Joel Ferry is stepping down as commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources, just ahead of an anticipated announcement on Utah’s future share of Colorado River water and as the state grapples with plunging water levels in both the Great Salt Lake and Lake Powell.

Since 2022, Ferry has played a pivotal role in water issues, as Gov. Spencer Cox’s point man on Great Salt Lake conservation efforts and the Colorado River. More recently, he spearheaded the governor’s push to bring nuclear power to the state.

Ferry plans to return to his family farm and do consulting and lobbying work.

Cox nominated Jamie Barnes, the state forester and director of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands since 2021, to take Ferry’s place pending Senate confirmation. Most recently, Barnes was responsible for coordinating Pioneer Day fireworks restrictions with cities and towns across Utah.

Ferry, whose last day is Aug. 28, served two terms in the Utah House of Representatives before Cox picked him to lead DNR in 2022.

He led efforts to reform Utah water policy with hopes of getting more water into the dwindling Great Salt Lake — which Ferry told The New York Times was a “potential environmental nuclear bomb that’s going to go off if we don’t take some pretty dramatic action.”

Despite policy changes and hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds allocated to it, the lake continues to be at risk. It’s possible it will hit a new record low this year.

Ferry helped negotiate to secure water rights to augment the flows to the lake and earlier this year settled a lawsuit that sold more than 22,000 acres of wetlands around the lake to the federal government for $60 million. It will be added to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.

Earlier this month Great Salt Lake Commissioner Brian Steed also stepped down from the role he had held for three years. Cox appointed Hannah Freeze to replace him.

Ferry has been closely involved in tense, high-stakes negotiations on the allocation of Colorado River water between Utah and the other states that rely on it — Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, Nevada and California — plus tribal nations and Mexico.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is expected to announce a new framework for managing the division of the river as early as this week.

In October 2024, Ferry joined Cox to announce Operation Gigawatt, the governor’s initiative to double Utah’s energy production within 10 years, including a major push to enable development of nuclear power.

In June 2026, his department announced the purchase of more than 50,000 acres of roadless areas in the Book Cliffs from the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration to be used for fishing, hunting and public access.

The Tribune last year reported that Ferry had added his name on two water optimization grant applications on behalf of his cousin, who was awarded a total of $200,000 through an Agriculture Department program. Ferry appointed five of the nine members who screened the grants.

What’s next

According to an email sent by Cox’s chief of staff Jon Pierpont announcing the change, Ferry “will be taking on a new opportunity in government affairs. … While Joel is leaving our official team, he will remain an ally to Team Utah as well as a friend to us all.”

A DNR spokesperson said Ferry “plans to return to his family farm while offering consulting and lobbying services in full compliance with Utah law and ethics rules.”

A 2014 executive order by then-Gov. Gary Herbert prohibits members of the governor’s office and others in the executive branch from being lobbied by former employees of the office for two years.

Utah law does not prohibit former members of the governor’s Cabinet from lobbying the Legislature.

Barnes joined the forestry division in 2011 as a paralegal and managed the division’s sovereign lands program before becoming the forester in 2021. She has a master’s degree in natural resources from the University of Idaho and a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Weber State University.

“I look forward to working alongside the dedicated employees of the Department of Natural Resources and our partners across the state to responsibly manage the lands, water and natural resources Utahns depend on,” Barnes said in a statement.