(Tribune file photo by Brian Maffly) A typical summer Saturday at Big Cottonwood Canyon's Donut Falls sees hundreds of visitors who make the one-mile hike in Cardiff Fork. Salt Lake County has adopted a new general plan for Big Cottonwood and three adjacent Wasatch canyons, where excessive recreational use and traffic threaten the very resources that make the canyons worthy places to tap for drinking water and enjoy nature.
Brian Maffly has worked for The Tribune off and on since 1994. Maffly roams Utah, covering public land and environment.