GUNNISON, Utah — As drought conditions across the state worsen, with many in central Utah already feeling the impact, state leaders are preparing to offer relief to farmers. The Utah Department of Agriculture claims help is on the way for what’s expected to be one of the toughest growing seasons in years.

Longtime central Utah farmer Allen Dyreng says this year stands out.

“I’ve seen years close to this, but not this bad. This is the worst year,” Dyreng said.

Dyreng pointed to dramatically low reservoir levels in Gunnison, where water supplies are far below normal.

“Right now, our reservoirs are at 7% of capacity. We have 1,800 acre-feet of water in storage, and we usually have 23,000,” he said. “They’ll likely be emptied by the first of June.”

The situation marks a sharp contrast from just a few years ago.

In 2021, the Gunnison Reservoir ran completely dry. By 2023, improved runoff briefly brought some relief, with water levels partially recovering. But now, conditions have reversed again.

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Dyreng is now retired but was president of Gunnison Irrigation Company for about 20 years and farmed land for nearly five decades that had been in his family for generations. He said the lack of water will significantly reduce how much land farmers can use this season.

“We normally are able to grow crops on 14,000 acres,” Dyrent explained. “We would be lucky this year to have crops on 5,000 acres.”

The state is working to prevent long-term damage to Utah’s agricultural industry.

“Water is their lifeblood,” said Kelly Pehrson, commissioner of the Utah Department of Agriculture. “We don’t want to lose farms in Utah.”

Utah is expecting an emergency disaster declaration that would open the door to low-interest loans and additional support programs, including grazing improvement and water optimization grants.

“We’ve got to figure out a way to bring hope back to them,” Pehrson said. “This is going to be a tough year. No doubt about it.”

Drought conditions continue to intensify across the region. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, much of Utah is now experiencing extreme to exceptional drought, with conditions worsening in just the past week.

For farmers, the impact goes far beyond inconvenience.

“I think this year we will deliver the least amount of water on record,” Dyreng said. “It cuts pretty deep into every aspect of the economy down here.”

State leaders say they plan to meet directly with farmers in communities across Utah later this month to better understand the needs and connect them with available resources.

More information can be found at ag.utah.gov.

If the Vancouver Canucks could hit the “undo” button on one trade in the last decade or so, it would have to be the one that ultimately landed Dylan Guenther with the Utah Mammoth.

In a draft day trade in 2021, the then-Arizona Coyotes acquired the ninth overall pick from the Canucks, which the Coyotes used to select Guenther.

Five years later, “Gunner” has five goals and 11 points in 10 career games against the Canucks — including a goal and an assist in the Mammoth’s 7-4 win at Rogers Arena on Saturday.

He’s also two goals away from the 40 mark for the season. For context, Brock Boeser leads the Canucks in goals this season with 21.

The only things the Canucks have left from the deal are a pair of mediocre draft picks from flipping Conor Garland to the Columbus Blue Jackets and four more seasons of millions in dead cap space after buying Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s contract out two years later.

But Guenther’s two points on Saturday were only half of what the game’s leading scorer, Clayton Keller, contributed. Among his four points were three goals, lining up his third career hat trick and his first with the Utah franchise.

In true Keller fashion, he shrugged off his success without even cracking a smile.

“It feels good, for sure. Great plays by the guys on all of them, so, yeah, it’s good to score, for sure,” he said.

It was an all-hands-on-deck type of win for the Mammoth, with 13 different players recording points (including five of the six defensemen). Their third win in a row maintains their healthy lead in the wild card race, though they still haven’t officially clinched a playoff spot.

Through two seasons of existence, Utah remains perfect against Vancouver. The Philadelphia Flyers and the Buffalo Sabres are the only other teams that have yet to beat the league’s newest team, though each of them has only seen Utah four times, as opposed to Vancouver’s six.

How deep can you go?

Depth is a trait of virtually every Stanley Cup-winning team. The regular season is a grind and the playoffs are even more intense, so there are always injuries. The best teams find ways to overcome them.

With a few exceptions, the Mammoth have been largely fortunate this season on the injury front — unlike last year, when two of their top four defensemen missed more than half the season. But over the last week or so, guys have started to drop.

It began with Barrett Hayton, who collided with a teammate just seconds into the Mammoth’s March 24 game against the Edmonton Oilers and is now out on a week-to-week basis.

In Thursday’s game against the Seattle Kraken, Jack McBain took an Adam Larsson shot to the leg and is also out week to week. NHL Edge lists Larsson in the 92nd percentile in shot speed, so you can imagine how much that must have stung.

MacKenzie Weegar missed Saturday’s game, too, with what the Mammoth categorized as an “upper-body injury” expected to keep him out on a day-to-day basis.

It isn’t clear what caused Weegar’s injury, though he did take a fairly hard hit from Jacob Melanson with 9:58 on the clock in the third period on Thursday. That said, Weegar did finish that shift and played another three shifts afterwards.

But Utah’s depth guys are coming up big.

Liam O’Brien, who hadn’t played in precisely two months, scored what may have been the prettiest of his 13 career NHL goals Saturday, beating Nikita Tolopilo on a move to the backhand with speed.

“He’s such a great teammate, great guy, and he grinds every single day, so that’s, like, awesome to see,” Keller said of O’Brien.

Nick DeSimone filled Weegar’s spot on the back end, playing his first game since March 10. As always, he played as if he hadn’t missed a game all year.

He was on the ice for two goals against, but neither one was directly his fault — and he made up for it by being present for three Mammoth goals, registering an assist on one of them.

And with the likes of Dmitri Simashev, Kevin Rooney, Daniil But and a number of other capable role players on the outside looking in, the team is well-equipped to handle additional adversity that may come as it pushes for the playoffs.

“It’s not just having depth. It’s having guys you trust,” said Mammoth head coach André Tourigny after the game. “Both of those two guys (O’Brien and DeSimone), I trust them. They play the right way, they’re good pros, they stay ready. (No matter) how long they don’t play, they jump in.”

“We have a deep lineup and anyone that steps in is a great player and someone that knows our systems well and can contribute. O’Brien and DeSimone stepped in tonight and were great for us,” added Keller.

Goal of the game

Fans were treated to a number of beautiful goals on Saturday, but there’s one that stands out above the rest.

Kailer Yamamoto tipped a Logan Cooley shot-pass through his legs and into the net to tie the game early.

Keep in mind that Yamamoto is a guy who spent nearly all of last season in the minors and has watched a lot of games from the press box this year. It takes immense amounts of skill and confidence to pull off a move like that in an NHL game, and Yamamoto has plenty of both.

I said it on X and I’ll repeat it here: As long as players like Yamamoto are on the fringe of NHL rosters, I refuse the notion that expansion over-dilutes the game. More than ever before, the number of elite hockey players far exceeds the amount of NHL roster spots.

Yamamoto and plenty of others in similar positions deserve to be permanent, full-time NHLers with no fear of losing their jobs. Keep expanding.