model ecological corridor for research, environmental education, community engagement, and campus sustainability. The final draft of the Strategic Vision was completed in fall 2015 and was granted preliminary University administration approval. Since then, further stakeholder and community review of the vision has been solicited.

Read the Strategic Vision for Red Butte Creek 

This short video shows some of the ways that the creek is being utilized as a living laboratory.