Utahns are confronted with many health and environmental challenges due to the diminished levels of the Great Salt Lake. This significant natural resource is vulnerable to the adverse effects of drought, water scarcity, rising temperatures and ecological disruptions, exacerbating the challenges that Utahns and many regions around the world are experiencing or will likely face due to a changing climate. 

I recently moved to Park City from Cape Town, a city that came within weeks of the taps running dry because of a climate-change-induced drought. That experience sparked an interest  in the Great Salt Lake and how the lake responds to these challenges and may then contribute to our understanding of solutions to global warming. So I was completely absorbed by Timothy Hawkes’ fascinating presentation on the Great Salt Lake, sponsored by the Park City Library and Recycle Utah, and previewed by The Park Record.

Hawkes began his talk with a picture of a mirror — symbolizing an image of our individual reflections —powerfully suggesting that each of us has responsibility for helping save the lake. Hawkes warns that the lake isn’t out of danger just because we had a record snowpack last winter, and he notes that we should not slow down on our efforts to conserve water. He reminded us that we are the second driest state in the country. (Yet our per capita water usage is one of the highest in the country.) As Hawkes noted, we need to “change our cultural expectations” as they relate to water. He encouraged all of us to re-think our lawns and gardens adding that cutting down on outside water usage is the single biggest thing we each can do to conserve water. Rightfully so, he was pleased with the homemade “Drought Proud” sign  in his yard to explain the brown spots.

Mr. Hawkes’ commitment to the lake and his belief that it can be saved was contagious. It will take action from all of us to return the lake to a healthy level. Let’s re-evaluate our relationship with water. Then let’s take the lessons learned from managing the lake’s resources of conserving water, promoting sustainable practices, and advocating for policy changes and apply those lessons to the unearthly climate anomalies that are hitting many countries right now.

Utahns can show the wider world what it takes to solve an environmental crisis when we all come together. 

Please consider proudly exhibiting conservation by allowing your lawns to display some brown patches this summer and make your own “Drought Proud” sign. And please consider reaching out to your state and federal legislators; let them know how valuable our lake and our climate is. If you want to do more, consider joining the non-partisan Citizens Climate Lobby, citizen volunteers who have come together across the country to  advocate for climate solutions. As you look in the mirror let it be a reminder that we all have a responsibility and opportunity to aid in creating a safe, healthy and sustainable future for the lake, the climate, and our communities.

Thank you, Tim, for your inspirational talk and your decades-long commitment to the lake. And thanks to the Park City Library and Recycle Utah for hosting and providing an avenue for knowledge-sharing and community engagement.

The post Guest editorial: It’s time we were all ‘drought proud’ appeared first on Park Record.

Every drop counts. We all learned that in childhood; we all know it. And, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints knows it, as it powerfully demonstrated with its recent donation of water rights to the Great Salt Lake detailed in The Park Record’s article, “Church to Return Water.”  Thank you for your stewardship and thank you for taking action to return water to the lake.   

Yes, it is only 2% of what is needed to keep the lake just at its current level, while the fact remains that it is still 19 feet below a healthy level. However, that 2% or 20,000-acre feet, represents just over 25% of the Church’s water rights. Additionally, it has committed to significant water conservation goals along with water-wise landscaping. Its actions are needed and appreciated. 

Utah’s government needs that same commitment to action. The goal is simple: return the water to the lake. However, it seemed too much to ask of the 2023 legislature to commit to a bill ensuring target water level for the Great Salt Lake. And this was despite clear evidence from Mono Lake in California of how specific goals motivated significant cutbacks and conservation, as recapped here: “To balance its competing needs, is it time to follow Mono Lake’s lead and mandate an elevation for the Great Salt Lake?” (Great Salt Lake Collaborative, Oct. 12, 2022.) The opponents of the bill seemed to think that a target level would divert too much government attention to the lake. 

Too much attention to a lake that is on life-support, with mercury and arsenic laden dust that can poison our lungs. Too much attention when the lake’s food chain is on the verge of collapse, threatening the lives of tens of millions of migratory birds, including the beloved white pelican population? Too much attention when the eyes of the nation are on us looking for a success to inspire similar environmental repair to fend off the effects of climate change.

This legislative session did little to advance resuscitation of the lake. Governor Cox warned that “aggressive policy changes they [activists] seek could kindle fierce public backlash and jeopardize programs.” Does he know that four out of five Utahns say they are concerned about the lake? Does he know that three out of four Utahns want lawmakers to spend more money solving this problem? These statistics are from a Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll last fall. That is hardly “fierce backlash.”

Representative Kohler, as a member of the House Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Committee, where discussion begins for much of the Great Salt Lake legislation, please make time in this interim session to discuss significant government action to return water to the lake. Yes, every drop counts, but it is your voice of support that can take our lake off life-support. Please be inspired by the action of the LDS Church. And let’s show the nation how one small but great state can come together quickly and effectively to fend off the environmental disaster as depicted in The New York Times last year: As the Great Salt Lake Dries Up, Utah Faces an Environmental Nuclear Bomb. 

We can still revive our capital’s namesake, but we need to make every drop count!

The post Guest editorial: Saving our capital’s namesake, the Great Salt Lake  appeared first on Park Record.