Cutler Reservoir Recreation

The Cutler Hydroelectric Project (Cutler Project) is located on the Bear River near Logan, Utah approximately an hour and half north of Salt Lake City in Box Elder and Cache counties. The Cutler Project's primary purpose is irrigation, with the secondary purpose of power generation. Today, the Cutler Project is owned and operated by the large utility, PacifiCorp, but the Cutler Project has a deep history rooted in irrigation and providing water to arid land on the Colorado Plateau.

In the late 1890s, Utah Power & Light (UP&L) constructed the Hammond and West canals to provide irrigation water to the "dry bench and valley lands of the Bear River Valley" (SWCA 2020). The construction of this canal and the upstream Wheelon Dam resulted in many years of continued water rights battles over actual-versus-promised water distributions for farmers in the Cache Valley (2020). It was not until 1924 that UP&L, after having constructed a stretch of successful hydroelectric projects on the Bear River, decided to build the Cutler Project to reach a new stretch of customers on the Wasatch Front (from Logan down to Provo, and containing Salt Lake City, Bountiful, and Ogden, Utah).

In 1927, the Cutler Project dam was completed creating the very large, but shallow Cutler Reservoir and submerging the historic Wheelon Dam in place (NPS 1989). Although water rights originally caused contention in the Cache Valley, after the construction of the dam, there has been very little controversy surrounding the dam and its operations.

Today, nearing its 100 years of operation, the Cutler Project provides the Bear River Valley multiple beneficial uses including irrigation, flood protection, power generation, and other human environment benefits such as bird watching and recreation including boating, and waterfowl hunting. In fact, multiple boat and canoe launches are located thorough the Cutler Reservoir, and the lower marsh area of the reservoir provide ample year-round bird watching in an area known as the wetlands maze. PacifiCorp continues to operate the Cutler Project for these beneficial uses, and has recently applied for a new operating license that could have a term of 40 to 50 years.

As mentioned above, recreational boating, hiking, and bird watching are the primary activities done at the Cutler Reservoir. The purpose of this interactive web map is to help recreation users navigate the very large Cutler Reservoir, which encompasses over 10,000 acres of usable land. The web map contains the following features:

• Recreation Site Layer
• No-Hunting Zone Layer
• Boater Speed Zones Layer
• Cutler Project Boundary
• Symbology for Recreation Sites
• Pop-Ups Providing Site Photos
• Web Application contains My Location widget, Directions To widget, and Map Legend.