On the morning of October 3, dozens of tubs of live cacti were lined up on the scorched foothills behind the University of Utah's medical campus. More than 80 volunteers had registered for a four-hour planting shift. Before anyone picked up a shovel, Salt Lake City restoration ecologist Blake Wellard showed a reporter from The Daily Utah Chronicle a bigroot prickly pear, a native cactus he had been waiting years to work with.
"I have been wanting to work with this species since 2010," Wellard told the Chronicle.
If you walk the Red Butte or Bonneville Shoreline trails behind Federal Heights, this is the slope you've been watching since June. The city isn't trying to turn it green again quickly. The first round of recovery uses low, spiny, shallow-rooted native plants picked to hold the ground in place. So the hill above Red Butte Garden will look scrubby for a while, and that's on purpose.
A Plant Picked for What It Does Underground
The Bonneville Fire started on June 20 as a human-caused grass fire near the University of Utah, ABC4 reported. The U.S. Forest Service's burned-area assessment put the final footprint at 572 acres. In July, the University of Utah's @theU said the flames had not damaged the soils. It also said the bare hills would stay at higher risk of debris or mud flows for up to three years while plants grow back.
That three-year window shapes everything being planted now. KSL reported on October 10 that city crews had planted 1,500 prickly pear cacti across the burn scar the week before, and the story links that planting to the plains pricklypear. It describes the hillsides above Red Butte Garden as vulnerable to erosion after the fire. Wellard explained the choice to KSL:
"Prickly pear has a very shallow root system, so it can spread out wide in these dry and rocky soils and really help stabilize these slopes."
A tree puts its roots down. A prickly pear spreads its roots out sideways, close to the surface, which is where loose rock and soil start to slide. The Chronicle reported visible signs of erosion at the planting site, where rocks and soil had already come down the hill. The cacti also feed wildlife. Wellard told KSL the plants produce "a really large, showy flower that provides nectar and pollen resources for pollinators," and that this species grows a large, edible red fruit.
The Cactus That Isn't a Hybrid
Prickly pear isn't rare in Utah, but the plant Wellard showed the Chronicle is. He called the bigroot prickly pear "a species of local conservation concern," and said that when he started working with Utah cacti, it was "one of the only true species of prickly pears locally. The rest are hybrids."
He also explained why it became scarce in the foothills. The plant's natural range, he said, "just happened to overlap with where we like to put our homes." Neither the Chronicle nor KSL says how many of the cacti now on the burn scar are bigroot. KSL's count of 1,500 points to the plains pricklypear, which is a different species. The city keeps a page on the effort, Restoring Native Cacti in Our Foothills, which the Chronicle linked in its coverage.
The October 3 shift had help from well beyond the neighborhood. It was hosted by the University of Utah's Prosperity U Initiative with Salt Lake City Public Lands and Realize the Dream, the national service campaign co-founded by Martin Luther King III. Realize the Dream is collecting 100 million service hours ahead of the 2029 centennial of Dr. King's birth. Joshua Black of the U's Center for Business, Health and Prosperity told the Chronicle that the initiative had already logged more than 55 million hours, and the volunteers' time on the hill counts toward that goal. KSL reported that volunteers from University of Utah Greek Life chapters joined the planting as well.
What's on the Slope Now, and What's Only Temporary
The cacti are the newest layer on a hillside that has changed in stages since June. Some of those stages were built to be removed later.
| Date | What happened on the foothills | Source |
|---|---|---|
| June 20 | Fire starts as a grass fire near the University of Utah | ABC4 |
| June 24 | Bonneville Shoreline, City Creek, Dry Creek and Red Butte trails still closed | ABC4 |
| By July 2 | Trails around the fire reported reopened | FOX 13, KUTV |
| July 16 | U reports 2,000 sandbags and Jersey barriers along 700 feet of the Red Butte and Bonneville Shoreline trails | @theU |
| October 3 | 80-plus volunteers plant native cacti | Daily Utah Chronicle |
| Early October | 1,500 prickly pears planted across the burn scar | KSL |
The barriers along the trails are the temporary piece. The U said more than 100 volunteers from the campus community helped place the sandbags and Jersey barriers to send runoff away from the area above Huntsman Cancer Institute. It described them as a stopgap until reseeding and new plant growth take over. The cacti planted this month are part of that new growth. The trail-side barriers are meant to come out once plants are holding the slope, and the prickly pears are meant to stay.
The original plants are coming back too, slowly. "Some of the Gambel oak is just starting to recover," Wellard told KSL. In July, the university said burned vegetation could take one to three years to recover.
Sagebrush From a Greenhouse, and a Lecture on Sagebrush Tomorrow Night
Prickly pear isn't the only native going in. KSL reported that Salt Lake City partnered with the Utah Department of Corrections greenhouse program, where inmates grew sagebrush that is now being planted in the burn area. Wellard said restoring wildlife habitat is a key goal of the project.
The timing lines up with something happening just downhill. On Tuesday, October 13, from 7 to 8:15 p.m., the Natural History Museum of Utah hosts writer and photographer Stephen Trimble for The Sagebrush Ocean. It's a free lecture of stories and photographs from the updated edition of his book about the Great Basin. The same plant community is being replanted on the slope above the museum.
October Under the Replanted Hill
Red Butte Garden and the museum sit at the bottom of the burned slope, and both have full calendars this month. When the fire was burning in June, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that university operations, including the garden, were open as usual.
- Spooky Science Night, October 14, 5 to 9 p.m. Halloween-themed STEM activities, crafts, a scavenger hunt and the Ghost Moth Ball at NHMU.
- Garden After Dark: Adventures in Neverland, October 15 to 30. Red Butte Garden runs an interactive Peter Pan storyline from 6 to 8 p.m. on weeknights and 6 to 9 p.m. on weekends. Hocus Crocus, an all-abilities hour, runs 5 to 6 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
- Family Seasonal Science: Halloween, October 17, 10:15 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. Free with museum admission.
- Super Science Saturday: Canvas of Curiosity, October 24, 9:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Hands-on art-and-science activities for kids.
- HawkWatch: Birds in the Lab!, October 31, noon to 2 p.m. Live raptors at the museum, free with admission.
Daytime garden hours from October through December are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the garden closes on Thanksgiving Day. For evening plans, an October 1 @theU commuter notice warns that major campus event days can back up traffic around South Campus Drive and Foothill Drive.
Getting Up There Yourself
KSL reported that Salt Lake City Public Lands plans more volunteer events in the coming weeks, focused on wildfire mitigation work. No dates have been announced yet, and the city points residents to its online updates. In July, KUTV asked hikers to report erosion damage to Salt Lake City Parks and Recreation or Trails Utah.
Trail news since summer has been thin. The reopenings were reported in early July. The newest dated entry on the city's Foothills Natural Area trail-updates page is from January 16, 2026, so it doesn't show October conditions. FOX 13 asked trail users to stay on the trail. On the burn scar, staying on the trail also keeps boots off 1,500 freshly planted cacti.
Jason has followed how the foothills above the University of Utah have changed since June, including what's been replanted, what's temporary and which trailheads reopened. If you'd like to talk about what that slope means for life in Federal Heights, Jason J. Real Estate is glad to share what he knows. Let's Connect.
